Ercole II d'Este was Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio from 1534 to 1559.
Background
He was the eldest son of Alfonso I d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia. Through his mother, Ercole was a grandson of Pope Alexander VI, nephew of Cesare Borgia, and cousin of Saint Francis Borgia. Through his father, he was nephew of both Isabella d'Este, "the First Lady of the Renaissance", and Cardinal Ippolito d'Este.
Career
His half-siblings included Rodrigo Borgia of Aragon, Lucrezia’s son by Alfonso of Aragon, Duke of Bisceglie, and perhaps Giovanni Borgia, the “infans Romanus”. Renée received from Francis I of France an ample dowry and annuity. Thus the court she assembled about her in Ferrara corresponded to the tradition which the cultivation of science and art implicitly required, including scholars like Bernardo Tasso and Fulvio Pellegrini Morato.
Their first child, Anna, born in 1531, who was married to Francis, Duke of Guise, was followed by Alfonso in 1533. Lucrezia in 1535, who was married to the Duke of Urbino Francesco Maria II della Rovere. And later Eleonora and Luigi, whose education she carefully directed.
Once he became a Duke in October 1534, Ercole turned against the French at his court, finding them both too expensive and too influential, and by 1543 they had all been dismissed. He was also under pressure from the Curia to dismiss those suspected of heresy. John Calvin himself was in Ferrara sometime in 1536.
Ercole sided with Pope Paul IV and France against Spain in 1556, but made a separate peace agreement in 1558.