Francesco II d'Este (6 March 1660 – 6 September 1694) was
Duke of Modena and Reggio
Emperor Frederick III conferred Borso d'Este, Lord of Ferrara, with the Duchy of Modena and Reggio in 1452, while Pope Paul II formally elevated him in 1471 as Duke of Ferrara, over which the family had in fact long presided. This latter territo ...
from 1662 to 1694.
Biography
He was born in
Modena
Modena (, , ; egl, label= Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and '' comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy.
A town, and seat o ...
to
Alfonso IV d'Este, duke of Modena, and
Laura Martinozzi
Laura Martinozzi (27 May 1639 – 19 July 1687) was a Duchess consort of Modena by marriage to Alfonso IV d'Este, Duke of Modena. She served as regent of Modena during the minority of her son Francesco from 1662 until 1674.
Biography
Early life
...
, niece of
Cardinal Mazarin
Cardinal Jules Mazarin (, also , , ; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino () or Mazarini, was an Italian cardinal, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis X ...
. His sister,
Mary of Modena
Mary of Modena ( it, Maria Beatrice Eleonora Anna Margherita Isabella d'Este; ) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland as the second wife of James II and VII. A devout Roman Catholic, Mary married the widower James, who was then the younger ...
, married the future
James II of England
James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...
in 1673 and became queen of England in 1685. Their child, and therefore Francesco's nephew, was
James, the Old Pretender who struggled to regain the throne of England during the
1715 Jacobite rebellion
The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( gd, Bliadhna Sheumais ;
or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts.
At Braemar, Aberdeenshire, lo ...
.
He became duke at the age of two. His mother, pious and rigorous, served as his regent until 1674, filling state offices with clerics under the advice of her Jesuit confessor Father Garimberti. When she left to accompany the princess to England, he assumed control at the age of fourteen, and was so transformed in the free and easy company of his cousin principe Cesare Ignazio d'Este, that on her return the dowager duchess withdrew from court.
Francesco's foreign policy was affected by the requirements of
Louis XIV
Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...
, his sister's patron after 1688, but he resisted French attempts to interfere in the duchies. A Franco Modenese alliance was proposed with Francesco and a princess of the
House of Lorraine
The House of Lorraine (german: link=no, Haus Lothringen) originated as a cadet branch of the House of Metz. It inherited the Duchy of Lorraine in 1473 after the death without a male heir of Nicholas I, Duke of Lorraine. By the marriage of Fra ...
,
Béatrice Hiéronyme, the eldest daughter of
François Marie, Prince of Lillebonne. The marriage never materialised and instead, he married
Margherita Maria Farnese.
He learned the violin as a boy and the court orchestra was revived for him when he was eleven; one of the musicians employed there was
Giovanni Maria Bononcini. Francesco was a lavish and discerning patron of music, and the composer
Arcangelo Corelli
Arcangelo Corelli (, also , , ; 17 February 1653 – 8 January 1713) was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era. His music was key in the development of the modern genres of sonata and concerto, in establishing the preeminence of th ...
dedicated his Op. 3 trio
sonata
Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''canta ...
s (Rome, 1689) to him. His library has remained substantially complete in the Biblioteca Estense, Modena.
Bibliography
*Crowther, Victor. "A Case-Study in the Power of the Purse: The Management of the Ducal 'Cappella' in Modena in the Reign of Francesco II d'Este", ''Journal of the Royal Musical Association'', 115.2 (1990), pp. 207–219.
*Cont, Alessandro. "'Sono nato principe libero, tale voglio conservarmi': Francesco II d’Este (1660-1694)", ''Memorie Scientifiche, Giuridiche, Letterarie'', Accademia Nazionale di Scienze Lettere e Arti di Modena, ser. 8, 12 (2009), 2
pp. 407–459
Ancestry
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Este, Francesco 2
1660 births
1694 deaths
Hereditary Princes of Modena
Francesco 2
Francesco 2
Francesco 2
17th-century Italian nobility