Duchy of Ferrara

Ruled by the Este family from 1240, the Duchy of Ferrara was one of the most enlightened courts of the Italian Renaissance. Under Ercole I and his successors the city became a centre of arts, literature, and music. Lucrezia Borgia married Alfonso I d'Este in 1502, bringing dynastic ties to the papacy. The court patronised poets Ariosto and Tasso. When Alfonso II died without heirs in 1598, Pope Clement VIII claimed the duchy as a papal fief, annexing it to the Papal States.

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