Beatrice d’Este

Life

Childhood

She was born on 29 June 1475 in the Castello Estense in Ferrara as the second child of Ercole I d'Este and Eleanor of Aragon. As his father did not yet have a male heir, Beatrice's birth was a disappointment to her family and the court.

At the age of two, her mother took Beatrice and her elder sister Isabella to the Neapolitan court to attend the wedding of Eleanor's father, Ferdinand I, King of Naples and his second wife, Joanna of Aragon. They first travelled to Pisa, from where they sailed in a galley, arriving in Naples on 1 June 1477. On 19 September, Eleonora gave birth to her third child, Ferrante. When, less than a month later, she had to return to Ferrara, she decided to take only Isabella back. King Ferdinand convinced her to leave both Beatrice and Ferrante in Naples; he had shown great love for his granddaughter from the time of their first meeting.

Beatrice lived in Naples for eight years in the care of a nurse called Serena and her cultured and virtuous aunt, Ippolita Maria Sforza. She lived alternately in the residence of her aunt and uncle, Castel Capuano, with her younger brother and three cousins, Ferrandino, Pietro, and Isabella, and the royal residence of Castel Nuovo with her grandparents. Ferrante considered her the "same" his daughter, the Infanta Giovannella. In 1479, the Este ambassador wrote to Beatrice's mother that the King was willing to return her son but not Beatrice, because he "wants to give her in marriage and keep her for himself". Formally adopted by her grandfather, she signed her name as "donna Beatrice de Aragonia" and spoke a mixture of Catalan, Castilian, and Italian, a habit that she seems not to have preserved as an adult.

In 1480 Ludovico "il Moro" Sforza, Duke of Bari, regent of Milan, began negotiations with Ercole d'Este for the hand of his eldest daughter Isabella, but she had already been betrothed to Francesco Gonzaga. Ercole did not want to give up on a relationship with one of the richest and most influential men in Italy and proposed Beatrice instead. With the consent of King Ferdinand, the idea was immediately accepted. The alliance proved very useful to the Duchy of Ferrara, constantly threatened by Venetian expansionism.

In 1484, her maternal aunt, Beatrice of Aragon, Queen of Hungary, proposed an exchange in which Isabella d'Este would marry King Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary (Beatrice of Aragon's alleged loved), Beatrice d'Este would marry Francesco Gonzaga, and Ludovico Sforza would marry another Neapolitan noblewoman. Eleanor replied that this was impossible, both because Isabella was loved by Gonzaga and because Beatrice was in her grandfather's power. She offered to secretly negotiate with their father to secretly betrothe Beatrice to Vladislaus, guaranteeing her a husband in case Ludovico sought a wife "more in keeping with his age". In 1485, Marquis Boniface III, Marquis of Monferrat, a childless widower over sixty hinted at marrying Beatrice; the proposal was probably not followed, both because of the age difference of 51 and because Montferrat needed a wife of childbearing age.

First years in Milan (1491–1497)

A double wedding between Beatrice and Ludovico and her sister Isabella and Franscesco Gonzaga was planned for January 1491, but Ludovico postponed again. Finally, around a year later, a double Sforza-Este wedding was held: Ludovico wed Beatrice and her brother, Alfonso married Anna Sforza, Ludovico's niece. Leonardo da Vinci organised the wedding celebrations. In Milan, Beatrice met two people who would become important in her life: Bianca Giovanna Sforza, her husband's nine-year-old illegitimate daughter, and her husband, Galeazzo Sanseverino. Beatrice immediately loved Bianca and wanted her company on every occasion.

Officially, the marriage was immediately declared consummated. However, Ludovico, out of respect for Beatrice's "innocence", waited for over a month for her willingness, not wanting to force her. Beatrice's parents urged the couple to consummate their marriage, which could otherwise be annulled. Ludovico tried to seduce his wife with caresses, kisses, and rich daily gifts. Nevertheless, Beatrice remained "in superlative ashamed" even in mid-February. Ludovico complained to the Este ambassador, Giacomo Trotti, that he had to "vent" with his mistress Cecilia. The ambassador reproached Beatrice and told her to put "so much shame on the other side", by saying that "men want to be well seen and caressed, as is just and honest, by their wives". This did not have any success; nor did the continuous pressure exerted by the father. The more forcefully others insisted, the more Beatrice resisted her husband's advances. The situation was finally resolved spontaneously in March or April. According to Trotti, now Ludovico declared that he no longer thought of Cecilia but only of Beatrice, "to whom he wants all his good, and takes great pleasure from her for her customs and good manners", praising her because "she was delighted by nature ... and very pleasant and nevertheless modest".

After a carefree first year spent of entertainments, Beatrice became pregnant. On 20 January 1493, Eleanor of Aragon arrived in Milan to assist Beatrice during childbirth, bringing Comare Frasina, the midwife of the Este family. Two days later, the celebratory gifts of the Milanese nobility were exhibited in the Sala del Tesoro in the Rocchetta building of the Sforza Castle on tables covered with crimson gold velvet. Among these were "two beautiful diamonds" worth 18,000 ducats and a golden cradle from Beatrice's father. On 23 January, Beatrice gave birth to her first-born son, christened Ercole after his maternal grandfather but later called Maximilian in honour of the Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.

First Italian War

On 25 January 1494, the old king Ferrante died, who already foreshadowed the outbreak of a war that he had tried with all his might to avoid. Once ascended to the throne of Naples, his son Alfonso II did not hesitate to rush to the aid of his daughter Isabella, declaring war on his brother-in-law Ludovico and occupying, as the first sign of hostility, the city of Bari. Ludovico responded to the threats by leaving the green light to King Charles VIII of France to go down to Italy to conquer the kingdom of Naples, which he believed to be right, having been taken from the Aragonese from the Anjou.

On 23 July 1494, she welcomed duke Louis of Orléans, cousin of the King of France, to Milan, who arrived in Italy with the avant-gardes of the army French, then, on 11 September of the same year, went to Asti to meet Charles VIII in person. The two were greeted with great riots and parties, and both claimed, according to the custom French, to kiss the duchess and all the beautiful bridesmaids of her retinue on the mouth.

This custom of "kiss and touch" the women of others initially aroused some annoyance in the Italians, who never willingly got used to it. Moreover, as Baldassarre Castiglione would also say years later, Louis of Orleans used to look a little too mischievously at women, "who are said to like them very much". Nevertheless, Beatrice, through Ambassador Capilupi, also invited her sister to come and kiss Count Gilbert of Bourbon and others who would soon arrive.

King Charles, in particular, was greatly fascinated: he wanted to see her dance and requested a portrait of her, personally taking care of procuring the painter (Jean Perréal) and about twenty clothes to see which one was better worn by Beatrice, who was "more beautiful than ever". The relations between the Duchess and Louis of Orleans were also extremely gallant at the beginning, and the two frequently exchanged gifts with affectionate cards.

Ludovico was not jealous of her: different was the case of the handsome baron of Beauvau, much loved by women, who showed excessive "enthusiasm" towards Beatrice. According to some historians, it was for this reason that Ludovico, offended by the assiduity of the knight, took advantage of an illness of King Charles to remove his wife from Asti, who in fact retired to Annone, while he continued alone to go to Asti every day. A Beauvau actually participated in the enterprise of Naples, but his identity is not clear: currently it is more plausible the identification with Bertrand de Beauvau, son of Antoine and count of Policastro. Remembered as a "valiant and daring" fighter, he died in Naples in battle in 1495.

Death

In recent months, however, relations between the two spouses had become very worn out due to the adulterous relationship that Ludovico had with Lucrezia Crivelli, his wife's lady-in-waiting. Despite the bad moods, Beatrice found herself pregnant for the third time, but the pregnancy was complicated both by the sorrows caused by the discovery that Lucrezia was also expecting a child from Ludovico, something for which she felt deeply humiliated and by the premature and tragic death of the beloved Bianca Giovanna, Ludovico's illegitimate daughter and her dear friend from the first day of arrival in Milan. The birth finally took place on the night between 2 and 3 January 1497, but neither the mother nor the son survived.

In a letter written hours after her death, Ludovico informed his brother-in-law Francesco Gonzaga that his wife, "gave back her spirit to God" half an hour after midnight. Their child had been born at eleven at night and was a stillborn son. Ludovico went mad with pain and for two weeks remained locked up in the dark in his apartments, after which he shaved his head and let his beard grow, wearing from that moment on only black clothes with a torn cloak of a beggar. His only concern became the embellishment of the family mausoleum and the neglected state fell into disrepair.

He told the Ferrarese ambassador that "he never thought he could ever tolerate such a bitter plague", and that he had had him summoned to report to Duke Ercole that if what had ever offended her, as he knew he had done, he asks forgiveness from your ex. your and her, finding himself discontented to the soul ", since" in every prayer he had always prayed to our Lord God that she left after him, as the one in whom he had assumed all his rest, and since God did not like it, he prayed to him and would always pray to him continually, that if it is ever possible for a living person to see a dead, grant him the grace that he may see her and speak to her one last time, as the one he loved more than himself ".

The Emperor Maximilian, in condoning with the Moro, wrote that "nothing heavier or more annoying could happen to us at this time, than to be so suddenly deprived of a joint among the other princesses dear to us, after the beginning more abundant familiarity of his virtues, and that you in truth, who are primarily loved by us, have been deprived not only of a sweet consort, but of an ally of your principality, of the relief from your troubles and occupations. [...] Your most happy consort did not lack any virtue or luck or body or soul that could be desired by anyone; no dignity, no merit that could be added".

Appearance and personality

Physical aspect

The portraits that remain of her and the descriptions of her contemporaries give us the image of a curvaceous young woman, pleasant, with a small nose that was slightly turned upwards, full cheeks typical of the Aragonese, a short and round chin, dark eyes and long brown hair down to the waist that she always kept wrapped in a coazzone, with a few strands left to fall on the cheeks, a costume that she had already assumed during her childhood in Naples by the will of her ancestor Ferrante, whose influence made her adopt a Castilian attitude and fashion.

Francesco Muralto presents her as "at a young age, beautiful with raven hair". Beatrice was of short stature and therefore used to wear heels to reduce the difference in height with her husband, who was around 190 cm tall. In the International Footwear Museum of Vigevano, there is a shoe dating back to the late fifteenth century attributed to the Duchess which, based on its size, puts her height between 150 and 160 cm.

Personality

Beatrice was of a happy, carefree, playful character, but, not unlike all her brothers, she was also unreflective, violent, impulsive and easily let herself be carried away by anger. Proof of this are many episodes of the Milanese period, including a famous one that happened in April 1491 when, going with some of her ladies to the market disguised as a commoner, she was surprised by a downpour, and while returning to the castle she squabbled on the street with certain commoners who had insulted her because of the clothes with which she and the ladies had sheltered their heads from the rain, it not being customary in Milan to dress in that way. On another occasion, realizing that Ludovico wanted to make her wear a dress that he had sewed the same for Gallerani, she made a scene and demanded that Cecilia not wear it.

Proud and obstinate, she was the one who most resembled her father by nature. The buffoon Frittella judged that no one should mourn her death, as she was proud and of "feline instincts". This contrasts with the judgment of Bernardino Zambotti, who says she was "a pleasant person, virtuous and much loved by all peoples, most liberal towards her servants". "The kindest lady in Italy", a contemporary calls her.

Vincenzo Calmeta, her secretary, praised her ingenuity, affability, grace, and liberality, and exalted her court of gentlemen, musicians and poets. She was a lover of luxury so much so that the only wardrobe in her rooms at the castle of Pavia contained 84 dresses as well as countless other valuables.

Haughty and ambitious, of a dignified person, of beautiful features, yes, but male, she was distinguished by a grave and imperious air. She dressed princely; her gaze breathed her command; her smile did not set her lip; but a kind of joviality of condescension appeared in it. Such was this woman, who knew not a little empire of her to exercise over her husband himself; who both knew how to deceive others. Lodovico il Moro lacked daring; and it was Beatrice who always came to her aid in this part.

The court of Milan loved pranks, and Beatrice was no exception. Ludovico writes that one morning, she had fun with her cousin Isabella by trying to throw her ladies off their horses. In the same manner, Beatrice once threw her cousin to the ground. The most terrible jokes, however, were all against the serious Este ambassador Giacomo Trotti, at the time seventy years old, who found his house several times invaded by "large quantities of foxes, wolves and wild cats", that Ludovico bought and that Beatrice, having realized how much the ambassador hated such animals, had sneaked into the ambassador's home.

Political role

The "damnatio memoriae"

Celebrated by nineteenth-century historians as a sort of romantic heroine, the figure of Beatrice underwent an eclipse during the twentieth century, crushed under the weight of the praise paid to her sister Isabella, who outlived her. Although a superficial analysis of historical events has led modern scholars to say that Beatrice had no voice in the politics of the duchy, or even had no interest in it, almost all previous historians agree instead in judging her as the true mastermind behind many of her husband's actions and decisions, over whom she exercised enormous influence, to such an extent that it links her presence to the prosperity and integrity of the entire Sforza state:

She owned in all respects the lands of Cassolnovo, Carlotta, Monte Imperiale, Villanova, Sartirana, Leale, Cusago, Valenza, Galliate, Mortara, Bassignana, San Secondo, Felino, Torrechiara, Castel San Giovanni, Pigliola, Valle di Lugano, as well as the Sforzesca and the park of the castle of Pavia, that her husband had given her, with all the relative possessions, fortresses and feudal rights connected to them, that is the mero et mixto imperio, any type of jurisdiction, gifts, immunities, etc., the faculty to administer them according to one's own will, to delegate castellans, praetors, officers, etc., as well as to benefit from the very rich rents.

As early as January 1492, Ludovico showed his intention to make her sole governor of the state during his absences, and so every day the council was held and the acts of government were read to her in her room. Furthermore, her role in the diplomatic mission to Venice, alongside her constant presence in the war councils and meetings with the French and, above all, her decisive stance at a time when Orleans threatened Milan, in stark contrast to her husband’s perceived cowardice and the declining state of the Sforza family, show that her political interest and involvement were far more substantial than is usually thought.

Political Thought

She initially pursued the policy of her father Ercole, who for years had been plotting to replace Ludovico to Gian Galeazzo in the actual possession of the duchy of Milan and who, with this precise purpose, had given her to him in marriage. It is to be believed that without the interference of his wife, Ludovico would never have taken the step of usurping the duchy to his nephew in all respects and that he would have been content to continue to govern him as regent as he had been doing for more than ten years. It is no coincidence that it was Beatrice herself who said that, with the birth of the little Ercole Massimiliano, she had given birth to a son to her husband and also to her father.

When then, with the change of alliances, Hercules, although officially neutral, continued to lean towards the French, while Louis sided with the Holy League, Beatrice felt betrayed by her father who, in a moment of maximum difficulty, that is, in the days immediately preceding the occupation of Novara by Orléans, did not want to send them the requested aid. She then abandoned her daughter's robes to assume that of head of state, with a letter that for its exceptionally harsh and authoritative tone arouses amazement: she wrote to her father that she would have expected, in such a situation, that he himself would come to their defence, and that he does not understand how he did not want to send even two hundred men of arms, worrying what would have been said in Italy when it had been known about this refusal; therefore she invites him to remedy this lack so as not to leave in her and in her husband the ill will towards her, all the more so since, if he were to be attacked, two hundred men of arms would not be enough for him to defend Ferrara without external help.

Perhaps also as a result of this, after Novara, his attitude became more distinctly pro-Venetian. She also carried out an important work of mediation between her husband and the various leaders on the one hand – who resorted to her, as in the case of Fracasso, to obtain favours – and between her husband and the Italian lords on the other. The few surviving letters show her participating in all her husband's secrets, and her correspondence with Francesco Gonzaga is also remarkable.

According to the testimony of Sanudo, it was Beatrice who urged the coming to Italy of Emperor Maximilian in 1496, Since her death, the Faenza people were very upset, judging that Astorre Manfredi would have lost the favour of Milan Faenza, pro-Venetian, was an enemy of Forlì, pro-Florentine, of which was countess Caterina Sforza, nephew of Ludovico. Beatrice must have persuaded her husband to extend her protection to Faenza and it was feared, with his death, a reversal of alliances, which then in fact happened with the war of Pisa, when Ludovico abandoned the ally Venice for Florence, a move that then marked his ruin. Malipiero rejoiced instead, saying: "and with this death will cease so much intelligence that son-in-law and father-in-law had together".

Loyalty

Unlike his relatives and his sister Isabella, with whom Ludovico himself claimed years later to have had a secret relationship, Beatrice never fell back even the slightest suspicion of adultery. She always maintained a reputation of absolute honesty, and this in spite of the freedoms in dressing and relating to men: the courtships of chivalrous mold entertained with the French and with the emperor are striking, where in fact the fulfilment of the sexual act was delegated to special courtesans. Precisely because he trusted her blindly, Ludovico granted her enormous freedom, and the only hint of her jealousy refers to the Baron of Beauvau.

Only Achille Dina, a twentieth-century historian, insinuates – but without any evidence – of an affair between her and Galeazzo Sanseverino, arguing that "some intimate remorse" was due to Beatrice's deep sorrow for the death of her stepdaughter: "perhaps his conduct towards Isabella? or something in her relations with Bianca's husband, the charming Galeazzo Sanseverino, whose intrinsic and continuous commonality of pleasures with her cannot fail to strike?"

Beatrice, on the other hand, was aware of her husband's extramarital affairs, but did not give them weight because she knew they were passing distractions. The balance was drastically upset with the appearance of Lucrezia Crivelli in the ranks of the mistresses, as Beatrice had to realize that this time Ludovico had seriously fallen in love and that he had begun to dedicate to the new lover all the care and attention that he once dedicated to her. Muralto specifies that Beatrice "was honored with the greatest care by Ludovico, even though he took Lucrezia Crivelli as his concubine; because of which, although the thing gnawed at the entrails of his wife, love nevertheless did not depart from her".

Fashion

Beatrice is now known for her skill for creating new clothes, which was one of her greatest passions. As long as she lived, she had no rivals in any court; she dictated fashion in many cities of the time, and it was following her example that numerous Italian noblewomen, even outside the Milanese court, adopted the coazzone hairstyle, which came very much into vogue.

Francesco Muralto remembers her as "inventor of new clothes", role of which she herself shows full awareness when, in a letter to her sister, she apologizes for having "little imagination to make new inventions" at that time, because of the pain for the loss of her mother. Thanks to the correspondence of the ubiquitous Trotti and the letters of Beatrice herself to her sister and husband, many descriptions of her rich clothes and inventions are preserved. An absolute novelty was, for example, striped dresses like the one she wears in the Pala Sforzesca, and hers would also seem to be the idea of highlighting the waist by tightening around it a cord of large pearls that she defined in St. Francis style. The pearls of the rest were her greatest habit and since childhood, she made constant use of them, both in the form of a necklace, and in hairstyles and as a decoration of clothes. She preferred deep, square-shaped necklines and fabrics decorated with Sforza and Este exploits, especially with the motif of the Vincian knots designed by Leonardo da Vinci. She sometimes wore hats jewelled with magpie feather and more extravagant uses are also known, such as the solid gold chain that she would seem to wear in the bust carved on the Portal of the room of the sink of the Certosa di Pavia, which was of exclusively male use.

Her taste in dress particularly struck the French courtiers following Charles VIII, who spent themselves in extensive descriptions; the poet André de la Vigne, in his work in verse Le Vergier d'honneur, remembers his excessive ostentatious luxury:

Patronage

Beatrice d'Este belonged to the best class of Renaissance women and was one of the cultural influences of the age; to a great extent, her patronage and good taste are responsible for the splendour of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, the Certosa of Pavia, and many other famous buildings in Lombardy.

Beatrice was mainly interested in poetry and gathered around her an excellent circle of poets in the vernacular, which included, among others, Vincenzo Calmeta, Gaspare Visconti, Niccolò da Correggio, Bernardo Bellincioni, Antonio Cammelli and Serafino Aquilano. According to some, this is a sign of the fact that she did not master Latin, although she had as a tutor the humanist Battista Guarino; in any case, she favoured the affirmation of vulgar literature in Milan.

Music was a family passion, and therefore, in her travels, she was always accompanied by musicians and singers. She was a player of viola, lute and clavichord, and learned dance and singing from Ambrogio da Urbino and Lorenzo Lavagnolo.

She left an epistolary of at least four hundred surviving letters, which out of habit she almost always wrote by her own hand and not using secretaries, as was customary at the time. Many were lost or destroyed, especially in relation to 1496, perhaps as a result of the high political content, but some appear notable for their exquisite descriptions or burlesque and irreverent tone.

She appreciated the Latin and Greek comedies and tragedies, but above all the Provençal chivalric poems and the Carolingian cycle, which in those years Matteo Maria Boiardo kept alive. She especially loved to listen to the commentary on the Divine Comedy held for her by Antonio Grifo, a passion also shared by her husband, who often stopped to listen to her readings.

Beautiful, shrewd, wife of a prince of such splendour, wide of protection to those who had recourse to her for employment or grace, she drew around a very flowery court of which she showed the soul, the delight. Her triumph marked Isabella's defeat.

She was a member of an Italian court that was associated with a number of artists and intellectuals, including Leonardo da Vinci, Ambrogio de Predis, Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, Andrea Solari, Bramante and Amadeo, Gian Cristoforo Romano, Cristoforo Solari, Caradosso, Baldassarre Castiglione, Franchino Gaffurio, Lorenzo Gusnasco, Jacopo di San Secondo, Antonio Testagrossa.

Portraits

There are many portraits of Beatrice that have come down to us, both contemporary and posthumous. Most of these are of certain identification, either because they bear the name next to it or because of the distinctive features of Beatrice, such as the coazzone.

Famous portraits

The most famous remain the bust made by Gian Cristoforo Romano, the funeral monument of Cristoforo Solari and the Sforza Altarpiece. However, Malaguzzi Valeri notes that like Solari did not bother to reproduce the true traits of Beatrice, having to the funeral statue be placed at the top of a monument and therefore seen from below and from afar, so the unknown and coarse painter of the Sforza Altarpiece altered the physiognomy of Beatrice compared to the refined original drawings of Ambrogio de Predis, hardening the features of the face to make it almost unrecognizable: "he preferred to take care of the accessories of the dress with infinite monotony, so that the duchess, more than a living person, appears a doll too adorned".

Miniatures

The most famous miniature, the work of Giovanni Pietro Birago, is contained in the donation diploma of 28 January 1494, now preserved at the British Library in London, with which her husband enfeffed her of numerous lands.

There was a certain similarity between the physiognomy of Beatrice and that "a bit impertinent" of the Laura of Antonio Grifo's Canzoniere Marciano. Ludovico and Beatrice are undoubtedly the couple who, in the Canzoniere queriniano illuminated by Grifo, at folio 119 r. acts as a guide to the others. It may have been depicted, again by Grifo, also in a letter cap illuminated at folio 182 v. of the incunabulum of the Divine Comedy preserved at the House of Dante in Rome.

Another of her miniatures can be found in the Arcimboldi Missal of the Chapter Library of the Duomo of Milan, in the scene of the ducal investiture of her husband.

More recently she has been honoured along with her court in works by painters such as Giambattista Gigola (1816–1820), Giuseppe Diotti (1823), Francesco Gonin (1845), Francesco Podesti (1846), Cherubino Cornienti (1840 and 1858), Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale (1920), and individually in Domenico Mingione's Portrait of Beatrice d'Este (2021), which faithfully reproduces Leonardo da Vinci's charcoal drawing.

Issue

By Ludovico, Beatrice had three sons:

Ercole Massimiliano Sforza, (1493–1530), count of Pavia, duke of Milan 1513 – 1515;

Francesco II Sforza, (1495–1535), Prince of Rossano and Count of Borrello 1497 – 1498, Count of Pavia and Duke of Milan 1521 – 1524, married in 1533 to Christina of Denmark (1522–1590), daughter of Christian II of Denmark.

Stillbirth son (2 January 1497). Not having been baptized, could not be placed with his mother in the tomb. Ludovico, therefore, had him buried above the door of the cloister of Santa Maria delle Grazie with this Latin epitaph: "O unhappy childbirth! I lost my life before I was born, and more unhappy, by dying I took the life of my mother and the father deprived his wife. In so much adverse fate, this alone can be of comfort to me, that divine parents bore me, Ludovico and Beatrice dukes of Milan. 2 January 1497".