Giulio d’Este

Giulio d'Este (1478 – 1561) was the illegitimate son of Duke Ercole I d'Este, and the lead actor in a famous and unhappy affair of the history of the Este family.

d'Este and Cardinal Ippolito, both of them brothers of Alfonso I, held grudges and differences with each other - probably over women - from long ago. There came a time when both were in love with the same woman, probably Angela Borgia, cousin of the Duchess Lucrezia. This gracious and much-courted maiden granted her preference to Giulio and one day publicly affirmed that the eyes alone of her favourite were worth more than the whole person of the Cardinal. The anger of the vain and conceited Ippolito reached its maximum. A few days passed and the two brothers met by chance in the countryside near the palazzo of Belriguardo. Giulio, to his misfortune, was alone and could do nothing when the Cardinal ordered his servants to seize him, kill him, and pluck out his eyes! This cruel order wasn’t carried out, but Giulio was beaten until he bled, and lost the use of one eye. From that moment he began to plot the death of Ippolito, and to succeed in this joined forces with another brother, Ferrante, who wanted to eliminate the duke and take his place. The conspiracy was clumsily conducted and soon discovered: all the allies of the two principals were put to death, whereas for them the sentence was ‘generously’ reduced to life imprisonment in the dungeons of the Este Castle. It was 1506 when the two were shut up in the castle prison. Ferrante died there, Giulio survived long enough to see the light of freedom again in 1559, thanks to Alfonso II. He’d reached the age of 81 years, of which 53 had been spent under lock and key.