- Cesare d'Este
Cesare d'Este (
1561 -december 11 ,1628 ) wasDuke of Modena and Reggio from 1597 until his death. During his reign, in 1598, thehouse of Este lost theDuchy of Ferrara .Biography
Born in
Ferrara , Cesare was the illegitimate son of Alfonso d'Este, fourth son ofAlfonso I d'Este , marquis ofMontecchio , and the cousin ofAlfonso II d'Este , duke of Ferrara and Modena.
When the latter died without heirs in the October 1597, Cesare received the Duchy. The legitimacy of the succession was recognized by theEmperor Rudolph II but not byPope Clement VIII : thus, as Ferrara was nominally a Papal fief, the city was returned to thePapal States , despite the attempts of the young duke, who sued for help to the major powers of the time, but obtaining no help.The capital was therefore moved to
Modena where he entered onjanuary 30 ,1598 . His first years were troublesome: apart from the inadequate residence, he had to face the quarrels between the Modenese and Ferrarese nobles who had come with him, the attempt of independence of Maro Pio ofSassuolo and a war againstLucca for the possession ofGarfagnana .On
January 30 ,1586 he marriedVirginia de' Medici , daughter ofCosimo I de' Medici . She however suffered of increasing symptoms of madness, until her death in 1615.Cesare was a mild and religious man, however lacking of political intelligence. He was succeeded by his son Alfonso.
-External links
* [http://www.castelloestense.it/eng/castello/storia/personaggi.html Il Castello Estense:] genealogical tree
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