Ercole was the son of
Alfonso I d'Este and
Lucrezia Borgia. Through his mother, Ercole was a grandson of
Pope Alexander VI, nephew of
Cesare Borgia, and cousin of
Saint Francis Borgia. Through his father, he was nephew of both
Isabella d'Este, "the First Lady of the
Renaissance", and
Cardinal Ippolito d'Este. Ercole played an indirect role in the 1527
Sack of Rome. Emperor
Charles V's army crossed the
Alps in 1526 but was unable to bring their heavy artillery with them. They sought to make a deal with Ercole, who subsequently provided the army with the necessary artillery to later advance on and sack the city of Rome. In April 1528, he married
Renée of France, the second daughter of
Louis XII, King of France, and
Anne of Brittany. Renée received from
Francis I of France an ample
dowry and annuity. Thus the court she assembled about her in
Ferrara corresponded to the tradition which the cultivation of science and art implicitly required, including scholars like
Bernardo Tasso and
Fulvio Pellegrini Morato. Their first child,
Anna, born in 1531, who was married to
Francis, Duke of Guise, was followed by
Alfonso in 1533;
Lucrezia in 1535, who was married to the Duke of Urbino
Francesco Maria II della Rovere; and later
Eleonora and
Luigi, whose education she carefully directed. Once he became a Duke in October 1534, Ercole turned against the French at his court, finding them both too expensive and too influential, and by 1543 they had all been dismissed. He was also under pressure from the
Curia to dismiss those suspected of
heresy;
John Calvin himself was in Ferrara sometime in 1536. Meanwhile, Duchess Renée was corresponding with a number of
Protestants and was suspected to have
converted, despite the presence of a special court of the
Inquisition in Ferrara. Ercole brought accusations of heresy against his wife to King
Henry II of France and Inquisitor Oriz in 1554, and she subsequently confessed. Ercole sided with
Pope Paul IV and France against Spain in
1556, but made a separate peace agreement in 1558. He was also a patron of the arts along with his brother, Cardinal
Ippolito, who built the
Villa d'Este near
Tivoli. ==References==