In 1452
Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III offered the duchy to
Borso d'Este, whose family had ruled the city of
Modena and nearby
Reggio Emilia for centuries. Borso in 1450 had also succeeded his brother as
margrave in the adjacent Papal
Duchy of Ferrara, where he received the ducal title in 1471. The Este lands on the southern border of the
Holy Roman Empire with the
Papal States formed a stabilizing buffer state in the interest of both. The first Este dukes ruled well and the city achieved an economic and cultural peak: Borso's successor Duke
Ercole I had the city of Modena rebuilt according to plans designed by
Biagio Rossetti, his successors were patrons of artists like
Titian and
Ludovico Ariosto. In the
War of the League of Cambrai from 1508, troops from Modena fought in Papal service against the
Republic of Venice. Upon the death of Duke
Alfonso II in 1597, the ducal line became extinct. The Este lands were bequeathed to Alfonso's cousin
Cesare d'Este; however, the succession was not acknowledged by
Pope Clement VIII and Ferrara was finally seized by the Papacy. Cesare was able to retain Modena and Reggio as Imperial fiefs. In the 1628
War of the Mantuan Succession, the dukes of Modena sided with
Habsburg Spain and in turn received the town of
Correggio from the hands of Emperor
Ferdinand II. During the
War of the Spanish Succession, Duke
Rinaldo was ousted by
French troops under
Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme, he could not return until 1707. In 1711 the small
Duchy of Mirandola was absorbed by the Este. His successor
Francesco III backed France in the 1740
War of the Austrian Succession and was expelled by
Habsburg forces, but his duchy was restored by the 1748
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. In 1796 Modena was again occupied by a French army under
Napoleon, who deposed Duke
Ercole III and created the
Cispadane Republic out of his territory. By the 1801
Treaty of Lunéville, the last Este Duke was compensated with the
Breisgau region of the former
Further Austrian territories in southwestern
Germany, and died in 1803. Following his death, the claims to the no longer existing ducal crown of Modena were inherited by his son-in-law, the
Habsburg-Lorraine Archduke
Ferdinand of Austria, an uncle of Emperor
Francis II. ==House of Austria-Este==