Benedetta Maria Ernestina d'Este (18 August 1697 – 17 September 1777) was a noblewoman and princess of the
Duchy of Modena and Reggio
The Duchy of Modena and Reggio ( Emilian: ''Duchêt ed Mòdna e Rèz'', it, Ducato di Modena e Reggio, la, Ducatus Mutinae et Regii) was an Italian state created in 1452 located in Northwestern Italy, in the present day region of Emilia-Romagn ...
.
Biography
She was the first child and eldest daughter of Duke
Rinaldo d'Este and
Duchess Charlotte of Brunswick-Lüneburg, daughter of the Duke of
Brunswick and Lüneburg. Her parents' marriage had required papal dispensation because of the close interrelationships of the ducal families of Brunswick and Modena. She was given the name Benedetta ‘blessed’ after her maternal grandmother,
Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate
Princess Palatine Benedicta Henrietta (Benedicta Henrietta Philippina; 14 March 1652 – 12 August 1730) was Duchess of Brunswick-Lüneburg, or of Hanover, by her marriage to Duke John Frederick. She was the third and youngest daughter of Pr ...
.
Her cousin
James Francis Edward Stuart
James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 16881 January 1766), nicknamed the Old Pretender by Whigs, was the son of King James II and VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his second wife, Mary of Modena. He was Prince of Wales fro ...
, then the
Jacobite claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland, paid a visit to Modena in March 1717. He quickly fell in love with Benedetta and asked her to marry him. However, their union was seen as an undesirable entanglement by Rinaldo, who wanted to maintain good relations with
George I George I or 1 may refer to:
People
* Patriarch George I of Alexandria (fl. 621–631)
* George I of Constantinople (d. 686)
* George I of Antioch (d. 790)
* George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9)
* George I of Georgia (d. 1027)
* Yuri Dolgor ...
. Rinaldo first insisted that the betrothal remain secret, and then definitively refused his consent to it in September 1717, while James was living in
Urbino
Urbino ( ; ; Romagnol: ''Urbìn'') is a walled city in the Marche region of Italy, south-west of Pesaro, a World Heritage Site notable for a remarkable historical legacy of independent Renaissance culture, especially under the patronage of F ...
.
After the death of her father in 1737, her brother Francesco succeeded him as Duke of Modena. While her brother was fighting in the
Russo-Turkish War
The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histo ...
, Benedetta and her younger sister
Amalia assumed the regency of the duchies.
Benedetta never married and had no children. She died on 16 September 1777 at Modena at the age of 80.
Notes
References
*
* {{cite book, first= Emilio Nasalli , last= Rocca , title= I Farnese , publisher= Dell'Oglio Editore , date=1969
House of Este
1697 births
1777 deaths
18th-century Italian people
18th-century Italian women
Daughters of monarchs