Francesco II d'Este (6 March 1660 – 6 September 1694) was

Duke of Modena and Reggio Emperor Frederick III conferred Borso d'Este, Lord of Ferrara, with the Duchy of Modena and Reggio in 1452, while Pope Paul II formally elevated him in 1471 as Duke of Ferrara, over which the family had in fact long presided. This latter territo ...

from 1662 to 1694.

Biography

He was born in

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

Alfonso IV d'Este Alfonso IV d'Este (2 February 1634 – 16 July 1662) was Duke of Modena and Reggio from 1658 until his death. He was the father of Mary of Modena, consort of James II of England. Alfonso was born in Modena, the eldest son of Francesco I d'E ...

, duke of Modena, and

Laura Martinozzi Laura Martinozzi (27 May 1639 – 19 July 1687) was a Duchess consort of Modena by marriage to Alfonso IV d'Este, Duke of Modena. She served as regent of Modena during the minority of her son Francesco from 1662 until 1674. Biography Early life ...

, niece of

Cardinal Mazarin Cardinal Jules Mazarin (, also , , ; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino () or Mazarini, was an Italian cardinal, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis X ...

. His sister,

Mary of Modena Mary of Modena ( it, Maria Beatrice Eleonora Anna Margherita Isabella d'Este; ) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland as the second wife of James II and VII. A devout Roman Catholic, Mary married the widower James, who was then the young ...

, married the future

James II of England James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Gloriou ...

in 1673 and became queen of England in 1685. Their child, and therefore Francesco's nephew, was James, the Old Pretender who struggled to regain the throne of England during the 1715 Jacobite rebellion. He became duke at the age of two. His mother, pious and rigorous, served as his regent until 1674, filling state offices with clerics under the advice of her Jesuit confessor Father Garimberti. When she left to accompany the princess to England, he assumed control at the age of fourteen, and was so transformed in the free and easy company of his cousin principe Cesare Ignazio d'Este, that on her return the dowager duchess withdrew from court. Francesco's foreign policy was affected by the requirements of

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Vers ...

, his sister's patron after 1688, but he resisted French attempts to interfere in the duchies. A Franco Modenese alliance was proposed with Francesco and a princess of the

House of Lorraine The House of Lorraine (german: link=no, Haus Lothringen) originated as a cadet branch of the House of Metz. It inherited the Duchy of Lorraine in 1473 after the death without a male heir of Nicholas I, Duke of Lorraine. By the marriage of Fran ...

, Béatrice Hiéronyme, the eldest daughter of

François Marie, Prince of Lillebonne François Marie de Lorraine (4 Apr 1624 – 19 January 1694) was a French nobleman and member of the House of Lorraine. He was known as the ''prince de Lillebonne''. He was also the Duke of Joyeuse. Biography François Marie was born to Charles ...

. The marriage never materialised and instead, he married

Margherita Maria Farnese Margherita Maria Farnese (24 November 1664 – 17 June 1718) was an Italian noblewoman born into the House of Farnese. She was the Duchess of Modena and Reggio by marriage to her first cousin Francesco II d'Este, Duke of Modena. Her niece was ...

. He learned the violin as a boy and the court orchestra was revived for him when he was eleven; one of the musicians employed there was

Giovanni Maria Bononcini Giovanni Maria Bononcini (bap. 23 September 1642 – 18 November 1678) was an Italian violinist and composer, the father of a musical dynasty. In 1671 Bononcini the elder became a court musician at Modena. His treatise, ''Musico prattico'', was ...

. Francesco was a lavish and discerning patron of music, and the composer

Arcangelo Corelli Arcangelo Corelli (, also , , ; 17 February 1653 – 8 January 1713) was an Italian composer and violinist of the Baroque era. His music was key in the development of the modern genres of sonata and concerto, in establishing the preeminence of ...

dedicated his Op. 3 trio

sonata Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cant ...

s (Rome, 1689) to him. His library has remained substantially complete in the Biblioteca Estense, Modena.

Bibliography

*Crowther, Victor. "A Case-Study in the Power of the Purse: The Management of the Ducal 'Cappella' in Modena in the Reign of Francesco II d'Este", ''Journal of the Royal Musical Association'', 115.2 (1990), pp. 207–219. *Cont, Alessandro. "'Sono nato principe libero, tale voglio conservarmi': Francesco II d’Este (1660-1694)", ''Memorie Scientifiche, Giuridiche, Letterarie'', Accademia Nazionale di Scienze Lettere e Arti di Modena, ser. 8, 12 (2009), 2
pp. 407–459

Ancestry

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Este, Francesco 2 1660 births 1694 deaths Hereditary Princes of Modena Francesco 2 Francesco 2 Francesco 2 17th-century Italian nobility