ALFONSO I D'ESTE, duke of FERRARA. — Born at Ferrara on 21 July 1476 to Ercole I and Eleonora d'Aragona, daughter of Ferdinando, king of Naples; died on 31 October 1534.
He fashioned his government according to a vigilant and shifting equilibrium, manifested in alternating friendships and alliances with the Pope, France, and the Empire. Political aims determined his marriages to Anna Sforza, daughter of Galeazzo Maria, duke of Milan (1437), and to Lucrezia Borgia (1501). The latter enabled him to retain the duchy of Ferrara as a fief of the Church. By Lucrezia he had: Ercole II, Cardinal Ippolito II, Eleonora, a nun of the « Corpus Domini », and Francesco, marquis of Massa Lombarda. In addition, by Laura Eustochia Dianti, he had the illegitimate sons Alfonso, father of Cesare, first duke of Modena, and Alfonsino.
He joined the League of Cambrai and took from the Venetians, who aspired to his domains on the Po, Rovigo, Montagnana, and Este, and at Policella scattered the fleet commanded by Gradenigo (1509). He was gonfalonier of the Holy Roman Church, but, having later come into conflict with Julius II, who in the peace with Venice did not support his fortunes, he went to him in vain at Rome, where he sent Ludovico Ariosto as ambassador. In the dispute he lost Modena and Reggio, which were later reconfirmed to him by Adrian VI and restored to him after he had reconquered Modena during the sack of Rome (6 June 1527), by virtue of an award by Charles V (Cologne, 21 December 1530).
A conspiracy by his brothers Ferrante and Giulio saddened his private life, which was devoted in part to travel (England and Flanders), commerce, the arts, and strategy (he was a woodcarver, a maiolica modeller, and a cannon founder), and was notable for that patronage, characteristic of his dynasty, which he placed at the service of politics. Ludovico Ariosto, his governor in Garfagnana, suggested his personal device or program: a grenade with the motto: Tempore et loco.