RENATA OF FRANCE, Duchess of FERRARA. - Daughter of the King of France, Louis XII, and Anne of Brittany, born in the castle of Blois on October 25, 1510, died in the castle of Montargis on June 12, 1575. Educated with great care, she showed an aptitude for study and above all for religious matters; under the influence Le Fèvre d'Étaples (v.) she leaned toward the reform of the Church, conceived however in a Catholic sense.
Betrothed to Charles of Austria (the future Charles V), then to his brother Ferdinand, and subsequently to Henry VIII of England, she married Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, son of Lucrezia Borgia, on May 28, 1528, at Saint-Germain; her dowry consisted of the Duchies of Chartres and Montargis.
Ercole and R., both cultured and patrons of the arts, made their residence a brilliant gathering place for illustrious men, among whom was Bernardo Tasso, father of Torquato. R. immediately made her mark as a protector of reformers persecuted by the Church; Ferrara thus became the center of a colony of refugees, most notably the poet Marot and Calvin, accompanied by his friend du Tillet. Calvin's stay, however, lasted only from mid-March to the end of April 1536. One of the "Lutherans" in the Este court, named Jehannet, who belonged to Marot's coterie, upon being arrested and tortured, confessed that many of those who had sought R.'s protection favored the new doctrines; this led to an investigation, and Calvin deemed it prudent to leave in the company of du Tillet. R. nevertheless maintained a correspondence with Calvin; the twelve letters that remain of it indicate the spirit that the duchess retained until her death (ed. J. Bonnet, Lettres françaises de Jean Calvin, 2 vols., Paris 1854). The first, which Bonnet dates 1541, seems rather to be from 1537. It is the longest and the most virulent; Calvin warns R. against her chaplain Francesco (Richardot), presenting him as a man without conscience, greedy for money, and of doubtful honesty; he rails against him for having advised R. to attend Mass, «the most execrable sacrilege that can be conceived» (op. cit., I, p. 49). The second is from August 6, 1554: like the first and subsequent ones, it is signed with the pseudonym Charles d'Espeville, and encourages R. to resist the pressures of her husband and above all of her nephew, King Henry II of France, while also announcing the arrival of a reliable (Calvinist) chaplain, François de Morel. R. had been sentenced by her husband to guarded residence in the Castle of Este: she had to endure this sentence for a time. Calvin wrote to her on February 2, 1555, to advise her to do penance and promise her God's forgiveness (op. cit., II, pp. 4-7). The following letter, from June 1555, was brought by the Marquis de Vico, who had converted to heresy; it contains encouragement for R. to resist her husband and the Church (ibid., p. 57 ff.). The fifth, dated July 20, 1558, has the same content as the preceding ones (ibid., p. 215 ff.). R., left a widow on October 3, 1559, returned to France in September 1560. Muratori testifies that she was mourned by the populace for her kindness and generosity (Antichità estensi, II, p. 389). Calvin wrote to her on July 5, 1560, to express disapproval of her departure from Ferrara (J. Bonnet, Lettres, II, p. 337 ff.). The two subsequent letters, January 16, 1561, and February 1562 (ibid., pp. 386 and 456), express his congratulations on the courage with which she took up the defense of the "reformers." In the latter, alongside R., that same François de Morel is mentioned as chaplain whom she had previously had in Ferrara and who had become the principal pastor of Paris. The ninth letter (May 10, 1563) praises R. for the attitude she assumed during the first War of Religion (ibid., p. 513 ff.). The tenth, dated January 8, 1564 (ibid., p. 545), warns her against indulgence toward the so-called "reformers" who were censured by the consistory of Montargis, the duchess's residence, for bad behavior. And Calvin presents her with a gold medal minted by her father Louis XII, at the time of his disputes with Pope Julius II, bearing this inscription: Perdam Babylonis nomen. The duchess warmly thanked him for the gift, «which has no equal,» as she says. «God be praised,» she adds, «that the late King, my father, made such a decision. If God did not grant him the grace to carry it out, perhaps it will fall to one of his descendants to execute it in his stead» (ibid., p. 549).
In the last two letters, Calvin, now near death, attempts to absolve his coreligionists of the rage with which they were outraging the memory of Duke Francis of Guise, who was assassinated before Orleans, condemning him to hell. R. was his mother-in-law and protested against such malice (January 24 and April 4, 1564: ibid., pp. 550 and 558). R., at Montargis, remained aloof from the struggles that were plunging France into blood and which she wholly disapproved of.