RENATA OF FRANCE, Duchess of FERRARA. – Daughter of King Louis XII of France and Anne of Brittany, born in the castle of Blois on 25 Oct 1510, died in the castle of Montargis on 12 June 1575. Educated with great care, she showed aptitude for study and especially for religious matters; under the influence of her tutor Lefèvre d'Étaples (v.) she leaned toward reform of the Church, though conceived in a Catholic sense.
Betrothed first to Charles of Austria (the future Charles V), then to his brother Ferdinand, and later to Henry VIII of England, she married Ercole II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, son of Lucrezia Borgia, on 28 May 1528 at Saint-Germain; her dowry consisted of the duchies of Chartres and Montargis.
Ercole and Renata, both cultivated and patrons of the arts, made their residence a brilliant gathering-place for distinguished men, among whom was Bernardo Tasso, father of Torquato. Renata soon became known as a protector of reformers persecuted by the Church; Ferrara thus became the centre of a colony of refugees, including the celebrated poet Clément Marot and John 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’ at the Este court, a certain Jehannet, belonging to Marot’s circle, was arrested and tortured; he confessed that many who had sought Renata’s protection favoured the new doctrines. This led to an inquiry, and Calvin thought it prudent to depart in the company of du Tillet. Renata, however, maintained epistolary relations with Calvin; the twelve surviving letters reveal the spirit that the duchess preserved until her death (ed. J. Bonnet, Lettres françaises de Jean Calvin, 2 vols., Paris 1854). The first, which Bonnet dates to 1541, seems rather to belong to 1537. It is the longest and most vehement; Calvin warns Renata against her chaplain Francesco (Richardot), portraying him as a man without conscience, greedy for money, of dubious honesty; he rails against him for having induced Renata to attend Mass, ‘the most execrable sacrilege that can be conceived’ (op. cit., I, p. 49). The second is dated 6 Aug 1554: like the first and the subsequent ones, it is signed with the pseudonym Charles d’Espeville, and encourages Renata to resist the pressures of her husband and especially of her nephew, King Henry II of France, while also announcing the arrival of a safe (Calvinist) chaplain, François de Morel. Renata had been condemned by her husband to house arrest in the castle of Este and had to endure this sentence for a time. Calvin wrote to her on 2 Feb 1555 to advise penitence and promise her God’s forgiveness (op. cit., II, pp. 4-7). The next letter, of June 1555, was brought by the Marquis de Vico, who had turned to ‘heresy’; it contains encouragement for Renata to resist her husband and the Church (ibid., p. 57 ff.). The fifth, of 20 July 1558, has the same tenor as the preceding ones (ibid., p. 215 ff.). After becoming a widow on 3 Oct 1559, Renata returned to France in September 1560. Muratori attests that she was mourned by the people for her goodness and generosity (Antichità estensi, II, p. 389). Calvin wrote to her on 5 July 1560 to disapprove of her departure from Ferrara (J. Bonnet, Lettres, II, pp. 337 ff.). The two following letters, of 16 Jan 1561 and Feb 1562 (ibid., pp. 386 and 456), congratulate her on the courage with which she defended the ‘Reformed’. In the latter, mention is made alongside Renata, as her chaplain, of the same François de Morel who had been with her in Ferrara and who had become the principal pastor of Paris. The ninth letter (10 May 1563) praises Renata for her stance during the first war of religion (ibid., p. 513 ff.). The tenth, of 8 Jan 1564 (ibid., p. 545), warns her against indulgence toward the so-called ‘Reformed’ who might be censured by the consistory of Montargis, her residence, for their immoral conduct. Calvin also gives her a gold medal struck by her father Louis XII at the time of his conflicts with Pope Julius II, bearing the inscription: Perdam Babylonis nomen. The duchess thanked him warmly for the gift, saying it was ‘unequalled’, and adding: ‘Praise God that my late father the king took 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, written as Calvin lay dying, he seeks to exculpate his coreligionists from the fury with which they reviled the memory of the Duke François of Guise, assassinated before Orléans, consigning him to hell. Renata, as his mother-in-law, protested against such malice (24 Jan and 4 Apr 1564: ibid., pp. 550 and 558). At Montargis, Renata remained aloof from the strife that was bloodying France and which she utterly disapproved.