The Genealogy of the house of este
the House of Este
Coat of arms of the House of Este
The House of Este was an Italian princely family, linked with several contemporary royal dynasties, including the House of Habsburg and the British royal family. The elder branch of the House of Este, known as the Younger House of Welf, included dukes of Bavaria and Brunswick-Lüneburg and produced Britain's Hanoverian monarchs, as well as one Emperor of Russia, Ivan VI (1740 – 1764)) and one Holy Roman Emperor, Otto IV (1175 – 1218). The younger branch of the House of Este included rulers of Ferrara (1240–1597), and of Modena and Reggio (1288–1796). Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara (1431–1505) was one of the most significant patrons of the arts in late fifteenth and early sixteenth century Italy, when Ferrara grew into a cultural center renowned especially for music. Ercole's daughter Beatrice (1475–1497) married Leonard da Vinci’s chief patron, Ludovico Sforza (1452 – 1508), Duke of Milan, the son Francesco I Sforza, a founding member of Rene of Anjou’s Order of the Crescent. Another daughter, Isabella (1474–1539), married Francesco Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua. Ercole I's successor was his son Alfonso I d’Este (1476 – 1534), third husband of the notorious Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI, sister to Cesare Borgia. The legitimate line ended in 1597 with Ercole I. As his heir, his first cousin Cesare d'Este (1533–1628) was recognized by Emperor Rudolph II, who maintained the occult-oriented court at Prague, which attracted the sorcerer John Dee, leading to the founding of the Rosicrucian movement.
The last duke, Ercole III d’Este (1727 – 1803), Duke of Modena, was deposed in 1796 by the French. Ercole III was the son of Duke Francesco III d’Este (1698 – 1780), Duke of Modena and Charlotte Aglaé d’Orléans, daughter of Philippe II d’Orléans, a friend of Chevalier Michael Ramsay, and Françoise Marie de Bourbon, the daughter of Madame de Montespan, who was accused of performing the Black Mass. Ercole III’s brother, Francesco I d’Este, Duke of Modena (1610 – 1658), also a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Francesco I d’Este married Maria Caterina Farnese and their son, Alfonso IV d’Este, Duke of Modena married Laura Martinozzi, and were the parents of Mary of Modena the wife of James II of England. Their son, James Francis Edward Stuart, known as “The Old Pretender,” was the father of the Jabobite pretenders, Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, “the Young Pretender” and his brother Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal Duke of York. The family of their mother, Maria Clementina Sobieska, was related to Jacob Frank.
Ercole III’s two duchies became the Cispadane Republic which one year later was merged into the Cisalpine Republic and then into the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. Ercole was compensated in 1801 with the small principality of Breisgau in southwestern Germany, whose previous rulers, the Habsburgs, ceded it to him in anticipation of its eventual return to the Habsburgs, since Ercole's daughter Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d'Este was married to a cadet Habsburg, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este (1754 – 1806), the son of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (1708 – 1765), Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and Empress Maria Theresa, who supported Jacob Frank. Ferdinand’s brother, Emperor Joseph II (1741 –1790), also Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece, had an affair with Jacob’s daughter Eva. Their brother, Archduke Maximilian Francis (1756 – 1801), was a Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights and purported Grand Master of the Priory of Sion. Ercole died in 1803 and Breisgau passed to his daughter and her husband, who in 1806 lost it during the Napoleonic reorganization of the western territories of the defunct Holy Roman Empire to the enlarged and elevated Grand Duchy of Baden.
Guy, Margrave of Tuscany + MAROZIA (mistress of Pope Sergius III)
Adalberto the Margrave + unknown
Oberto I Obizzo (soon after assuming the Italian throne, Berengar II of Italy reorganised his territories south of the Po River, dividing them into three new marches (frontier districts) named after their respective margraves: the marca Aleramica of Aleram of Montferrat, the marca Arduinica of Arduin Glaber, and the marca Obertenga of Oberto I)
Oberto II, Margrave of Milan + unknown
Albert Azzo I, Margrave of Milan + Adela of Milan
Albert Azzo II, Margrave of Milan (founder of the House of Este) + Kunigunde of Altdorf
Welf I, Duke of Bavaria (first member of the Welf-Este branch of the House of Este, inherited property of the Elder House of Welf from Welf III) + Judith of Flanders (daughter of Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders + Ogive of Luxembourg, granddaughter of SIEGFRIED, COUNT OF THE ARDENNES, associated with MELUSINE legend)
Welf II, Duke of Bavaria (of the Guelf party against the Guibelines) + Matilda of Tuscany (died childless and left him her possessions, including Tuscany, Ferrara, Modena, Mantua, and Reggio)
Henry the Black + Wulfhilde of Saxony (daughter of Magnus Billung, Duke of Saxony and Sophia of Hungary)
Judith of Bavaria + Frederick II, Duke of Swabia
Frederick Barbarossa (first of Hohenstaufen dynasty) + Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy
Henry the Proud + Gertrude of Süpplingenburg (d. of Emperor Lothair III and Empress Richenza)
Henry the Lion + Matilda of England
Fulco I, Margrave of Milan (ancestor of the Italian line of the House of Este)
Fulco I, Margrave of Milan
Azzo V of Este
Azzo VI of Este + Elisa
Aldobrandino I of Este
Beatrice d'Este + Andrew II of Hungary (son of Béla III of Hungary + Agnes of Antioch, daughter of Raynald of Châtillon)
Stephen the Posthumous + Tomasina Morosini
Andrew III of Hungary
Azzo VI of Este + Alice (sister of Antioch of Antioch)
Azzo VII d'Este
Saint Beatrice d'Este (cult was approved by Clement XIV, and Pius VI allowed her festival on January 19)
Rinaldo I d'Este
Obizzo II d'Este + Giacomina (niece of Pope Innocent IV)
Azzo VIII d'Este + Beatrice (daughter of Charles II of Naples and Mary of Hungary)
Beatrice d'Este (remembered primarily due to her role in Dante's Divine Comedy) + Nino Visconti (friend of Dante)
Aldobrandino II d'Este + Alda Rangoni
Obizzo III d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara + Jacopa Pepoli
Alberto d'Este + Isotta Albaresani
Niccolò III d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara + Ricciarda of Saluzzo (daughter of Thomas III of Saluzzo)
Ercole I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara + Eleonora d'Aragon (daughter of Ferdinand I of Naples (Order of the Golden Fleece. Her brother Alfonso II of Naples married Ippolita Maria Sforza, daughter of Francesco I Sforza, member of Rene of Anjou’s Order of the Crescent)
Isabella d’Este + Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua
Ferrante Gonzaga (Order of the Golden Fleece and 14th Grand Master of Priory of Sion).
Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua + Margaret Palaeologina (see above)
Louis Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers (Grand Master of the Priory of Sion) + (see above)
Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua + Eleonora of Austria (d. of Ferdinand I and Anna Jagellonica)
Margherita Gonzaga + (see below)
Beatrice + Ludovico Sforza (s. Francesco I Sforza, founding member of Rene of Anjou’s Order of the Crescent. Double wedding orchestrated by Leonardo da Vinci)
Gian Galeazzo Sforza + Isabella of Naples (a masque entitled Il Paradiso, with words by Bernardo Bellincioni and sets and costumes by Leonardo da Vinci at their wedding)
Bona Sforza (1494 – 1557) + Sigismund I the Old
Anna Jagiellon + Stephen Bathory (sponsor of John Dee and uncle of Elizabeth Báthory, the “Blood Countess”)
Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara + Lucrezia Borgia (daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattaneia, double wedding orchestrated by Leonardo da Vinci)
Ercole d’Este II + Renée of France (d of Louis XII of France)
Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio + Barbara (sister of Maximilian II)
Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio + Margherita Gonzaga (see above)
Alfonso I + Laura Dianti
Alfonso d'Este, Lord of Montecchio + Giulia della Rovere
Cesare d’Este + Virginia de' Medici
Alfonso III d'Este, Duke of Modena + Isabella of Savoy (d. of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy)
Francesco I d'Este, Duke of Modena + Maria Caterina Farnese
Alfonso IV d'Este, Duke of Modena + Laura Martinozzi
Mary of Modena + James II of England
James Francis Edward Stuart (“The Old Pretender”) + Maria Clementina Sobieska
Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie, "the Young Pretender"
Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal Duke of York
Rinaldo, Duke of Modena + Charlotte of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Francesco III d'Este, Duke of Modena + Charlotte Aglaé d'Orléans (d. Philippe II, Duke of Orléans)
Ercole III d'Este, Duke of Modena (last Duke of Este, knight of Order of the Golden Fleece) + Maria Teresa, Duchess of Massa
Maria Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Massa + Archduke Ferdinand of Austria (s. of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece + Maria Theresa, who supported Jacob Frank)
Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, Queen of Sardinia + Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia
Maximilian Joseph, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights
Maria Ludovika + Francis II, Emperor of Austria (Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece)