ext century, his people looked back on the days of Duke
Ercole and his good duchess as the golden age of Ferrara. After the
death of his father, the able and learned Niccolo III., who first
established his throne on sure and safe foundations, Ercole's two elder
half-brothers, Leonello and Borso, reigned in succession over Ferrara,
and kept up the proud traditions of the house of Este, both in war and
peace. Both were bastards, but in the Este family this was never held to
be a bar to the succession. "In Italy," as Commines wrote, "they make
little difference between legitimate and illegitimate children." But
when the last of the two, Duke Borso, died on the 27th of May, 1471, of
malarial fever caught on his journey to Rome, to receive the investiture
of his duchy from the Pope, Niccolo's eldest legitimate son Ercole
successfully asserted his claim to the throne, and entered peacefully
upon his heritage. Two years later, the next duke, who was already
thirty-eight years of age, obtained the hand of Leonora of Aragon,
daughter of Ferrante, King of Naples, and sent his brother Sigismondo at
the head of a splendid retinue to bring home his royal bride. After a
visit to Rome, where Pope Sixtus IV. entertained her at a series of
magnificent banquets and theatrical representations, the young duchess
entered Ferrara in state. On a bright June morning she rode through the
streets in a robe glittering with jewels, with a stately canopy over her
head and a gold crown on her flowing hair. Latin orations, orchestral
music, and theatrical displays, for which Ferrara was already famous,
greeted the bridal procession at every point. The houses were hung with
tapestries and cloth of gold, avenues of flowering shrubs were planted
along the broad white streets, and ringing shouts greeted the coming of
the fair princess who was to make her home in Ferrara. The happy event
was commemorated by a noble medal, designed by the Mantuan Sperandio,
the most illustrious of a school of medallists employed at Ferrara in
Duke Borso's time, while Leonora's refined features and expressive face
are preserved in a well-known bas-relief, now in Paris. Ercole and his
bride took up their abode in the Este palace, a stately Renaissance
structure opposite the old Lombard Duomo, a few steps from the Castello,
with which it was connected by a covered passage.

The charm and goodness of the young duchess soon won the heart of her
subjects. From the first she enter