ed eagerly into Ercole's schemes for
ordering his capital and encouraging art, and brought a new and gentler
influence to bear on the society of her husband's court. There, too, she
found a congenial spirit in the duke's accomplished sister, Bianca, that
Virgin of Este, who was the subject of Tito Strozzi's impassioned
eulogy, and whose Latin and Greek prose excited the admiration of all
her contemporaries. This cultivated princess had been originally
betrothed to the eldest son of Federigo, Duke of Urbino, but his early
death put an end to these hopes, and in 1468 she married Galeotto della
Mirandola, a prince of the house of Carpi, who lived, at Ferrara some
years, and afterwards entered the service of Lodovico Sforza and served
as captain in his wars.

On the 18th of May, 1474, the duchess gave birth to a daughter, who
received the name of Isabella, always a favourite in the house of
Aragon, and was destined to become the most celebrated lady of the
Renaissance. A year later, on the 29th of June, 1475, a second daughter
saw the light. Her appearance, however, proved no cause of rejoicing, as
we learn from the contemporary chronicle published by Muratori--

"A daughter was born this day to Duke Ercole, and received the name of
Beatrice, being the child of Madonna Leonora his wife. And there were no
rejoicings, because every one wished for a boy."

No one in Ferrara then dreamt that the babe who received so cold a
welcome would one day reign over the Milanese, as the wife of Lodovico
Sforza, the most powerful of Italian princes, and would herself be
remembered by posterity as "la piu zentil donna in Italia"--the sweetest
lady in all Italy. At least the name bestowed upon her was a good omen.
She was called Beatrice after two favourite relatives of her parents.
One of these was Leonora's only sister, Beatrice of Aragon, who in that
same year passed through Ferrara on her way to join her husband,
Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, and whose presence, we are told by
the diarist, gave great pleasure to both duke and duchess. The other
Beatrice was Ercole's half-sister, the elder daughter of Niccolo III.,
who had long been the ornament of her father's court, when she had been
known as the Queen of Feasts, and it had become a common proverb that to
see Madonna Beatrice dance was to find Paradise upon earth. In 1448, at
the age of twenty-one, this brilliant lady had wedded Borso da
Correggio, a brother of the reigning prin