though he himself wished
to marry a certain Orsini. His father directed his attention to the
unequal alliances into which princes were prone to enter, and among
others to that of Alfonso of Ferrara, who, he said, had married Lucretia
Borgia, a woman "of the sort which everybody knows," and who had given
his son a monster (Renee) for wife. Guidobaldo acquiesced in this view
and replied that he knew he had a father who would never compel him to
take a wife like Lucretia Borgia, "one as bad as she and of so many
disreputable connections."[247] Thus the impression grew and Lucretia
Borgia became the type of all feminine depravity until finally Victor
Hugo in his drama, and Donizetti in his opera, placed her upon the stage
in that character.

* * * * *

In conclusion a few words regarding the descendants of Lucretia and
Alfonso,--the Duke of Ferrara survived his wife fifteen stormy years.
He, however, succeeded in defending himself against the popes of the
Medici family, and he revenged himself on Clement VII by sacking Rome
with the aid of the emperor's troops. Charles V gave him Modena and
Reggio, and he was therefore able to leave his heir the estates of the
house of Este in their integrity. He never married again, but a
beautiful bourgeoise, Laura Eustochia Dianti, became his mistress. She
bore him two sons, Alfonso and Alfonsino. The duke died October 31,
1534, at the age of fifty-eight; his brothers, Cardinal Ippolito and Don
Sigismondo, having passed away before him, the former in 1520 and the
latter in 1524.

By Lucretia Borgia he had five children. Ercole succeeded him; Ippolito
became a cardinal, and died December 2, 1572, in Tivoli, where the Villa
d'Este remains as his monument; Elenora died, a nun, in the Convent of
Corpus Domini, July 15, 1575; Francesco finally became Marchese of
Massalombarda, and died February 22, 1578.

Lucretia's son Ercole reigned until October, 1559. In 1528 his father
had married him to Renee, the plain but intellectual daughter of Louis
XII. Lucretia had never seen her daughter-in-law nor had she ever had
any intimation that it was to be Renee. The life of this famous duchess
forms a noteworthy part of the history of Ferrara. She was an active
supporter of the Reformation, which was inaugurated to free the world
from a church which was governed by the Borgia, the Rovere, and the
Medici. Renee was therefore described as a monster by the Rovere. She
ke