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| Francesco I d'Este | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byDiego Velázquez, 1638 | |
| Duke of Modena and Reggio | |
| Reign | 11 July 1629 – 14 October 1658 |
| Predecessor | Alfonso III d'Este |
| Successor | Alfonso IV d'Este |
| Born | (1610-09-06)6 September 1610 Modena |
| Died | 14 October 1658(1658-10-14) (aged 48) Santhià,Vercelli,Savoy |
| Spouses | |
| Issue | Alfonso, Hereditary Prince of Modena Alfonso IV, Duke of Modena Isabella, Duchess of Parma Eleonora d'Este Maria, Duchess of Parma Rinaldo, Duke of Modena |
| House | Este |
| Father | Alfonso III d'Este, Duke of Modena |
| Mother | Isabella of Savoy |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Francesco I d'Este (6 September 1610 – 14 October 1658) wasDuke of Modena and Reggio from 1629 until his death. The eldest son ofAlfonso III d'Este, he becamereigning duke after his father's abdication.
Born on 6 September 1610, Francesco was the son ofAlfonso III d'Este, Duke of Modena andIsabella of Savoy.[1] After the outbreak of theThirty Years' War he sided withSpain and invaded theduchy of Parma, but upon visiting to Spain to claim his reward, he could only acquireCorreggio by a payment of 230,000florins.
Later followed theFirst War of Castro, in which Francesco's Modena joined Venice and Florence and sided with theDukes of Parma againstBarberiniPope Urban VIII, aiming to reconquerFerrara. The war ended without any particular gain for the Modenese. As again no help had come from Spain, Francesco allied withFrance through the intercession ofCardinal Mazarin. When he however failed to conquerCremona, and as the situation of the Thirty Years' War seemed to be favourable for Spain, the Duke sought for an agreement with the latter. He returned to the service of France by marrying his son and heirAlfonso toLaura Martinozzi, Mazarin's niece.
After successful resistance to a Spanish invasion from their territories inMilan, he fought alongside France andSavoy, conqueringAlessandria andValenza in 1656–1657 with the help of his son. In 1658 he conqueredMortara but, struck bymalaria, died inSanthià soon afterwards. After Maria's death in 1646, he married her sister Vittoria Farnese who died 1649.
His last marriage was toLucrezia Barberini (1628–1699), daughter ofTaddeo Barberini with whom his troops had fought during the First War of Castro. He had a total of eleven children; two of them, Alfonso andRinaldo, were later Dukes of Modena.
Although a skillful military commander, Francesco was renowned for his upright character and religious ideals. He enriched Modena with the construction of theDucal Palace of Modena, the large Teatro della Spelta, the Villa delle Pentetorri, a port on an enlarged Naviglio channel and the restoration of the Cittadella.
Francesco was immortalized byBernini in a sculpture made around 1650–1651 (Este Gallery and Museum,Modena). It culminates the master sculptor's revolution in portraiture. Much of the freedom and spontaneity of the bust of CardinalScipione Borghese is kept, but it is united with a heroic pomp and grandiose movement that portray the ideals of the Baroque age as much as the man. This style of sculpting would later also be seen in the bust ofLouis XIV. According toHoward Hibbard, Bernini's portrait bust of Francesco I and the Louis XIV bust "set the standard for monarchical portraiture up to the time of the French Revolution" (126-8).[2][unreliable source?]
Media related toFrancesco I d'Este, Duke of Modena at Wikimedia Commons