Ferrante considered it a "same thing" with the infanta Giovannella his daughter, so much so that the Este ambassador wrote in 1479 to her mother Eleonora that the father would also return her son, now that he was older, but not Beatrice, because "his majesty wants to give her in marriage and keep her for himself".

[10] Formally adopted by her grandfather, the child in those years came to sign herself simply "donna Beatrice de Aragonia" and learned to express herself in a mixture of Catalan, Castilian and Italian, a habit that she seems not to have preserved as an adult.

The date was set for May 1490 and a dowry of 40,000 ducats was arranged; From May, however, Ludovico postponed to the summer, then cancelled for the umpteenth time, disconcerting the dukes of Ferrara who at this point doubted his real will to marry Beatrice.

[22] Despite the efforts made to accustom her to love games, however, Beatrice remained "in superlative ashamed" and still in mid-February Ludovico had not been able to conclude anything: he complained about it with the Este ambassador Giacomo Trotti, saying that he had been forced to vent with Cecilia.

Two days later at the Sala del Tesoro in the Rocchetta of the Castello Sforzesco, the gifts of the Milanese nobility were exhibited on tables covered with crimson gold velvet, offered to the Moro in view of the imminent birth of his son.

He thus aimed to test the intentions of the Republic, while concluding the agreements with Emperor Maximilian of Habsburg and granting him in marriage his niece Bianca Maria Sforza, accompanied by a fabulous dowry of 300 000 gold ducats, plus 40 000 in jewels and another 100 000 for the ducal investiture.

[34] On 23 July 1494, she welcomed duke Louis of Orléans, cousin of the King of France, to Milan, who arrived in Italy with the avant-gardes of the army French, then, on 11 September of the same year, went to Asti to meet Charles VIII in person.

Ludovic qui s'en apperçut, voyant que les François étoient assez audacieux pour attaquer la gloire d'un Prince, qui quoiqu'il n'eût pas la qualité de Souverain; en avoit toute l'autorité, prit congé du Roy, & se retira dans un Château à une lieue d'Ast, où le Conseil du Roy alloir le trouver tous les jours.

While Charles, after the conquest of Naples, was still in the kingdom, in a situation of serious tension, on 11 June 1495, contravening the orders of the king, Louis of Orléans occupied the city of Novara with his men and went as far as Vigevano, threatening concretely to attack Milan with the intention of usurping the duchy, which he considered his right being a descendant of Valentina Visconti.

[52] The latter, however, soon fell ill with syphilis, also it was rumoured that Duke Ercole did not want the recovery of Novara, being in league with the French, and together with the Florentines secretly subveded the Orleans, and that Fracasso [it], a stronghold of the Sforza army, played a double game with the king of France.

Beatrice therefore decided, on 27 June, to go alone to the military camp of Vigevano to supervise the order and animate the captains against the French, despite the fact that the Duke of Orleans made raids in that area all day long, while her husband remained in Milan.

[59] Sanuto then notes that "a contemplation di la duchessa de Milano", that is, by the will of her, or rather by the desire to see her again, Maximilian passed "that mountain so harsh" and in a completely informal way, without any pomp, came to Como,[59] then stayed for some time in Vigevano in strictly friendly relations with the dukes.

how much it is possible to feel, and so much so that the more grateful we would have been to die first and not see us lack what was the dearest thing we had in this world»He told the Ferrarese ambassador that "he never thought he could ever tolerate such a bitter plague", and that he had had him summoned to report to Duke Ercole that if what had ever offended her, as he knew he had done, he asks forgiveness from your ex.

[71] Lodovico, who used to draw every vigor of mind from the provident and strong advice of his wife Beatrice d'Este, having been kidnapped by death a few years earlier, found himself isolated and devoid of daring and courage to such an extent, that he saw no other escape against the proud procella that threatened him except in fleeing.

The hunting fatigues had to, however, on that occasion yield her a new attack of malarial fevers that had already affected her the previous year and that this time made the central months of pregnancy difficult, although without damaging the unborn child or complicating the birth.

[92] Although very religious, Beatrice was not austere with regard to carnal matters: she knew well that wars are not won only with weapons and for this reason some of the bridesmaids of her retin had the task of sexually entertaining the sovereigns and foreign dignitaries guests of the court.

It is in fact not without a certain surprise that historians remember how, when in 1495 she was at the camp of Novara, Beatrice did not hesitate to offer to personally procure to her brother-in-law Francesco Gonzaga, captain-general of the League, a woman with which to celebrate the victory, officially to preserve him and her sister Isabella from the terrible Malfrancese who at that time devastated the peninsula, or perhaps to win his sympathies, as she wished to receive on loan from the Marquis the treasure that he had seized from the tent of Charles VIII following the battle of Fornovo, when the camp French had been looted, treasure of which the most interesting object was an album containing the licentious portraits of all the mistresses of the king of France.

Although a superficial analysis of historical events has led modern scholars to say that Beatrice had no voice in the politics of the duchy, or even had no interest in it,[96][97] almost all previous historians agree instead in judging her as the true mastermind behind many of her husband's actions and decisions, over whom she exercised enormous influence, to such an extent that it links her presence to the prosperity and integrity of the entire Sforza state:[3][98][99] Beatrice helped her husband with wise advice in the offices, not even as a prince, but as an Italian prince; and that state prospered as long as such a woman stayed with Lodovico.

With her dead, public ruin had no more restraint.She owned in all respects the lands of Cassolnovo, Carlotta, Monte Imperiale, Villanova, Sartirana, Leale, Cusago, Valenza, Galliate, Mortara, Bassignana, San Secondo, Felino, Torrechiara, Castel San Giovanni, Pigliola, Valle di Lugano, as well as the Sforzesca and the park of the castle of Pavia, that her husband had given her, with all the relative possessions, fortresses and feudal rights connected to them, that is the mero et mixto imperio, any type of jurisdiction, gifts, immunities, etc., the faculty to administer them according to one's own will, to delegate castellans, praetors, officers, etc., as well as to benefit from the very rich rents.

[102] Moreover, both the diplomatic mission to Venice, her constant presence in the councils of war and in meetings with the French, and, above all, her decisive stance in the excited days when Orleans threatened Milan, in stark contrast this time to her husband's intentions to escape, as well as the actual drift of the Sforza state following his death, they show that his decision-making and political power was much more substantial than is currently thought.

[104] When then, with the change of alliances, Hercules, although officially neutral, continued to lean towards the French, while Louis sided with the Holy League, Beatrice felt betrayed by her father who, in a moment of maximum difficulty, that is, in the days immediately preceding the occupation of Novara by Orléans, did not want to send them the requested aid.

Beatrice must have persuaded her husband to extend her protection to Faenza and it was feared, with his death, a reversal of alliances, which then in fact happened with the war of Pisa, when Ludovico abandoned the ally Venice for Florence, a move that then marked his ruin.

If the Duke of Bari [...] managed to represent on the theatre of Europe a scene of much superior, as was observed, to his condition, it is largely due to this woman, vain feminally, if you will, and cruel, especially with the Duchess Isabella, but of resolute and tenacious character, of ready ingenuity, of the soul open to all the seductions of luxury and to all the attractions of art.

She added to this a liberality with her, from which it can be said that in her time she had been the only receptacle of every virtuous spirit, by means of which every laudable virtue was beginning to be put into use.Not unlike Baldassarre Castiglione remembered her, many years later, with a few but significant words in his Cortegiano: "it still hurts me that you all have not met the Duchess Beatrice of Milan [...], so that you will never again have to marvel at the ingenuity of a woman".

[95] What transpires from the correspondence of that period is therefore a very young Beatrice dazzled by the wealth and importance of her husband, who was then one of the most powerful men on the peninsula, endowed with considerable charm and who did not yet show the weaknesses and contradictions of recent years.

She always maintained a reputation of absolute honesty, and this in spite of the freedoms in dressing and relating to men: the courtships of chivalrous mold entertained with the French and with the emperor are striking, where in fact the fulfilment of the sexual act was delegated to special courtesans.

[41] Only Achille Dina, a twentieth-century historian, insinuates – but without any evidence – of an affair between her and Galeazzo Sanseverino, arguing that "some intimate remorse" was due to Beatrice's deep sorrow for the death of her stepdaughter: "perhaps his conduct towards Isabella?

Beatrice d'Este belonged to the best class of Renaissance women, and was one of the cultural influences of the age; to a great extent, her patronage and good taste are responsible for the splendour of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, the Certosa of Pavia, and many other famous buildings in Lombardy.

Beatrice was mainly interested in poetry and gathered around her an excellent circle of poets in the vernacular, which included, among others, Vincenzo Calmeta, Gaspare Visconti, Niccolò da Correggio, Bernardo Bellincioni, Antonio Cammelli and Serafino Aquilano.

[160] It is said that in the Sforza castle of Vigevano, and precisely in the male's wing, on hot summer nights, the spirits of Beatrice and her ladies continue to animate the apartments which once belonged to the duchess and the so-called "loggia delle dame", which Ludovico had built specifically for his wife.