[5][6] In 1452 Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III offered the duchy to Borso d'Este, whose family had ruled the city of Modena and nearby Reggio Emilia for centuries.

The Este lands were bequeathed to Alfonso's cousin Cesare d'Este; however, the succession was not acknowledged by Pope Clement VIII and Ferrara was finally seized by the Papacy.

In the 1628 War of the Mantuan Succession, the dukes of Modena sided with Habsburg Spain and in turn received the town of Correggio from the hands of Emperor Ferdinand II.

Following his death, the claims to the no longer existing ducal crown of Modena were inherited by his son-in-law, the Habsburg-Lorraine Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, an uncle of Emperor Francis II.

In December 1815 he obtained the transfer from his mother Maria Beatrice d'Este of the former imperial fiefs in Lunigiana, not reconstituted by the Congress of Vienna and bestowed upon her, and, on her death in 1829, he also inherited the territories of Duchy of Massa and Carrara belonging to her suo jure.