Ercole III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2021

The Duchy of Modena and Reggio was a small northwestern Italian state that existed from 1452 to 1859, except during the Napoleonic Wars (1796 – 1814). The House of Este ruled the duchy from 1452 – 1796, and then the House of Austria-Este ruled from 1814 – 1859. In 1796, Modena was occupied by a French army under Napoleon Bonaparte, who deposed Ercole III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio, and added the duchy to the French Empire. Ercole III died in exile in 1803.

Ercole III’s only surviving child of Maria Beatrice d’Este, the heiress of Modena and Reggio married Archduke Ferdinand Karl of Austria, son of Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Theresa, in her own right Archduchess of Austria, and Queen of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. The son of Maria Beatrice and Ferdinand Karl regained the Duchy of Modena and Reggio as Francesco IV in 1814, after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Duchy of Modena and Reggio was abolished during the Italian unification movement. It was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860. In 1861, Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Sardinia was proclaimed the first King of the new, united Kingdom of Italy.

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Ercole III, Duke of Modena and Reggio; Credit – Wikipedia

Ercole III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio was the last reigning duke from the House of Este that had reigned in the Duchy of Modena and Reggio from 1452 – 1796. Ercole Rinaldo was born on November 22, 1727, at the Ducal Palace in Modena, the Duchy of Modena and Reggio, now in Italy. He was the fourth of the nine children and the eldest surviving of the four sons of Francesco III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Reggio and Princess Charlotte Aglaé of Orléans. Ercole’s paternal grandparents were Rinaldo d’Este, Duke of Modena, and Charlotte of Brunswick-Lüneburg. His maternal grandparents were Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (son of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans who was the brother of King Louis XIV of France) and Françoise-Marie de Bourbon (the legitimized daughter of King Louis XIV of France and his mistress Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, Marquise de Montespan).

Ercole had eight siblings:

Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, the reigning Duchess of Massa and Carrara; Credit – Wikipedia

On April 16, 1741, Ercole married Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, the reigning Duchess of Massa and Carrara, now in Italy. The marriage was made at the insistence of Ercole’s father who wanted the Duchy of Massa and Carrara because of its access to the sea. The marriage was not a happy one. After Maria Teresa gave birth to two children, Ercole humiliated her with his open relationships with his mistresses. Eventually, the couple began to live apart. Ercole remained in the Ducal Palace in Modena and Maria Teresa moved to the Ducal Palace in Reggio Emilia.

Ercole and Maria Teresa had two children but only their daughter survived childhood:

Ercole’s only surviving child Maria Beatrice d’Este with her husband Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and two of their ten children Archduchess Maria Leopoldine and Archduchess Maria Theresa; Credit – Wikipedia

Ercole’s only surviving child Maria Beatrice d’Este married Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, son of Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Theresa, in her own right Archduchess of Austria, and Queen of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. Maria Beatrice and Ferdinand’s marriage created the House of Austria-Este, a cadet branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. In 1790, upon the death of her mother, Maria Beatrice became the reigning Duchess of Massa and Carrara. After Maria Beatrice’s death in 1829, the Duchy of Massa and Carrara was annexed to the Duchy of Modena and Reggio.

In 1795, five years after the death of his first wife, Ercole married his long-time mistress, the opera singer Chiara Marini (died 1800), and gave her the title Marchioness of Scandiano. They had one son, born 25 years before their marriage: Ercole Rinaldo d’Este who was a major general in the Modena army and was created Marquis of Scandiano in 1787. Ercole Rinaldo died unmarried in Modena on February 16, 1795, after a fall on a staircase.

Ercole III, Duke of Modena and Reggio was considered an enlightened monarch who continued the reforms started by his father. He improved the infrastructure of his duchy, building bridges and roads. In 1785, Ercole established the Atestine Academy of Fine Arts, (link in Italian) a school that provided instruction in sculpture, painting, and architecture. The school is still in existence and is now called the Adolfo Venturi Higher Institute of Art. The arts and sciences flourished in the Duchy of Modena and Reggio during Ercole III’s reign. Scholars that Ercole sponsored included Lazzaro Spallanzani, a Catholic priest, biologist, and physiologist, Giovanni Battista Venturi, a physicist and the discoverer of the Venturi effect, Girolamo Tiraboschi, a literary critic and the first historian of Italian literature, and Lodovico Ricci, a historian and economist.

Funeral chapel of the Dukes of Modena in the Church of San Vincenzo, Modena; Credit – Di Marcordb – Opera propria, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=85725981

In 1796, Modena was occupied by a French army under Napoleon Bonaparte, who deposed Ercole III, Duke of Modena and Reggio. He was forced to flee to Venice on May 7, 1796, bringing with him a great deal of his personal wealth. In Venice, Ercole was the victim of armed robbery by French soldiers who stole some of his money from his home. After this incident, Ercole moved to the city of Treviso, north of Venice, where he died on October 14, 1803, at the age of 75. He was buried at the Church of San Vincenzo in Modena. In 1814, after the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, Ercole’s grandson, the son of Maria Beatrice d’Este and Ferdinand Karl regained the Duchy of Modena and Reggio as Francesco IV, Duke of Modena.

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Works Cited

  • En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Ercole III d’Este, Duke of Modena – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ercole_III_d%27Este,_Duke_of_Modena> [Accessed 7 October 2021].
  • En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Maria Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Massa – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Beatrice_d%27Este,_Duchess_of_Massa> [Accessed 7 October 2021].
  • En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, Duchess of Massa – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Teresa_Cybo-Malaspina,_Duchess_of_Massa> [Accessed 7 October 2021].
  • It.wikipedia.org. 2021. Ercole III d’Este – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ercole_III_d%27Este> [Accessed 7 October 2021].
  • It.wikipedia.org. 2021. Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina – Wikipedia. [online] Available at: <https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Teresa_Cybo-Malaspina> [Accessed 7 October 2021].