Louis XII. († 1515), King of France

Anna de Bretagne († 1514)

Ercole II. d´Este (1508-1559), Duke of Ferrara, Reggio and Modena, son of Alfonso I. d´Este and Lucrezia Borgia; marriage on 28.6.1528 (very unhappy marriage]

1. her daughter Anna, born on 16.11.1531, deceased on 17.5.1607, first married to François de Lorraine, Duke of Guise, in September 1548; then married to Jacques (1531-1585), Duke of Nemours, in 1566; Anna gave birth to the following children by her first husband: 1. Henry I. (1549-1588), the future Duke of Guise; 2. Catherine (1552-1596); 3. Charles (1554-1611), the future Duke of Mayenne; 4. Louis II. (1555-1588), the future Cardinal and Archbishop of Reims; 5. Antoine (1557-1560); 6. François (1559-1573) and 7. Maximilien (1562-1567); by her second husband she gave birth to: 8. Charles Emmanuel (1567-1595), the future Duke of Nemours; 9. Marguerite (1569-1572) and 10. Henry I. (1572-1632), the future duke of Nemours
2. her son Alfonso II., Duke of Ferrara, born in November 1533, deceased in 1597, first marriage to Lucrezia de' Medici, second marriage to Barbara of Austria (1539-1572) and third marriage to Margherita Gonzaga (1564-1618)
3. her daughter Lucrezia, born on 16.12.1535, deceased on 12.2.1598; the famous poetess Vittoria Colonna was her godmother; Lucrezia was married to Francesco Maria II. della Rovere (1549-1631), Duke of Urbino, in 1570; it was a very unhappy and childless marriage, which ended – of course without a divorce – when Lucrezia left her husband after two years with his full consent and returned to Ferrara
4. her daughter Leonora, born on 19.6.1537, deceased on 19.8.1581; she had a serious accident in 1562; she never married, neither took she the usual alternative of becoming a nun
5. her son Luigi, Cardinal since 1561, born on 21.12.1538, deceased on 30.12.1586; Pope Paul III was his godfather

• Christopher Hare: Men and Women of the Italian Reformation, London 1914, pp. 85-135 (about Renée of France, the Duchess of Ferrara); the cause of the marital problems between Renée of France and her husband were their different views regarding the religion. Renée became one of the great supporters of the reform of the church and her husband war a convinced catholic. In the following letter from the 27 March 1554, which he wrote to the nephew of his wife, the French King Henry II, he complained about her (pp. 114-118): "... it happened of late that when one of her attendants, Hippolito de'Putti, was ill and likely to die, I told Madama [Renée of France, his wife] three or four times that he must confess and receive the rites of the Church or there would be a scandal ... but she replied that the aforesaid Hippolito stood well with God and had no need of any other confessor ... when I desired her to make her confession and to attend mass, she refused my good and holy wish, and actually replied that the mass was idolatry. ... When I sent my chaplain to insist that she and my daughters [Lucrezia and Eleonora] should hear the mass, she declined to obey my commands and sent away the priest without permitting him to celebrate the said mass ... For this persistence in evil-doing, I am compelled to find some strong remedy ..." Ercole II asked "the King to send a very strong Confessor, who if he cannot persuade the Duchess [Renée], can frighten her and compel her to recant; having complete power to use any means needful to exorcise the devil which has taken possession of her; but all is to be managed without open scandal." Henry II of France sent the Inquisitor Mathieu Ory. "In a letter to the Duke, it is suggested that Renée is to be shut up in solitary confinement, her children are to be taken from her, and all her attendants and friends who show any leaning towards the reformed doctrines, are to be tried by the Inquisition and suffer the extreme penalty of the law. ... during this summer of 1554 ... On September 7, the Duchess was removed by night from her house near San Francesco, by the Bishop of Rosetti and the Cavalieri Ruggieri, to a kind of state prison in an old palace of the Este family, and here shut up in the "Stanze del Cavallo", in absolute seclusion. ... All her property, her jewels and her money from every source had been taken from her ..."
• My answer to the claim by the National Gallery of Victoria, that they would own the only true portrait of Lucrezia Borgia.