| Alfonso II d'Este | |
| Succession: | Duke of Ferrara |
| Reign: | 3 October 1559 – 27 October 1597 |
| Predecessor: | Ercole II |
| Successor: | Lost to the Papal States (1597) |
| Succession1: | Duke of Modena and Reggio |
| Reign1: | 3 October 1559 – 27 October 1597 |
| Predecessor1: | Ercole II |
| Successor1: | Cesare |
| Succession2: | Duke of Chartres |
| Reign-Type2: | Tenure |
| Reign2: | 12 June 1574 – 27 October 1597 |
| Predecessor2: | Renée |
| Successor2: | Gaston |
| House: | Este |
| Father: | Ercole II d'Este |
| Mother: | Renée of France |
| Birth Date: | 22 November 1533 |
| Death Place: | Ferrara |
| Religion: | Roman Catholicism |
Alfonso II d'Este (22 November 1533 – 27 October 1597) was Duke of Ferrara from 1559 to 1597. He was a member of the House of Este.
Alfonso was the elder son of Ercole II d'Este and Renée de France, the daughter of Louis XII of France and Anne of Brittany and was the fifth and last Duke of Ferrara.[1]
As a young man, Alfonso fought in the service of Henry II of France against the Habsburgs. Soon after his accession, he was forced by Pope Pius IV to send his mother back to France due to her increasingly Calvinist beliefs.[2] The 1570 Ferrara earthquake occurred during his reign. In 1583, he allied with Emperor Rudolf II in the war against the Turks in Hungary.
Throughout the 1550s, Alfonso had an interest in Castrato singing voices. Given his childless marriages, this additional fact has prompted some historians to speculate that the Duke was homosexual.
Alfonso married three times:
He had no known children, legitimate or otherwise.
The legitimate line of the House of Este ended in 1597 with him. Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor recognized as heir his cousin Cesare d'Este, member of a cadet branch, who continued to rule in the imperial duchies and carried on the family name. The succession as Duke of Este, however, was recognized only by the Emperor but not by the Popes. In 1598 Ferrara was therefore incorporated into the Papal States by Pope Clement VIII, on grounds of doubtful legitimacy. As a result of Alfonso's death Cesare d'Este and his family were "obliged to leave the city" and the power of the government was there after turned over to the cardinal legate.[4]
Alfonso II raised the glory of Ferrara to its highest point, and was the patron of Torquato Tasso, Giovanni Battista Guarini, and Cesare Cremonini—favouring the arts and sciences, as the princes of his house had always done. Besides being fluent in Italian he was also proficient in Latin and French.[5] Luzzasco Luzzaschi served as his court organist.
In addition, he was the sponsor of the Concerto delle donne, a type of group which was to be copied all over Italy. He also restored the Castello Estense, damaged by an earthquake in 1570.
His expenses, however, went at damage of the public treasure.
Alfonso II is the duke upon whom Robert Browning based his poem My Last Duchess, and is a major character in the Maggie O'Farrell novel The Marriage Portrait.[6]