We don’t often think of the Mantuan Marchioness Isabella d’Este when we talk about British history. She lived in an independent Italian state that was more than 600 miles from London and ruled, with her husband, over its religious, political and domestic affairs. However, the culture-loving Renaissance ruler had a number of links with England, then governed by the Tudor monarchs.
Isabella d’Este was born in 1474 and died in 1539, and so her life spanned the English rule of the Yorkist kings Edward IV, Edward V and Richard III, and the early Tudors, Henry VII and his son Henry VIII. Much of her role as Marchioness of Mantua was taken up with forging and maintaining alliances. Mantua was a small Italian state ruled by generations of the Gonzaga family, the latest Marquis, Francesco, Isabella’s husband. Their marriage had been arranged as a diplomatic match to strengthen the position of the smaller independent states of Gonzaga’s Mantua and Isabella’s Ferrara against growing powers from within Italy. Francesco was a hot-headed soldier who fought on behalf of both French and Papal forces. While he was away at war, Isabella played the part of negotiator and ambassador, smooth-talking foreign diplomats at weddings and positioning Mantua as a place of military and political strength. This activity was crucial, with Italy then at war with its own nations, and also with France. In addition, the Pope’s son, Caesar Borgia Duke Valentino, was pursuing his own bid for power by invading the homes of many of Isabella’s family and friends across the Italian states and seizing their homes and wealth. It may have been Isabella’s careful management of alliances, along with her own friendly correspondence with the tempestuous duke, that left Mantua untouched.
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| Isabella d'Este, Metropolitan Museum, New York, Public Domain |
In 1495, Isabella and Francesco found themselves allied with Henry VII’s England. On 14 March of that year, a new League was announced between the Pope, King of the Romans, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain and the rulers of Venice and Milan. Henry VII was also a member of this League, demonstrating England’s new and increased power on the European stage. Henry had come to power in 1485 following a period of civil war in the country and Ferdinand and Isabella had worried that he would be abruptly removed. At the beginning of their negotiations in the 1490s, England was considered fragile, but by 1495 it was placed alongside these important European rulers to combat the power of the French in Italy. Ferdinand also had an interest in these Italian affairs in his capacity as King of Naples. Francesco Gonzaga was placed in charge of the League’s army of 25,000 men, deployed against the French armies.
Relations between England and Mantua were settled, but there is evidence of at least one moment of antagonism caused indirectly between the countries. Isabella’s twentieth-century biographer Julia Cartwright wrote that in 1506, a close former courtier of Francesco’s, Baldassarre Castiglioni, was summoned to England to collect the Order of the Garter for his new master the Duke of Urbino. Angry at losing him from the court, Francesco refused Castiglioni entry into Mantua to say goodbye before leaving, although he did return in 1507 and maintained warm relationship with the couple, especially the ever-diplomatic and charming Isabella.
In 1511, Isabella hosted political talks at the Ducal Palace in Mantua, an event attended by ambassadors from England, France, Spain, and Germany. The aim was to discuss how a peace in Italy could be achieved. Isabella’s diplomacy was often carried out at social occasions, and at a later meeting hosted by her in 1512, she put on a range of entertainments and diversions for the ambassadors. It is likely then that the English were treated just as lavishly by the Marchioness in 1511. By now, the country had a new ruler: Henry VII’s son, Henry VIII, who was now married to Katherine of Aragon and feeling his own way through European influences affecting his government.
Isabella was present with English ambassadors again in 1526. Catherine Lucy Fletcher discussed the nature of Renaissance diplomacy in her thesis titled Renaissance Diplomacy in Practice: The Case of Gregario Casali, England’s Ambassador to the Papal Court, 1525-33. She pointed out one dinner, held at Cardinal Cesarino’s home in Rome in January 1526. Isabella was joined by Cardinal Ridolfi, the Duke of Sessa (the Imperial Ambassador), and ‘the ambassadors of England, Ferrara and Mantua’. The sharp-eyed and diplomatically agile Isabella would have subtly promoted her state as one of strength, and no doubt Henry VIII, who loved expressions of Italian culture, would have been keen to learn more about her and her nation from his ambassadors once they returned to court. Isabella was now representing Mantua as a widow, Francesco having died in 1519.
Henry and Isabella were certainly kept up to date with one another by mutual friends and officials. The Papal nuncio Francesco Chiericati was a close friend of hers, and wrote to Isabella during his travels to other nations as he carried out his role. Visiting England towards the end of 1515, he wrote to tell her about Henry VIII’s court in London, and spent Palm Sunday personally with the king. Henry too, admired the Gonzagas of Mantua, telling Chiericati that he had horses sent by Francesco in his royal stables and considered them equal to no other in quality. The marquis had also recommended one of his own musicians to Henry, who was then residing at court and entertaining the king and queen, and Henry offered to receive one of Isabella’s sons there, too. Chiericato wrote to Isabella of the king’s love of music, fashion and ceremony, providing details of the jewels and fabrics worn by the king and his singing and dancing. No doubt the fashionable Isabella read these letters with great interest, and the two rulers certainly had a number of things in common. Isabella was also known to be a keen and gifted musician and owned a variety of instruments in her ‘grotta’, a small room in the palace dedicated to the enjoyment of artwork, sculpture and music. ‘Most illustrious madama’, wrote Chiericati, ‘here in England we find all the wealth and delights in the world. Those who call the English barbarians are themselves barbarians! Here we see magnificent costumes, rare virtues, and the finest courtesy. And, best of all, here we have this invincible King, who is endowed with so many excellent virtues that he seems to me to surpass all others who wear a crown in these times. Blessed and happy is the country which is ruled by so worthy and excellent a prince! I would rather live under his mild and gentle sway than enjoy the greatest freedom under any other form of government’. In 1528, Isabella was on a visit to her home state of Ferrara when she learned from another friend that Cardinal Campeggio had arrived in England to examine the marriage between Henry and his wife, Katherine of Aragon, as the king took the first steps in seeking an annulment.
But Isabella d’Este’s mark on England goes further than chatting to ambassadors and exchanging pleasantries with Henry VIII. She is best known for collecting works of art from artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael, as well as a number of original ancient sculptures being then unearthed in Rome. She personally commissioned work from the Renaissance Master Titian, who also painted the well-known portrait of Philip II of Spain, the husband of Mary I. She also possessed works by Andrea Mantegna, who was the Gonzagas’ favourite painter and responsible for a number of works painted on the palace walls and ceilings. On her death in February 1539, this impressive collection was broken up and some of them were brought to England. In 1632 Charles I purchased one of her statues of a cupid sculpted by Michelangelo, while two paintings, one of the Holy Family and another of St William in armour were taken to Hampton Court. Another portrait of Isabella, painted from life by Titian, was valued at £50 and also bought by Charles I in the seventeenth century.
Isabella d’Este’s relationship with England underlines the nature of Renaissance European politics, showing that each nation was in fact a jigsaw piece that slotted into place rather than a state ruled in isolation. She was interested in English culture and the expression of music, art and fashion at the Tudor court, and embarked on partnerships with English ambassadors, hosting Tudor dignitaries at her Mantuan home. Isabella and Henry VIII never met, but they had many things in common, and seemed to enjoy a mutual appreciation for one another from afar. Isabella was a remarkable woman who encouraged the progression of Renaissance culture and the arts, along with the roles of women as European leaders. She also understood that fighting was not the only way to win a battle in Renaissance Europe, and relationships between foreign states could also be forged with charm and a liberal twinkling of music and wine.
Find out more about Isabella d'Este and Francesco Gonzaga - in my book Power Couples of the Renaissance. It features relationship dynamics that went against accepted norms of the period and power-hungry couples who ruled, fought and spread the patronage of art, science and culture across the globe during one of the most tumultuous periods of history. Find it on the Pen and Sword Books website.
Sources:
https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/42803068/Fletcher_Renaissance_Diplomacy.pdf
Julia Cartwright, Isabella d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua 1474-1539 Volumes 1 & 2, Dutton, New York. 1905.
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