She, of course, was Spanish, and she seems to have forgotten that French blood flowed in Alfonso's veinshis mother, Duchess Renata, or Renea, being a daughter of Louis XII.

The life of Ercole and his Duchess Renata had been anything but happy.

Duchess Renata never loved her husband nor his people.

"Peu d'amys, qui conques est loing d'eulx" was said of unhappy Renata.

Duchess Renata had her party at Court, a party opposed, as she was, to anything and everything Florentine: her son gave heed to her cautions, and thus the breach widened.

His Sacrifizio, styled 'favola pastorale' on the title-page of the first impression, was acted at the palace of Francesco d' Este at Ferrara in the presence of Ercole II and his son Luigi, and of the Duchess Renata and her daughters Lucrezia and Leonora, on two occasions in February and March 1554.