Brought up according to the careful, refined literary and chivalrous educational and cultural traditions, the life of Alfonso II d'Este was characterised by the pursuit of honours and titles. It defined even his youth, when he secretly went to France without informing his father (Ercole II) and, welcomed by Henry II, fought in the French King’s military in Flanders. He would eventually return to Flanders in 1556, but only after making his way back to Ferrara (1554) and reconciling with his father, gaining his consent.

It was just the first of many episodes in an ambitious life lived in pursuit of confirming the greatness of his enduring noble lineage, despite an ironic twist of fate: the House of Este would in fact end with him. His thirst for power spurred him to try to obtain a preferential role in the struggles between various families in the peninsula, but ultimately led him to extend his sights beyond Italy, to Europe. In 1566, Alfonso II went to Hungary to help the Emperor of Austria (whose daughter, Barbara, he had recently wed) against the Turks, supporting a cause that ended in a terrible defeat. Then, in 1574, he tried, also in vain, to claim the Polish throne, which ultimately remained vacant.

Under Alfonso II, the Este court reached lofty heights of splendour. In addition to the famous court poet Torquato Tasso, the court hosted numerous poets and artists, as per Este traditions. It was a period in which the arts thrived, even producing a type of grandiose type of performance called cavallerie, involving acting, dance, music and singing. The latter, especially that of female singers, developed extraordinarily, making Ferrara the capital of madrigals. Dame di Ferrara, a group of female singers selected personally by Margherita Gonzaga, the third wife of Alfonso II, was composed of harpist Laura Peperara, lutist Anna Guarini and violinist Livia d’Arco. Although they performed in what were known as ‘secret concerts’ each day, held in Margherita's living quarters, their fame was legendary.

However, such pomp and extravagance were only possible because of the Duke's concentration on the court, corresponding, among other things, to increased taxation on the population. Those aspects, along with famine and pestilence, began to undermine the long-standing fondness of the duchy's subjects for the Este family.

During Alfonso II's dukedom, an unforgettable earthquake shook Ferrara in 1570, the first of a series of seismic episodes that lasted until 1574, violently striking the city. The quake shook Ferrara both physically and in terms of its prestige, as it was taken as a divine sign against the city and the dynasty that led it.

It was an incredibly damaging event for the House of Este, economically (sources document the resulting damages at around 300,000 scudi, with the burden imposed on the population through oppressive taxation) and in terms of status. The latter aspect, combined with Alfonso II's failure to produce heirs, was strategically used by the papacy to undermine the support that the Este family had enjoyed up to that point. ‘As such, immediately after the three quakes on the 16th and 17th days of the month, the notable seismic activity that started in November 1570 became leverage in Pius V's diplomacy, undermining Este prestige in the city and casting doubt on ducal rule in the eyes of its subjects and other Italian courts. Hence Alfonso II d'Este (the son of a declared heretic, Renée of France) tried to distance himself from all hints of sin, showing what a good Catholic he was and trying, by any means possible, to minimise the damages caused by the earthquake before the eyes of the world’ (E. Guidoboni, M. Folin, Terremoti a Ferrara e nel suo Territorio: un Rischio Sottovalutato, https://rivista.fondazionecarife.it/it/2010/item/735-terremoti-a-ferrara-e-nel-suo-territorio-un-rischio-sottovalutato).

The legitimate line of the House of Este ended with Alfonso II. With it, the endless search for an heir came to an end: Alfonso II had three wives - Lucrezia de' Medici, daughter of Cosimo I (deceased in 1561), Barbara of Austria, daughter of Emperor Ferdinand I (deceased in 1572), and Margherita Gonzaga, (who outlived Alfonso II, passing away in 1618) - but he never had any children, in or out of wedlock - nor could he have.

Without children, Alfonso II designated his cousin Cesare as his heir, member of a cadet branch (Montecchio Emilia) of the family born out of wedlock. In 1598, finding himself without support, Cesare moved the capital of the duchy to Modena, thereby definitively opened the way for the papal claim to ownership of Ferrara as a former Papal fief. This sparked what is known as the Devolution of Ferrara (1598), i.e. its transfer from the rule of the Este family to that of the Pope.

«Tu, magnanimo Alfonso, il quale ritogli
al furor di fortuna e guidi in porto
me peregrino errante, e fra gli scogli
e fra l'onde agitato e quasi absorto,
queste mie carte in lieta fronte accogli,
che quasi in voto a te sacrate i' porto.
Forse un dì fia che la presaga penna
osi scriver di te quel ch'or n'accenna.»

(T. Tasso, Gerusalemme liberata, I, 4)

«La vanità di Alfonso era tale che, quando finalmente fu creato dall'imperatore Massimiliano II "duca dell'impero di prima classe", pretese di essere chiamato non più "Eccellenza" o "Illustrissimo" ma "Altezza" e "Serenissimo", alla pari dei principi del sangue, dando così l'estro all'ambasciatore mediceo a Ferrara, lo scanzonato e bizzoso Bernardo Canigiani, di scrivere in un dispaccio a Firenze: "Il signor Duca ... se ne andò alli 23 del passato mese di marzo a Belriguardo, havendo ordinato che in queste valli nubilose et negre s'usasse l'Altezza e il Serenissimo, ch'è proprio come chiamar Gian bianco un moro...".»

(L. Chiappini, L’inquieto ‘Serenissimo’, in https://rivista.fondazionecarife.it/it/2000/item/283-linquieto)