Beatrice d'Este (1475-1497)

The most lovable of Renaissance princesses, she was the second child of Ercole I d'Este and Eleonora of Aragon. Raised at the court of Ferrara and educated by its leading humanists, Beatrice was married at 15 to Lodovico Sforza, "Il Moro", to whom she had been betrothed at the age of 5. For the six years following her wedding until her death in childbirth, Beatrice helped to make the Milanese court a showplace of literary and artistic creativity. She was sunnier and less imperious than her older sister Isabella: but her influence was, like her life, ephemeral.