d’ Este, and claimed recognition as members of the royal family; but as the marriage was in violation of the royal marriages act of 1773, it was declared invalid, and their claims were set aside.
Bibliography.—G. Antonelli, Saggio di una bibliografia storica ferrarese (Ferrara, 1851); L. A. Muratori, Delle antichità estensi ed italiane (3 vols., 1717, &c.), the chief and most reliable authority on the subject, containing a quantity of documents; A. Frizzi, Memorie per la storia di Ferrara (2nd ed., Ferrara, 1847); A. Solerti, Ferrara e la corte estense nella seconda metà del sec. XVI. (Città di Castello, 1900); C. Antolini, Il dominio estense in Ferrara (Ferrara, 1896), which deals with the siege of 1240 and other special points; E. G. Gardner, Princes and Poets of Ferrara (London, 1904), a bulky volume dealing only with the Renaissance period, full of interesting and unpublished matter, especially about the literary and artistic associations of the house, but not well put together (contains good bibliography); G. Bertoni, La Biblioteca estense e la coltura ferrarese ai tempi del duca Ercole I. (Turin, 1903), useful for the literary aspect of the subject; P. Litta, Le Celebri Famiglie italiane, vol. iii. (Milan, 1831), still a valuable work; E. Noyes, The Story of Ferrara (London, 1904); Julia Cartwright’s Isabella d’Este (London, 1903), and Beatrice d’Este (1899), pleasantly written but amateurish volumes based on A. Luzio’s Mantova e Urbino (Turin, 1893); A. Luzio and R. Renier, “Delle relazioni di Isabella d’Este Gonzaga con Lodovico e Beatrice Sforza” (Milan, 1890, Archivio Storico Lombardo, xvii.). (L. V.*)
ESTE (anc. Ateste), q.v.), a town and episcopal see of Venetia,
Italy, in the province of Padua, 20 m. S.S.W. of it by rail. Pop.
(1901) 8671 (town); 10,779 (commune). It lies 49 ft. above sea-level
below the southern slopes of the Euganean Hills. The
external walls of the castle still rise above the town on the N.,
but the interior is now occupied by the cattle-market. A fragment
of the once enormous Palazzo Mocenigo, of the 16th century,
is now occupied by the important archaeological museum (see
Ateste). The cathedral was erected in 1690–1720, on the site
of an older building destroyed by an earthquake in 1688. S.
Martino is a church in the Lombard Romanesque style. The
archives in the Palazzo Comunale are important.
After the Roman period the history of Este is a blank until the Lombard period, in which it was dependent on Monselice. In the 10th century the family of Este (see above) established itself in the castle above the town. At the end of the 13th century Padua, which had already captured Este more than once, became definitely mistress of it. When the Carrara family succumbed in 1405, Este voluntarily surrendered to Venice and was allowed its independence, under a podestà; and thenceforth it followed the fortunes of Venetia.
ESTÉBANEZ CALDERÓN, SERAFÍN (1799–1867), a Spanish
author, best known by the pseudonym of “El Solitario,” was
born at Málaga on the 27th of December 1799. His first literary
effort was El Listón verde, a poem signed “Safinio” and written to
celebrate the revolution of 1820. He was called to the bar, and
settled for some time at Madrid, where he published a volume
of verses in 1831 under the assumed name of “El Solitario.”
He obtained an exaggerated reputation as an Arabic scholar, and
played a minor part in the political movements of his time. He
died at Madrid on the 5th of February 1867. His most interesting
work, Escenas andaluzas (1847), is in a curiously affected style,
the vocabulary being partly archaic and partly provincial; but,
despite its eccentric mannerisms, it is a vivid record of picturesque
scenes and local customs. Estébanez Calderón is also the author
of an unfinished history, De la conquista y pérdida de Portugal
(1883), issued posthumously under the editorship of his nephew,
Antonio Cánovas del Castillo.
ESTELLA, a town of northern Spain, in the province of Navarre,
on the left bank of the river Ega, 15 m. W.S.W. of Pamplona.
Pop. (1900) 5736. Estella, which occupies the site of a Roman
town of uncertain name, contains several monasteries and
churches, a medieval citadel, and a college which was formerly
a university. Its principal industries are the manufacture of
woollen and linen fabrics and brandy-making; and it has a
considerable trade in fruit, wine and cattle. Estella commands
several defiles on the roads from Castile and Aragon, and on that
account occupies a position of considerable strategic importance.
It was long the headquarters of Don Carlos, who was proclaimed
king here in 1833. In 1873 it was the chief stronghold of the
Carlists, and in 1874, when driven from other places, they
succeeded in retiring to Estella. On the 16th of February 1876
the Carlists in the town surrendered unconditionally. For an
account of the Carlist rising see Spain: History.
ESTERHÁZY OF GALÁNTHA, a noble Magyar family. Its
origin has been traced, not without some uncertainty, to Salamon
of Estoras, whose sons Péter and Illyés divided their patrimony
in 1238. Péter founded the family of Zerházy, and Illyés that
of Illyesházy, which became extinct in the male line in 1838.
The first member of the family to emerge definitely into history
was Ferencz Zerházy (1563–1594), vice lord-lieutenant of the
county of Pressburg, who took the name of Esterházy when he
was created Freiherr of Galántha, an estate acquired by the
family in 1421. His eldest son, Dániel (d. 1654), founded the
house of Czesznek, the third, Pál (d. 1641), the line of Zólyom
(Altsohl), and the fourth, Miklós, that branch of the family
which occupies the most considerable place in Hungarian
history, that of Fraknó or Forchtenstein.
This Miklós [Nicholas] Esterházy of Galántha (1582–1645) was born at Galántha on the 8th of April 1582. His parents were Protestants, and he himself, at first, followed the Protestant persuasion; but he subsequently went over to Catholicism and, along with Cardinal Pázmány, his most serious rival at court, became a pillar of Catholicism, both religiously and politically, and a worthy opponent of the two great Protestant champions of the period, Gabriel Bethlen and George I. Rákóczy. In 1611 he married Orsolyá, the widow of the wealthy Ferencz Mágocsy, thus coming into possession of her gigantic estates, and in 1622 he acquired Fraknó. Matthias II. made him a baron (1613), count of Beregh (1617), and lord-lieutenant of the county of Zólyom and magister curiae regiae (1618). At the coronation of Ferdinand II., when he officiated as grand-standard-bearer, he received the order of the Golden Fleece and fresh donations. At the diet of Sopron, 1625, he was elected palatine of Hungary. As a diplomatist he powerfully contributed to bring about the peace of Nikolsburg (1622) and the peace of Linz (1645) (see Hungary: History). His political ideal was the consolidation of the Habsburg dynasty as a means towards freeing Hungary from the Turkish yoke. He himself, on one occasion (1623), defeated the Turks on the banks of the Nyitra; but anything like sustained operations against them was then impossible. He was also one of the most eminent writers of his day. He died at Nagy-Heflán on the 11th of September 1645, leaving five sons.
See Works of Nicholas Esterházy, with a biography by Ferencz Toldi (Hung.) (Pest, 1852); Nicholas Count Esterházy, Palatine of Hungary (a biography, Hung.) (Pest, 1863–1870).
His third son Pál [Paul] (1635–1713), prince palatine, founded the princely branch of the family of Esterházy. He was born at Kis Marton (Eisenstadt) on the 7th of September 1635. In 1663 he fought, along with Miklós Zrinyi, against the Turks, and distinguished himself under Montecuculi. In 1667 he was appointed commander-in-chief in south Hungary, where he defeated the malcontents at Leutschau and Györk. In 1681 he was elected palatine. In 1683 he participated in the deliverance of Vienna from the Turks, and entered Buda in 1686 at the head of 20,000 men. Thoroughly reactionary, and absolutely devoted to the Habsburgs, he contributed more than any one else to the curtailing of the privileges of the Magyar gentry in 1687, when he was created a prince of the Empire, with (in 1712) succession to the first-born of his house. His “aulic tendencies” made him so unpopular that his offer of mediation between the Rákóczy insurgents and the government was rejected by the Hungarian diet, and the negotiations, which led to the peace of Szatmár (see Hungary: History), were entrusted to János Pállfy. He died on the 26th of March 1713. He loved the arts and sciences, wrote several religious works, and was one of the chief compilers of the Trophaeum Domus Inclytae Estoratianae.
See Lajos Merényi, Prince Paul Esterházy (Hung.) (Budapest, 1895).
Prince Pál Antal, grandson of the prince palatine Pál, was a distinguished soldier, who rose to the rank of field-marshal in 1758. On his death in 1762 he was succeeded by his brother.
