About The Last Duchess

This week, I decided to write about the background of a poem The Last Duchess of Robert Browning. Since the poem was really interesting because of its topic and the possibility of the Duke to murder his wife, the duchess, I searched some information about this poem.

So, the poem is said to be based on a factual person. The Duke in this poem is actually Alfonso II d'Este, who ruled a place in northern Italy called Ferrara. The House of Este was one of the high noble dynasties in Europe. Alfonso II d'Este was a Duke of Ferrara, which was a younger branch of the House of Este. By the way, his mother was a daughter of Louis XII of France.

He married three times in his life, including his first wife Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, who is believed to be the Duchess of the poem, The Last Duchess. Their marriage lasted only for two years because she died. It is said that she died because of tuberculosis, but like in the poem, some people insist that she was poisoned under the Duke's command.

Since the Duke's lineage, the House of Este was higher social rank than the Duchess's lineage, the House of Medici, there is a possibility that he disregarded her, as we can see in the poem, "My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name" which implies that he is proud of his noble family.

No one knows if he actually had his wife murdered, but the rumor is still around us.