Siege of Mortara (Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia). The Duke of Modena, Francis I, is struck by malarial fever and dies in the arms of his son Amerigo. Although Francis I had achieved glory in war, he was also a great builder of peacetime works: the Ducal Palace (by the architect Bartolomeo Avanzini) and the Ducal Theatre. His son, Alfonso IV, succeeded him, but died of gout shortly thereafter. Alfonso’s wife, Laura Martinozzi, a niece of Mazarin, then became Duchess. She was one of the so-called Mazarinettes, one of the nieces of Cardinal Mazarin, a deacon of the Catholic Church, active primarily in France, where he served as Principal Minister under the reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV, succeeding Cardinal Richelieu. Laura Martinozzi, 23 years old at the time, assumed the regency of the Duchy of Modena for her two-year-old son, until he was old enough to reign. She implemented a wise economic policy and completed the Ducal Palace. It was the only case of a female regency in the centuries-long history of the Este State.
