being reunited with her children she had to recant and abjure her Protestant faith. She then yielded, made confession on 23 September 1554, although subsequently she refused to attend Catholic worship, and especially the mass, which for her was a form of blasphemy. "How seldom is there an example of steadfastness among aristocrats," wrote Calvin to Farel under date of 2 February 1555. Return to France Renée's longing to return home was not satisfied until a year after the death of her husband on 3 October 1559. In France she found her eldest daughter's husband Francis, Duke of Guise, at the head of the Roman Catholic party. His power was broken by the death of his nephew Francis II in December 1560, so that Renée was able to provide Protestant worship at her estate Montargis, engaging a capable preacher by application to Calvin. She acted as a benefactress for the surrounding Protestants, making her castle a refuge for them when her son-in-law once again lit the torch of war. Again, her conduct won Calvin's praise (10 May 1563), and she is one of the frequently recurring figures in his correspondence of that period; he repeatedly shows recognition of her intervention in behalf of the Evangelical cause; and one of his last writings in the French tongue, dispatched from his deathbed (4 April 1564), is addressed to her. While Renée continued unmolested in the second religious war (1567), in the third (1568–70) her castle was no longer respected as an asylum for her fellow believers. On the other hand, she succeeded in rescuing a number of them from the massacre of Saint Bartholomew's night, when she happened to be in Paris. They left her personally undisturbed at that time, though Catherine de' Medici still sought to move her to retract, a demand which she ignored. Children With Ercole II she had: Anna d'Este, 16 November 1531 – 1607, married firstly, Francis, Duke of Guise until 1563, married secondly Jacques de Savoie, 2nd Duc de Nemours Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara, 22 November 1533 – 1597 Lucrezia Maria d'Este, 16 December 1535 – 1598, married Francesco Maria II della Rovere, Duke of Urbino. Eleonore d'Este, 1537-1581 Luigi d'Este, 21 December 1538 – 1586, Bishop of Ferrara and Archbishop of Auch Renee was widowed in 1559. As a result of being on bad terms with her son, Alfonso, she returned to France in