He kept two objects in view.

One was succession to the Duchy of Ferrara, in case Alfonso should die without heirs.[10] [Footnote 10: Cardinal Ferdinando de'Medici succeeded in a like position to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

But Luigi d'Este did not survive his brother.] The other was election to the Papacy.

In the latter event France, the natural ally of the Estensi, would be of service to him, and the Valois monarchs, his cousins, must therefore be supported in their policy.
Tasso had been brought to Paris to look graceful and to write madrigals.
It was inconvenient, it was unseemly, that a man of letters in the Cardinal's train should utter censures on the Crown, and should profess more Catholic opinions than his patron.

Without the scandal of a public dismissal, it was therefore contrived that Tasso should return to Italy; and after this rupture, the suspicious poet regarded Luigi d'Este as his enemy.