EST DE FRANCE, COMPAGNIE DES CHEMINS DE FER DE L', established in 1854, serves the east of France in various regions.
From Paris, three main railway lines serve this region : to the north the line from Paris to Charleville via Rheims, to the centre the line from Paris to Strasbourg via Nancy, to the south the line from Paris to Basle via Troyes. Two arteries assure the econom ical relations existing between the north and the south-east of France.
The Vosges region already utilises the motive power of its streams in a great number of flourishing industries. Portieux glass works, Baccarat and Cirey glass cutting works, Arches and Etival paper mills, materials imported from Alsace with bleaching on the grass. The Lorraine bearing is divided into three basins : the group from Nancy to Pont-St.-Vincent, Neuves-Maisons, Frouard, Pompey, Pont-a-Mousson; the Briey group the two centres of which are Joeuf and Homecourt ; the Longwy group finally which includes Villerupt, Micheville, Saulnes, Longwy and Mont Saint-Martin. Finally the Sarrebruck coal valley extends under the level Pont-a-Mousson, Nomeny, but at a depth (800 to 1,200 metres) which has not yet allowed of its exploitation. The salt industry at Saint-Nicolas-du-Port, Rosieres, Verangeville, Dom basle, is combined with that of soda, and the Solvay process has extended it.
The Eastern region does not lack tourist sites of repute. The valleys of the Vosges attract every year to Gerardmer, Bussang and Saint-Die and a great number of other summer stations, an always increasing number of visitors. Its large towns are interest ing to visit owing to the highly artistic remains preserved from olden times. There are numerous thermal stations, some of which, like Vittel, have attained a world-wide reputation. Where the railway ends there are to be found excellent services of motor cars to the outlying districts. (GRU.) ESTE, one of the oldest of the former reigning houses of Italy. It is in all probability of Lombard origin, and descended, according to Muratori, from the princes who governed in Tuscany in Caro lingian times. The lordship of the town of Este was first acquired by Alberto Azzo II., who also bore the title of marquis of Italy' (d. c. 1o97) ; he married Kunitza or Kunegonda, sister of Welf or Guelph III., duke of Carinthia. Welf died without issue, and was succeeded by Welf IV., son of Kunitza, who married a daughter of Otto II., duke of Bavaria, and who obtained the duchy of Bavaria in 1070. Through him the house of Este became connected with the princely houses of Brunswick and Hanover. The Italian titles and estates were inherited by Folco I. (I o6o-1 13 5 ), son of Alberto Azzo by his second wife Gersende, daughter of Herbert I., count of Maine. The house of Este played a great part in the history of mediaeval and Renaissance Italy, and it first comes to the front in the wars between the Guelphs and Ghibellines ; as leaders of the former party its princes received at different times Ferrara, Mo dena, Reggio and other fiefs and territories.
Obizzo I., son of Folco, was the first to bear the title of marquis of Este. He entered into the Guelphic league against the emperor Frederick I., and was comprehended in the treaty of Venice of 1177 by which municipal podestas (foreigners chosen as heads of cities to administer justice impartially) were instituted. He was elected podesta of Padua in 1178, and in 1184 he was reconciled with Frederick, who created him marquis of Genoa and Milan. By the marriage of his son Azzo to the heiress of the Marchesella family he acquired great influence in Ferrara although he was opposed by the hardly less powerful house of Torelli.
Obizzo died in 1194 and Azzo V. having predeceased him, the marquisate devolved on his grandson Azzo VI. (117o-1212), who became head of the Guelph party, and to him the people of Ferrara sacrificed their liberty by making him their first lord (1208). But during his lifetime civil war raged in the city, between the Este and 'Margrave of the Empire (Marchio Sancti Imperil) in Italy. (See