Ferrante Gonzaga
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Ferrante I Gonzaga (also Ferdinando I Gonzaga; 28 January 1507 – 15 November 1557) was an Italian condottiero, a member of the House of Gonzaga and the founder of the branch of the Gonzaga of Guastalla.
Biography
He was born in Mantua, the third son of Francesco II Gonzaga and Isabella d'Este. At the age of sixteen, he was sent to the court of Spain as a page to the future emperor Charles V, to whom Ferrante remained faithful for his whole life. In 1527 he took part in the Sack of Rome and attended Charles' triumphant coronation at Bologna in 1530: at the death of Charles of Bourbon (1527) he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Imperial army in Italy. He became a Knight in the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1531.
He defended
In 1529 Ferrante married Isabella di Capua, who brought him the
Ferrante's villa near Milan, La Gualtiera, is now known as La Simonetta. Ferrante rebuilt it in the 1550s, commissioning the services of the Tuscan architect
He died in Brussels from a fall from a horse and battle fatigue received at the Battle of St. Quentin. He was buried in the sacristy of the Mantua Cathedral.[7]
Ferrante was succeeded in Guastalla by his son Cesare.
He was the ambassador to
Children
Ferrante and Isabella had 11 children:
- Anna (1531), died young;
- Aloysius, first born son, denounced his title to join the church, later became a saint;
- Cesare (1533–1575), count of Guastalla, married Camilla Borromeo, sister of Charles Borromeo;
- Ippolita (1535–1563), married in 1549 with Fabrizio Colonna, hereditary prince of Paliano, and in 1554 with Antonio Carafa, duke of Mondragone;
- Francesco (1538–1566), cardinal;
- Andrea (1539–1586), 1st marquis of Specchia and Alessano;
- Gian Vincenzo (1540–1591), cardinal;
- Ercole (1545–1549);
- Ottavio (1543–1583), Lord of Cercemaggiore; Captain General of the Spanish Cavalry in Italy;
- Filippo, died young;
- Geronima, died young;
- Maria, died young.
Notes
- ^ "Castel Gonzaga". Comune di Messina (in Italian). Retrieved 18 August 2015.
- ^ "Ludovica Torelli", Dizionario Biografico
- ^ E. Heydenreich and W. Lotz, Architecture in Italy, 1400–1600 (Harmondsworth: Penguin) 1974:292-93;
- ^ Illustration
- ^ A commemorative Italian postage stamp issued on the five-hundredth anniversary of his birth shows a detail of Leone Leoni's sculpture.
- ^ The tapestry commissions of Ferrante and his brothers are set against the broader background of their patronage of the arts in Clifford M. Brown, Guy Delmarcel and Robert S. Nelson, Tapestries for the Courts of Federico II, Ercole, and Ferrante Gonzaga 1522–63 (1996).
- ISBN 9788890841507.
- ^ Spanish Chronicle, xxiii
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