DUCHY OF MANTUA

Contents

History

Rulers of Mantua

Gonzaga rulers

Gonzaga family tree (1360–1708)

External links

History

The 'Duchy of Mantua' was a Lombard duchy in Northern Italy, subject to the Holy Roman Empire.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, Mantua was invaded by Byzantines, Longobards and Franks. In the 11th century it became a possession of Boniface of Canossa, marquis of Toscana. The last ruler of the family was the countess Matilde of Canossa (d. 1115), who, according to legend, ordered the construction of the precious "Rotonda di San Lorenzo" (1082).

After the death of Matilde of Canossa, Mantua became a free commune and strenuously defended itself from the Holy Roman Empire in the 12th and 13th centuries.
During the Investiture Controversy, Pinamonte Bonacolsi took advantage of the chaotic situation to seize power — as Captain General of the People — in 1273. His family ruled Mantua for the next century, making it more prosperous and artistically beautiful.
On August 16, 1328, the last Bonacolsi, Rinaldo, was overthrown in a revolt backed by the House of Gonzaga, a family of officials, namely the 60-year-old Luigi and his sons Guido, Filippino and Feltrino. Luigi Gonzaga, who had been podestà of the city in 1318, was elected People's Captain. The Gonzaga built new walls with five gates and renovated the architecture of the city in the 14th century, but the political situation in the city did not settle until the third Gonzaga, Ludovico I, eliminated his relatives, seizing power for himself.

Through a payment of 120,000 golden florins in 1433, Gianfrancesco I was appointed marquis of Mantua by Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, whose daughter Barbara of Brandenburg he married. In 1459 Pope Pius II held a diet in Mantua to proclaim a crusade against the Turks.
The first duke of Mantua was Federico II, who acquired the title from Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1530. The following year, the family acquired the Marquisate of Montferrat through marriage. Federico commissioned Giulio Romano to build the famous Palazzo Te, in the periphery of the city, and profoundly improved the urbanistic assets of the city.
In 1624, Francesco IV moved the ducal seat to a new residence, the Villa della Favorita, designed by the architect Nicolò Sebregondi.
In 1627, the direct line of the Gonzaga family came to an end with the vicious and weak Vincenzo II, and the town slowly declined under the new rulers, the Gonzaga Nevers, a cadet French branch of the family. The War of the Mantuan Succession broke out, and in 1630 an Imperial army of 36,000 Landsknecht mercenaries besieged Mantua, bringing the plague with them. Mantua never recovered from this disaster.
Duke Ferdinand Carlo IV, an inept ruler whose only aim was to hold parties and theatrical representations, allied with France in the Spanish Succession War. After the latter's defeat, he took refuge in Venice, carrying with him a thousand pictures. At his death, in 1708, he was declared deposed and his family lost Mantua forever in favour of the Habsburgs of Austria. Montferrat's territories were ceded to Duke of Savoy. The emperor compensated the Duke of Lorraine, heir in female line of the Gonzaga, for loss of Montferrat by ceding Duchy of Teschen to the Lorraine.

Rulers of Mantua

Gonzaga rulers

★ Luigi (ruled 1328–60)

★ Guido (ruled 1360–69), son of Luigi

★ Ludovico I (1369–82)

★ Francesco I (ruled 1382–1407), son of Ludovico I

★ Gianfrancesco I (ruled 1407–44), son of Francesco I

★ Ludovico II (ruled 1444–78), son of Gianfrancesco I

★ Federico I (ruled 1478–84), son of Ludovico II

★ Francesco II (ruled 1484–1519)

★ Federico II (ruled 1519–40), son of Francesco II

★ Francesco III (ruled 1540–50), son of Federico II

★ Guglielmo I (ruled 1550–87), brother of Francesco III

★ Vincenzo I (ruled 1587–1612), son of Guglielmo I — his daughter, Eleonora (1598–1655) married Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor

★ Francesco IV (ruled 1612), son of Vincenzo I

★ Ferdinando I (ruled 1612–26), brother of Francesco IV

★ Vincenzo II (ruled 1626–27), brother of Ferdinando I
The Duchy of Mantua then fell to the junior branch of Gonzaga-Nevers.

★ Carlo I (ruled 1627–37)

★ Carlo III (ruled 1637–65), grandson of Carlo I (Carlo II predeceased his father) — his sister, Eleonora married Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor

★ Ferdinando Carlo IV (ruled 1665–1708), son of Carlo III

Gonzaga family tree (1360–1708)

Luigi I
|
+-Guido
|
+-Luigi II
|
+-Francesco I
|
+-Gianfrancesco
|
+-Luigi III
|
+-Federico I
|
+-Francesco II
|
+-Federico II
|
+-Francesco I
|
+-Guglielmo
| |
| +-Vincenzo I
| |
| +-Francesco II
| |
| +-Ferdinando
| |
| +-Vincenzo II
|
+-(Luigi di Nevers)
|
+-Carlo I
|
+-(Francesco)
|
+-(Carlo II)
|
+-Carlo III
|
+-Ferdinando Carlo IV

External links

★ "The House of Gonzaga, heirs to the sovereign marquessate of Mantua"

★ I Gonzaga di Mantova