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| Ludovico I of Mantua @Wikipedia |
(1268-1360)
Signore di Mantova
1328-1360
Also known as:
Luigi Gonzaga
Luigi I Gonzaga
Luigi Corradi da Gonzaga.
Son of: Guido Corradi.
Son of: Guido Corradi.
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| Richilda Ramberti Lady of Mantua @Wikipedia |
Husband of:
1. Richilda Ramberti di Ferrara (1269-1319), mar , a.k.a. Brescianina, daughter of Ramberto Ramberti, Podesta of Modena & Margherita di Almerico dei Lavellongo.
2. Caterina Malatesta (1275-?), daughter of Pandolfo I Malatesta, Signore di Rimini & Unnamed Taddea.
3. Giovanna Novella Malaspina, mar 1340, daughter of Spinetta Malaspina
His lover was:
2. Caterina Malatesta (1275-?), daughter of Pandolfo I Malatesta, Signore di Rimini & Unnamed Taddea.
3. Giovanna Novella Malaspina, mar 1340, daughter of Spinetta Malaspina
His lover was:
Unnamed mistress.
Natural offspring:
a. Costanza
b. Bartolomeo
c. Costanza.
Natural offspring:
a. Costanza
b. Bartolomeo
c. Costanza.
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| Ludovico II of Mantua |
(1334-1382)
Signore di Mantova
1369-1382
Son of: Guido I di Mantova & Beatrice de Bar.
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| Alda d'Este @Wikipedia |
His lover was:
Unnamed mistress.
Natural offspring:
1. Febo
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| Federigo II of Mantua @Wikipedia |
(1500-1540)
Marchese di Mantova
1519-1530
Duca di Mantova
1530-1540
Marchese di Monferrato
1533-1540
Husband of Margherita Paleologa di Monferrato (1510-1566), Marchesa di Monferrato, 1533-1536, mar 1531, daughter of Guglielmo IX di Monferrato & Anne d'Alencon.
Isabella Boschetti (1502-1539)
" . . . [H]e was completely swayed by his mistress, Isabella Boschetti (wife of Francesco Gonzaga of Calvisano), who had borne him a son in 1520. In June 1528, a conspiracy to poison this Isabelle was discovered; her husband, who was privy to it, fled to Modena, where Federigo had him murdered. Federigo then accused the Marchesa Anne of Monferrato, his prospective mother-in-law, of having instigated the plot, and induced Pope Clement, after much hesitation, to issue a brief in May, 1529, dissolving his marriage with Maria. . . ." (The King of Court Poets: 243)
"Was ever woman so favoured by fortune as Madonna Isabella? Every project of hers was crowned by success; she had but to form a wish and straightway it was gratified. To the last she kept up her enthusiasm for all beautiful things, for travel, for art, for poetry. She spent much time in her exquisite villa at Porto, and was never weary of adding to the choice flowers and shrubs of the terraced gardens. Surrounded by her friends, with frequent visits from her children and her grandchildren, she lived gaily and happily to the end. She died on February 13, 1539, and the world was poorer by her loss." (The Most Illustrious Ladies of the Italian Renaissance: 170)
"In The Book of the Courtier, Baldassare Castiglione cited Federico as the perfect prince: one who would 'hold magnificent banquets, festivals, games and public shows and keep a great many fine horses for use in peace or war, as well as falcons, hounds and all the other things that pertain to great lords and their subjects.' Unfortunately, Federico also shared his father's predilection for licentiousness. His relationship with Isabella Boschetti was well-known among the Italian aristocracy and caused his mother considerable consternation. He was a lover of luxury and worldly pleasure who spent lavishly and, at the end of his short reign, left the Mantuan treasury in disarray." (Music at the Gonzaga Court in Mantua: 40)
Natural Offspring: " . . . In recognition of the importance of Federico's endorsement of imperial power in Italy, Charles V made him Duke of Mantua and offered him the imperial princess, Giulia of Aragon, daughter of Frederick IV, the deposed King of Naples. Since Giulia was already 38, Charles further agreed that, should she be unable to produce a Gonzaga heir, he would exercise his power of judicial recognition as emperor to legitimize the son that Federico already had with Isabella Boschetti. . . ." (Women, Art & Architectural Patronage in Renaissance Mantua: 104)
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| Ercole Gonzaga @Wikipedia |
(1505-1563)
Regent of Mantua
1540-1559
Cardinal
"In his family and personal relationships, Cardinal Gonzaga also demonstrated a paradoxical outlook typical of a Renaissance prelate. He did not uphold the standards of clerical celibacy that hem publicly at least, insisted upon for his clergy and that the Church as a whole would increasingly insist upon in the years following the Council og Trent. . . As a young man he attended lavish banquets in Rome and on at least one occasion may have been present at a dinner in the company of the famed Roman courtesan Tulia d'Aragona. Over the course of the years he fathered five chidren: Anna, Eleonora, Camillo, Elisabetta, and Giulio Cesare. The identity of the mothers of the first fur is uncertain. Anna and Eleonora became nuns in the Dominican convent of San Vincenzo in Mantua. His correspondence with them reveals a lifelong attention to their needs, both material and spiritual. Camillo lived for a time in the household of Ercole's friend Cardinal Benedetto Accolti. After Accolti's death the young man moved into the household of Cardinal Giovanni Salviati, the archbishop of Ferrara. Gonzaga provided Elisabetta with an honorable place at the Mantuan court and saw her married to Count Federico Maffei, a Mantuan noble." (Ruling Peacefully: Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga and Patrician Reform in Sixteenth-Century Italy: 64)
His lover was:
1) Isabella Petrozzani.
"The one exception to his paternal attentiveness concerned his youngest child and reveals both Gonzaga's capacity for callousness and something about the advance of reform efforts in the 1540s and 1550s. Giulio Cesare was born in 1557 of Isabella Petrozzani, a member of a prominent Mantuan noble family. This was long after Gonzaga had begun to reform his own diocese and participate in discussions on reform of the unversal Church. In 1575, more than twelve years after Cardinal Gonzaga's death, Petrozzani filed a suit on behalf of her son Giulio Cesare in order to gain recognition of Ercole's paternity. The following year the court ruled in her favor. Cardinal Gonzaga had never fomarlly acknowledged this child as his own and left nothing to him in his will. Yet, according to the testimony of his daughters, Suor Anna and Suor Eleonora, Gonzaga had openly referred to the boy as his son. This reveals both an openness and a deceptiveness in Gonzaga's attitude to his family and others. It is quite striking to think of the papal legate to the Council of Trent arriving at his post in 1561 while at home he left an unrecognized four-year-old child.
. . ." (Ruling Peacefully: 65)
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| Cesare I of Guastalla @Wikipedia |
(1530-1575)
Count of Guastalla
1557-1575
Son of: Ferrante Gonzaga di Mantova & Isabella di Capua.
Husband of: Camilla Borromeo, niece of Pope Pius IV, mar 1560
Italian aristocrat, courtier & royal mistress
Maid of honour to Queen Bona Sforza of Poland.
1587-1612
Duca di Monferrato
1587-1612
Father Guglielmo & son Vincenzo.
"When Guglielmo Gonzaga died in August of 1587, he was succeeded by his only son Vincenzo (1562-1612). A father and son could not have been more different. Guglielmo was short and hunchbacked; Vincenzo, tall, handsome and athletic. Guglielmo was devout, serious, frugal and conscientious; Vincenzo, charming, profligate and pleasure-loving. Fortunately for posterity, however, they shared a love of music, although the new duke preferred lavish secular entertainment to the austere liturgical polyphony that had been so important to his father." (Music at the Gonzaga Court in Mantua: 97)
"Vincenzo I was not a philosopher-prince. A Venetian ambassador observed that he still looked youthful at forty-six because he had never given up the dissolute pleasures of youth. He loved hunting, he fathered bastards, and he killed a Scot in a street brawl in July 1582. Vincenzo I longed for military glory, as his three expeditions against the Turks in Hungary in 1595, 1597, and 1601 demonstrated. Despite all this, he continued the Gonzaga tradition of supporting musicians, poets, artists, and scholars, patronage that helped prepare the way for a university." (The University of Mantua, the Gonzaga, and the Jesuits, 1584–1630)
Husband of:
1. Margherita Farnese (1567-1643), mar/ann 1581
Husband of:
1. Margherita Farnese (1567-1643), mar/ann 1581
"The details of the young prince's short-lived first marriage became a source of embarrassment for the house of Gonzaga that was not soon forgotten among the Italian nobility. In 1581 his father, determined to put an end to the nineteen-year-old.s promiscuous behavior and to make a strategic alliance with a neighboring power, arranged a marriage between the prince and Margherita Farnese, daughter of the duke of Parma. Entering into a loveless marriage, Vincenzo eventually claimed that his sixteen-year-old bride had a physical abnormality that prevented her from consummating the union. With an issue so important to Italian political stability as that of Mantuan succession, the pope stepped in and appointed the formidable Cardinal Borromeo of Milan to investigate the issue. In an egregious display of ecclesiastical politics the cardinal subjected Margherita to a humiliating examination, annulled the marriage and ordered her to enter a convent, leaving Vincenzo free to enter into an even more prestigious union with Eleonora de' Medici (1567-1611), daughter of Francesco I (1541-1587), the second grand duke of Tuscany." (Music at the Gonzaga Court in Mantua: 97)
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| Vincenzo I & Eleanora de' Medici @christies.com |
2. Eleanora de' Medici, mar 1584
Vincenzo's character & personal qualities.
"Despite his obvious character flaws, Vincenzo possessed numerous personal attributes that his father had not. He was jovial, energetic, charismatic and generous. He quickly became more popular with many of his subjects than his dour, scholarly father had been. . . ." (Music at the Gonzaga Court in Mantua: 99)
A sexual profligate, a philanderer, and a rake.
"I quoted earlier Morosini's assessment of Vincenzo's extended youthfulness (gioventu). What Morosini meant was well known to every courtier and gazetteer in Italy and perhaps Europe at the time: at whatever age, Duke Vincenzo behaved as a sexual profligate, a philanderer, and a rake, and was known both inside and outside his court for his many paramours, chosen from the nobility as well as from the lower classes. Vincenzo had no communication handicap with women and had children out of wedlock spread throughout Italy, from Mantua to Naples, and perhaps also abroad. . . ." (The Prince's Body: Vincenzo Gonzaga and Renissance Medicine: 19)
A dizzying array of feminine conquests.
" . . . Vincenzo's dizzying array of feminine conquests knew no age boundary: he was just as happy with older women, such as Barbara Sanseverino, Countess of Sala, as he was with younger ones; with rich as well as poor. The list of women is long. As for his best-known liaisons, he was for years attached to Agnese del Carretto, who gave him a son, Silvio, whom he recognized and moved to court to live with his legitimate children. Later in life Adriana Basile, a famous singer of the early opera, occupied his thoughts, and he lured her to Mantua from Naples together with her husband. He was rumored to have had a child with her. Less is known about the other women, such as one named Elena in Mantua, and the unnamed Neapolitan noblewoman with whom he had a son, Francesco." (The Prince's Body: Vincenzo Gonzaga and Renissance Medicine: 19)
Vincenzo's licentiousness & prodigality.
"Prince Vincenzo (b. Sept. 21st, 1563), however, did his best to keep the Court in a ferment, and destroy by his licentiousness and prodigality the pious influence exercised by his parents. As dissolute as they were sober, as spendthrift as they were frugal, he was the centre of a circle of scapegraces who seconded him in all his wild doings, and however much his preceptors, Marcellus Donati and Aurelius Pompanazzo, men of judgment and talent, tried to keep him from going too far astray, they had little reason to boast of their success. His health, naturally delicate, was much injured by his debaucheries, and neither his mother's tearful prayers nor his father's menacing commands had the slightest effect on the wayward prince. His monthly allowance of 500 crowns was recklessly thrown away in all sorts of dissipation; new supplies were given him, but these formed but a drop in the ocean of his desires, and once, when indignant at his ignoble conduct, the Duke refused to grant fresh demands, je, without warning of any kind, abandoned the Court, betaking himself with his retinue to Colorno on a visit to Barbara Sanseverino Sanvitale, Countess of Sala, with whom he was desperately in love. His tutors addressed severe remonstrances to him, but the only answer he deigned to give them was, that he was no longer a child; that at 19 years of age even the sons of the common people were provided with food and clothing while hem condemned to accept money from his inferiors and his equals, was obliged to disgrace his position by his miserly conduct. Such things, he said, made his 'stomach bitter.' He had not taken this step inconsiderately; be loved the Countess of Sala as a sister; he only wanted to prove to the Duke that he meant to consult his own tastes in everything that did not appertain to the service of his Highness, for whom, he adds with an attempt at pathos no one would die more willingly than he. He concludes the fiery letter, declaring that he will have no mediators between himself and the Duke, begging Donati, nevertheless, to see that he has speedily fresh supplies of money, as, otherwise, he will be obliged 'as a christian and a cavalier' to take possession of whatever he can find on the Duke's territory. Repeating again that he will not be treated any longer as a child, he bids his tutors remember that they are but his servants and have only to do what they are bid. With this courteous observation he concludes, signing himself rather spitefully, 'To please you, the Prince of Mantua.' A strange idea had this young man of the duties of a christian and a cavalier. While he was complaining so bitterly of the miserable state in which the Duke's want of liberality kept him, one of his nobles, in a letter written to Mantua from the villa at Colorno, declared that they were all utterly exhausted by the amusements which were kept up incessantly day and night." (Scots Lore, Volume 1, Issues 1-7: 184)
" . . . The popular novelist Maria Bellonci memorably describes the young Vincenzo as the physical and moral opposite of his father: 'Guglielmo was deeply religious and so after a fashion---a highly elaborate one---was Vincenzo. He liked the beauty of church services, the altars with their silver statues, the great storied pictures; but instead of choosing churchmen for his friends and secretaries, as his father did . . . Vincenzo picked as his companions the most degenerate of youths, abnormal libertines. His dress was of extreme elegance. He always wore jewels and velvets and rich brocades. Across his breast he carried silken sshes stiff with symbolic embroidery; and at his writs, cuffs sewn by his mistresses. . . He drank great goblets of Greek wine and ate heartily; he danced and leapt into the saddle and jousted and enjoyed women, with whom he was proving tender, fervent, and very fickle.'" (Cuckoldry, Impotence and Adultery in Europe (15th-17th century): 51)
Affairs' effects on family, supporters & society.
" . . . In fact, he so enjoyed going out at night to visit the women he fancied that his wife's uncle, Grand Duke Ferdinando, writing from Florence, had to beg him to be prudent because he had heard of a man who was saying that he could sell the duke's life at will, since Vincenzo 'was coming at night surreptitiously to his house to lay often with his stepdaughter.' The grand duke was not alone; even Vincenzo's own bishop in Mantua, Friar Francesco Gonzaga, found it necessary to write two letters scolding the duke for his scandalous sexual romps. . . ." (The Prince's Body: 19)
His lovers were:
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| Agnese Argotta |
Lover in 1562-1612
Also known as:
Agnes de Argotta
Donna Agnese Argotta del Carretto
Donna Ines.
Daughter of: Ferrante Argotta.
Wife of: Prospero del Caretto, Marchese di Grana.
Natural offspring:
a. Francesco Gonzaga (1588-1673), Bishop of Nola 1657
b. Silvio Gonzaga (1592-1612), Knight of Malta.
" . . . 'La Silvia' might refer to or, if add edition, might commemorate Don Silvio Gonzaga, son of Vincenzo by his mistress Agnes de Argotta, marchioness of Grana: Silvio, much acclaimed at the court, died in 1612, at the age of 20. . . ." (Salamone Rossi: Jewish Musician in Late Renaissance Mantua: 56)
c. Giovanni Gonzaga
" . . . Donna Agnese Argotta del Carretto, Marchesa di Grana (also known as 'Dona Ines'), was the mistress of Vincenzo Gonzaga of Mantua (1562-1612), the mycenas who was patron to many authors, musicians and artists, including both Monteverdi and Rubens. The Marchesa was apparently a colourful figure, who established her own flourishing cultural circle, and even had a volume of madrigals dedicated to her by Giaches de Wert. . . ." (Arcadja)
" . . . La Silvia' might refer to or, if added to a later edition, might commemorate Don Silvio Gonzaga, son of Vincenzo by his mistress Agnese de Argotta, marchioness of Grana: Silvio, much acclaimed at the court, died in 1612, at the age of 20. . . ." (Harran, p. 56)
"PROSPERO, Titular Margrave of Savona, Marchese di Grana 1589, Count of Millesimo, *Pavia 1568, +18.12.1591; m. Mantua 1588 Ines, dau. of Don Fernando de Argote, Conde de Cabrilana del Monte by Giula Dentice dei Conti di Frasso, mistress of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga of Mantua (*Cordoba 1570, +Mantua 1612). Probably the two sons recognized by Prospero were Vincenzo’s issue. (She had by Vincenzo two other sons, one before her marriage and one after her husband’s dead)." (euweb)
"Agnese, the wife of Prospero del Carretto, nay have been connected with the Mantuan court as early as 1581, when one of Muzio's Manfredi's Lettere was addressed to her, and about 1587 she became Vincenzo's mistress. The early 1590s were the period of her greatest influence on court life. Installed at the Palazzo de Te (rather as Isabella Boschetti had been some sixty years earlier), Agnese seems to have shown considerable interest in the arts, including music. She is the dedicatee of the volume as a while. The volume also places her in cultural circles close to the Accademia degli Invaghiti, since the final item is addressed to Giulio Cesare Gonzaga, patron of the academy and dedicatee of Moro's earlier Canzonette alla napolitana of 1581; she also seems to have known Bernardo Marliano, sometime Rector of the academy, who included one of his letters to her in his Lettere. Documentary evidence shows that at the Palazzo del Tel Agnese cultivated a small academy of her own principally devoted to the arts of versification and music. The poetic anthology Tesoro delle ninfe is one product of its activities. Another may be Wet's tenth book, which includes many madrigals to texts in the new madrigal style of Tasso and Guarini that also characterises the Tesoro, which is dedicated to Agnese and refers to her fondness for both music and poetry It seems that she was a performer herself, and one of Manfredi's Cento madrigal recalls one of her performances that moved the poet to tears." (Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Mantua: 149)
2) Barbara Sanseverino (1550-1612)
Contessa di Sala, Marchesa di Colorno
Daughter of: Ferrante Argotta.
Wife of: Prospero del Caretto, Marchese di Grana.
Natural offspring:
a. Francesco Gonzaga (1588-1673), Bishop of Nola 1657
b. Silvio Gonzaga (1592-1612), Knight of Malta.
" . . . 'La Silvia' might refer to or, if add edition, might commemorate Don Silvio Gonzaga, son of Vincenzo by his mistress Agnes de Argotta, marchioness of Grana: Silvio, much acclaimed at the court, died in 1612, at the age of 20. . . ." (Salamone Rossi: Jewish Musician in Late Renaissance Mantua: 56)
c. Giovanni Gonzaga
" . . . Donna Agnese Argotta del Carretto, Marchesa di Grana (also known as 'Dona Ines'), was the mistress of Vincenzo Gonzaga of Mantua (1562-1612), the mycenas who was patron to many authors, musicians and artists, including both Monteverdi and Rubens. The Marchesa was apparently a colourful figure, who established her own flourishing cultural circle, and even had a volume of madrigals dedicated to her by Giaches de Wert. . . ." (Arcadja)
" . . . La Silvia' might refer to or, if added to a later edition, might commemorate Don Silvio Gonzaga, son of Vincenzo by his mistress Agnese de Argotta, marchioness of Grana: Silvio, much acclaimed at the court, died in 1612, at the age of 20. . . ." (Harran, p. 56)
"PROSPERO, Titular Margrave of Savona, Marchese di Grana 1589, Count of Millesimo, *Pavia 1568, +18.12.1591; m. Mantua 1588 Ines, dau. of Don Fernando de Argote, Conde de Cabrilana del Monte by Giula Dentice dei Conti di Frasso, mistress of Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga of Mantua (*Cordoba 1570, +Mantua 1612). Probably the two sons recognized by Prospero were Vincenzo’s issue. (She had by Vincenzo two other sons, one before her marriage and one after her husband’s dead)." (euweb)
"Agnese, the wife of Prospero del Carretto, nay have been connected with the Mantuan court as early as 1581, when one of Muzio's Manfredi's Lettere was addressed to her, and about 1587 she became Vincenzo's mistress. The early 1590s were the period of her greatest influence on court life. Installed at the Palazzo de Te (rather as Isabella Boschetti had been some sixty years earlier), Agnese seems to have shown considerable interest in the arts, including music. She is the dedicatee of the volume as a while. The volume also places her in cultural circles close to the Accademia degli Invaghiti, since the final item is addressed to Giulio Cesare Gonzaga, patron of the academy and dedicatee of Moro's earlier Canzonette alla napolitana of 1581; she also seems to have known Bernardo Marliano, sometime Rector of the academy, who included one of his letters to her in his Lettere. Documentary evidence shows that at the Palazzo del Tel Agnese cultivated a small academy of her own principally devoted to the arts of versification and music. The poetic anthology Tesoro delle ninfe is one product of its activities. Another may be Wet's tenth book, which includes many madrigals to texts in the new madrigal style of Tasso and Guarini that also characterises the Tesoro, which is dedicated to Agnese and refers to her fondness for both music and poetry It seems that she was a performer herself, and one of Manfredi's Cento madrigal recalls one of her performances that moved the poet to tears." (Music and Patronage in Sixteenth-Century Mantua: 149)
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| Barbara Sanseverino @Palaccio Ducale |
Contessa di Sala, Marchesa di Colorno
Lover in 1580.
Also known as:
Also known as:
Barbara Sanvitale.
Daughter of: Gianfrancesco & Lavinia Sanseverino.
Wife of:
1. Giberto IV Sanvitale, 6th Signore di Sala Baganza (1527-1585), mar 1564, Italian aristocrat
2. Orazio Simonetta (1550-1612), Italian aristocrat, mar 1596
Many noblemen captivated by her.
"The dedicatee, Barbara Sanseverino Sanvitale, countess of Sala, was one of the mist brilliant at the Ferrarese court. She was born around 1550, the daughter of Gianfrancesco Sanseverino, count of Colorno, a vassal of the Farnese. She married the widower Giberto Sanvitale, count of Sala, who was thirty-five years her senior. Many noblemen, including Duke Alfonso d'Este, Duke Ottavio Farnese, and teh young Vincenzo Gonzaga were captivated by her. . . ." (Music Printing in Renaissance Venice: The Scotto Press (1539-1572): 774)
Barbara's personal & family background:.
"Between the years 1551 and 1612 there lived in Parma a lady of high rank and of rare beauty, whom fate, in the end, involved in a tragic catastrophe, on the records of which still hands a terrible mystery. This lady's names and titles were Barbara Sanseverino-Sanvitale, Countess of Sala and Marchioness of Colorno. She sprang from the Neapolitan princely House of Sanseverino, apparently a branch of the Princes of Salerno, one of those old Lombard feudal families which held sovereign sway in Southern Italy previous to the Norman settlements in the Two Sicilies. Owing to some matrimonial alliance with the royal House of Aragon, Barbara's ancestors were known as Principi Sanseverino d'Aragona. Heiress of Colorno and other large estates in the fourth generation, Barbara Sanseverino, at the age of fifteen, was married, in 1564, to Giberto Sanvitale, Count of Sala, the head of one of the greatest noble houses of Parma, a house still extant in our day and further ennobled by its recent connection with the Imperial House of Austria, the father of the present head of the family, Count Luigi Sanvitale, having married the daughter of Maria Louisa, Archduchess of Austria, ex-Empress of the French and Duchess of Parma. . . ." (Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, Volume 42, Volume 105: 593)
Revenge on Vincenzo's mistresses.
". . . In the course of the preceding year Ranuccio, then duke of Parma, had seized prosperous estates in the Piacenza region, which he declared his fiefs. After accusing the landowners of having plotted with Vincenzo Gonzaga and two neighboring princes to have him murdered, Ranuccio imprisoned several of them, including Barbara Sanseverino (Countess of Sala), a patroness of the arts who in earlier years had been Vincenzo's mistress, and Gianfrancesco Sanvitale, the young lover of Agnes de Argotta (Marchioness de Grana), another of Vincenzo's mistresses and mother of Don Silvio Gonzaga, Francesco's and Ferdinando's half-brother, then aged twenty, and a prominent figure at the Mantuan court. After a lengthy and secret trial, in which torture was used to extract false confessions, Ranuccio's jurors named Vincenzo the principal conspirator and declared all the landowners guilty; the latter were executed in a public square in Parma on 19 May, 1612. . . . " (Frescobaldi Studies: 80)
Affair's end & aftermath.
A friendship from earliest youth.
"On the other hand, between Vincenzo of Mantua and Barbara of Colorno there had been friendship from earliest youth; for Vincenzo, like most Italian princes, though a profligate, was an accomplished man---the friend of Tasso, though the alleged murderer of the admirable Crichton. . . ." (Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, Volume 42, Volume 105: 597)Revenge on Vincenzo's mistresses.
". . . In the course of the preceding year Ranuccio, then duke of Parma, had seized prosperous estates in the Piacenza region, which he declared his fiefs. After accusing the landowners of having plotted with Vincenzo Gonzaga and two neighboring princes to have him murdered, Ranuccio imprisoned several of them, including Barbara Sanseverino (Countess of Sala), a patroness of the arts who in earlier years had been Vincenzo's mistress, and Gianfrancesco Sanvitale, the young lover of Agnes de Argotta (Marchioness de Grana), another of Vincenzo's mistresses and mother of Don Silvio Gonzaga, Francesco's and Ferdinando's half-brother, then aged twenty, and a prominent figure at the Mantuan court. After a lengthy and secret trial, in which torture was used to extract false confessions, Ranuccio's jurors named Vincenzo the principal conspirator and declared all the landowners guilty; the latter were executed in a public square in Parma on 19 May, 1612. . . . " (Frescobaldi Studies: 80)
Affair's end & aftermath.
" . . . At ten hours after sunrise the sbirri or police bullies began to strong-arm the doomed principals convicted of plotting to kills the duke through the window of the courthouse, the first being Barbara Sanvitale, Countess of Colorno and erstwhile mistress of Duke Vincenzo of Mantua. Without saying anything her attendants made her kneel at the first block and one of the two executioners quickly struck off her head. She was followed on the block by her husband, Count Orazzio Simonetta, and then by her son, Girolamo Sanvitale, and finally by five other members of leading houses of Parma. The executioners then hanged three non-noble accomplices in the plot on the gallows nearby. . . The executioner's helpers removed the naked bodies one by one for burial in the nearby chapel of San Giovanni Decollato, sepulchre of executed criminals. . . ." (The Hero of Italy: Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma, His Soldiers and His Subjects in the Thirty Years' War: 8)
3) Caterina Martinelli.
a.k.a. La Romanina.
"Others knew of Vincenzo's fame as a heartbreaker and protected themselves, or simply monetized that knowledge when it counted. For example, when Vincenzo called to his court the barely thirteen-year-old budding Roman soprano singer Caterina Martinelli, called La Romanina, who was scheduled to sing the title role in Arianna (she died before opening night), her father wrote that he was certifying through a doctor his daughter's virginity at departure and therefore would not allow her to stay at court. She ended up living under the protection of Claudio Monteverdi's wife in her lodgings, with Vincenzo's approval of the terms of the contract. . . ." (The Prince's Body: Vincenzo Gonzaga and Renissance Medicine: 20)
4) Elena.
5) Felicita Gonzaga.
"Felicita Gonzaga was the wife and, after 1590, widow of Luigi Gonzaga, marquis of Pallazuolo, and at one time the mistress of Vincenzo I. . . ." (Salamone Rossi: Jewish Musician in Late Renaissance Mantua: 49)
6) Felicita Guerrieri.
Daughter of: Tullo Guerrieri.
Natural offspring:
3) Caterina Martinelli.
a.k.a. La Romanina.
"Others knew of Vincenzo's fame as a heartbreaker and protected themselves, or simply monetized that knowledge when it counted. For example, when Vincenzo called to his court the barely thirteen-year-old budding Roman soprano singer Caterina Martinelli, called La Romanina, who was scheduled to sing the title role in Arianna (she died before opening night), her father wrote that he was certifying through a doctor his daughter's virginity at departure and therefore would not allow her to stay at court. She ended up living under the protection of Claudio Monteverdi's wife in her lodgings, with Vincenzo's approval of the terms of the contract. . . ." (The Prince's Body: Vincenzo Gonzaga and Renissance Medicine: 20)
4) Elena.
5) Felicita Gonzaga.
"Felicita Gonzaga was the wife and, after 1590, widow of Luigi Gonzaga, marquis of Pallazuolo, and at one time the mistress of Vincenzo I. . . ." (Salamone Rossi: Jewish Musician in Late Renaissance Mantua: 49)
6) Felicita Guerrieri.
Daughter of: Tullo Guerrieri.
Natural offspring:
a. Francesca Gonzaga.
7) Giulia Albizzi.
7) Giulia Albizzi.
"Albizzi, Giulia – (1563 – before 1600), Italian royal mistress. Giulia was born in Florence an illegitimate connection of the patrician Albizzi family, and had been brought up in relative poverty. Modest and lively, but innocent, she was chosen to be the first mistress of Vincenzo I Gonzaga, duke of Mantua by Belisario Vinta, the chief minister of Francesco I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany to test the prince’s virility before he was permitted to marry Leonora de Medici. This was considered necessary because Vincenzo’s first wife Margherita Farnese had been divorced and forced into a convent, despite the fact that popular rumour accused the duke of impotency. The Medici family wanted no such embarrassment. The encounter of Giulia and Vincenzo was consummated in Venice (1584) and resulted in his ensuing dynastic marriage with the Medic princess Leonora. Her child by Vincenzo was taken and sent to the court of Mantua Caccini (c1546 – 1618). Through her marriage she she became the mother of singer and composer Francesca Caccini and her sister Settimia." (Women of History - A)
8) Unnamed mistress.
Neapolitan aristocrat.
Natural offspring:
a. Francesco Gonzaga.
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| Ferdinando I of Mantua @Wikipedia |
(1587-1626)
Duca di Mantova
1612-1626
Duca di Monferrato
1612-1626.
Cardinal
1605-1615
Son of: Vincenzo I di Gonzaga, Duca di Mantova & Eleonora de' Medici.
"On February 18, 1612, Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga died and was succeeded by Ferdinando's older brother, who became Duke Francesco III Gonzaga (d.1586). This had little impact on Ferdinando. But when Francesco suggendly died on December 22, 1612, apparently of smallpox, Ferdinando's life changed decisively. Since Duke Francesco III had left only one living child, a daughter, Maria, born July 29, 1609, Ferdinando was next in line to become Duke of Mantua and Monferrato. At first it was believed Francesco's widow, Margherita Savoia (1589-1655), the daughter of Duke Carlo Emanuele I (1562, ruled 1580-1630), of Piedmont-Savoy, was pregnant. Were she to produce a son, the infant would be the next ruler, and a regency would have to be organized. Carlo Emanuele demanded that Margherita return to Turin with Maria, an obvious ploy to become de facto regent of Mantua and Monferrato should Margherita produced a son. In any case, since Monferrato could be inherited through the female line, he intended to claim Monferrator on behalf of Maria. Ferdinando refused to let the mother and daughter leave. When it became apparent that Margherita was not pregnant, Ferdinando permitted her to depart but kept little Maria, who was sent to an Ursuline convent in Mantua." (The University of Mantua, the Gonzaga, and the Jesuits, 1584–1630)
"Ferdinando was the most intellectual and probably the most intelligent Gonzaga of his generation. He was fluent in several languages, wrote poetry and music, was well-versed in art and had studied law at the University of Pisa. In 1624, in partnership with the Jesuit order, he founded the University of Mantua.
"Despite all of these attributes Ferdinando was less suited to rule than Francesco. For years he had moved between the rarefied atmosphere of the court of the Medicis in Florence and that of his aunt Marie de' Medici, the queen of France. At both courts he had been indulged as a favorite nephew. After he became a cardinal in 1608, like many wealthy prelates, he maintained an elegant court in Rome. Consequently, along with his scholarly propensities reminiscent of Duke Guglielmo and Cardinal Ercole, Ferdinando had inherited the love for luxury and worldly pleasure that had threatened the stability of the duchy under his father and his great-grandfather Federico. Like them, he launched ambitious programs of building and decorating, including renovations at Federico's Palazzo de; Te and the construction of a lavish new country villa called 'La Favorita.' To accomplish all of this he abandoned the fiscal restraint that Francesco had tried to impose during his brief reign and began to amass more debt." (Music at the Gonzaga Court in Mantua: 152)
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| Camilla Faà di Bruno @Wikipedia |
Husband of:
Italian noblewoman, courtier & memoirist
Also known as Camilla da Casale; Camilla Faa Gonzaga.
Daughter of: Ardizzino Faa, Conte di Bruno, Italian ambassador & Margherita Fassati.
Natural offspring:
a. Francesco Giacinto Gonzaga (1616-1630)
" . . . In or about 1613, in the midst of war and negotiations with the papacy, Ferdinando fell in love with a lady-in-waiting, Camilla Faa (ca.1600-62), the daughter of a Monferrato count, and secretly married her on February 18, 1616. This was neither appropriate nor a politically useful marriage for a Gonzaga duke. So, Ferdinando repudiated the marriage as feigned, and it was declared invalid. Camilla was eventually moved to a convent in Ferrara, while little Giacinto was later brought to the court. With Camilla Faa out of the way, Ferdinando married his second cousin Caterina de' Medici (1593-1629) on February 5, 1617, in Florence. She was the sister of the reigning Grand Duke Cosimo II de' Medici and the daughter of Ferdinando's great-uncle Grand Duke Ferdinando I de' Medici. The marriage renewed the alliance with the Medici." (The University of Mantua, the Gonzaga, and the Jesuits, 1584–1630)
"Faa, Camilla - (1599 - 1662). Italian courtier and memoirist. Camilla Faa was born at Casale in Montferrato, the daughter of Ardizzino Faa, an ambassador. She was brought to the court where she became the mistress of Duke Ferdinando di Gonzaga of Mantua (1587-1626). When she became pregnant the duke married Camilla secretly. However political considerations caused the duke to abandon her in order to make a dynastic marriage with Princess Catherine de Medici of Florence. Camilla was separated from her son and sent from the court. Her family wished her to be married as was appropriate to her rank, but Camilla wished to enter a convent and live as a laywoman. After resisting the efforts of her family to marry for several years she was permitted to enter the convent of Corpus Christi in Ferrara (1622) where she became a nun of the Clarissan order and remained for the rest of her life. She produced the memoir entitled Storia di donna Camilla Faa di Bruno Gonzaga." (A Bit of History - C)
"Shortly after his brother's death Ferdinando renounce his position in the church, passing the cardinal's hat to his younger brother Vincenzo, and on January 6, 1616 was crowned the sixth duke of Mantua and duke of Monferrato. The following year he married his cousin Catherina de' Medici (1593-1629), sister of Cosimo II (1590-1621), the grand duke of Tuscany, thus continuing the family ties with Florence. In order to make this strategic dynastic alliance he had his 1615 marriage to Camilla Faa annulled. Camilla, a young woman from Monferrato by whom he had fathered a child, was placed in a convent." (Music at the Gonzaga Court in Mantua: 151)
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| Ferdinando Carlo I of Mantua @Wikipedia |
1665-1708
Duke of Rethel
(Charles IV of Rethel)
Son of: Carlo II di Mantova & Isabella Klara von Osterreich.
Husband of:
1. Anna Caterina Gonzaga di Guastalla (1655-1703), mar 1670
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| Suzanne-Henriette of Lorraine Duchess of Mantua @Wikipedia |
2. Suzanne-Henriette de Lorraine 1686-1710), mar 1704
"Ferdinand Charles IV, the last reigning Duke of Mantua, was a weak and depraved man, who commanded the respect of no one.
His lover was:
Isabella Parma (c1622-1682).
a.k.a. Eleonora Parma.
"Ferdinand Charles IV, the last reigning Duke of Mantua, was a weak and depraved man, who commanded the respect of no one.
His lover was:
Isabella Parma (c1622-1682).
a.k.a. Eleonora Parma.
Natural offspring:
a. Clara Gonzaga
b. Isabella Gonzaga
c. Carlo Gonzaga
d. Maria Elisabetta Gonzaga
e. Giovanni Gonzaga
f. Giovanna Gonzaga
a. Clara Gonzaga
b. Isabella Gonzaga
c. Carlo Gonzaga
d. Maria Elisabetta Gonzaga
e. Giovanni Gonzaga
f. Giovanna Gonzaga
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| Cesare I of Mantua Count of Guastalla |
1557-1575
Conte di Amalfi
Duca di Ariano
Principe di Molfetta
Husband of: Camilla Borromeo, mar 1560, niece of Pope Pius IV
His lover was:
Diana di Cordona (1499-1550)
His lover was:
Diana di Cordona (1499-1550)
Lover ?-1550
Italian aristocrat & royal mistress
Maid of honour to Queen Bona Sforza of Poland
Italian aristocrat & royal mistress
Maid of honour to Queen Bona Sforza of Poland
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