Luigi Gonzaga

Coat of arms of Luigi Gonzaga as Duke of Rethel and Nevers

Luigi Gonzaga (also Ludovico , born October 22, 1539 , † October 23, 1595 in Nesle ) was an Italian nobleman from the Gonzaga family and, by marriage, Duke of Nevers and Count, later Duke of Rethel .

He was the fourth son of Duke Federico II Gonzaga of Mantua and Montferrat .

He married Henriette de La Marck on March 4, 1565 (born October 31, 1542; † January 24, 1601), daughter of Duke Francis I of Nevers . Since the father had died in 1562 and his two sons (Franz II. And Jakob) had also died in 1563 and 1564 without leaving any descendants, Henriette was her father's heir at the time of their wedding.

From the right of his wife he received the Duchy of Nevers and the County of Rethel in 1565 , which in 1581 by Heinrich III. was also raised to a duchy by France . Luigi had five children with Henriette:

• Caterina Gonzaga (* January 21, 1568; † December 1, 1629), ⚭ February 28, 1588 Henri I. d'Orléans-Longueville (* 1568; † 1595) ( House Orléans-Longueville )
• Enrietta Gonzaga (September 3, 1571; † 1601), ⚭ 1599 Henri de Lorraine, duc de Mayenne (* 1578; † 1621)
• Federico Gonzaga (March 11, 1573 - April 22, 1574), Hereditary Prince
• Francesco Gonzaga (born September 17, 1576 - † June 13, 1580), Hereditary Prince
• Carlo I. Gonzaga (* May 6, 1580; † September 22, 1637), since 1595 Duke of Nevers and Rethel, ⚭ February 1599 Katharina (* 1585; † 1618), daughter of Charles II. De Lorraine, duc de Mayenne

Individual evidence

1. ^ Anne-Françoise Schaller-Jeanneret / AW: Gonzague, Catherine de. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

literature

• Gino Benzoni:  Gonzaga, Ludovico. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 57:  Giulini – Gonzaga. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2001.

• Denis Crouzet: Recherches sur la crise de l'aristocratie en France au XVIe siècle. Les dettes de la Maison de Nevers. In: Histoire, économie et société , 1982, Volume 1, No. 1-1, pp. 7-50.
• Ariane Boltanski: Clientélisme et construction monarchique. The clientèle du duc de Nevers dans the seconde moitié du XVIe siècle. In: Hypothèses , 1998/1, Publications de la Sorbonne, pp. 145–152.
• Ariane Boltanski: Les Ducs de Nevers et l'État royal. Genèse d'un compromis (ca 1550 - ca 1600). Collection Travaux Humanisme Renaissance , Droz, Geneva 2006.
• Aldo De Maddalena et Marzio Romani: Vivre à côté du Roi. Premières expériences et émotions de Louis Gonzague à la Cour de France (1549). In: La France d'Ancien Régime. Études réunies en l'honneur de Pierre Goubert. Privat, Toulouse 1984, Volume 2, pp. 443-452.
• Xavier Le Person: “Practiques” et “practiqueurs”. La vie politique à la fin du règne de Henri III (1584–1589). Droz, Geneva 2002.
• Nicolas Le Roux: La faveur du roi, Mignons et courtisans au temps des derniers Valois (verse 1547 – verse 1589). Seyssel, Champ Vallon 2001.
• Michael Wolfe: Piety and Political Allegiance. The Duc de Nevers and the Protestant Henri IV, 1589-1593 . In: French History , Vol. 2, 1988, pp. 1-21.

Web links

• Ludovico (1539–1595), Duca di Nevers at fermi.mn.it (Italian)

predecessor	Office	successor
Henriette	Count of Rethel from 1581 Duke (de iure uxoris ) 1565–1595	Carlo I.
Henriette	Duke of Nevers (de iure uxoris) 1565–1595	Carlo I.