Rodolfo Gonzaga di Castiglione
Rodolfo Gonzaga di Castiglione (born April 18, 1452 in Mantua , † July 6, 1495 in Fornovo ) was an Italian nobleman, son of Margrave Ludovico III. Gonzaga of Mantua and since 1478 Lord of Castiglione , Solferino and Castelgoffredo and since 1480 Lord of Luzzara .
origin
Rodolfo was the fourth of the five sons of Margrave Ludovico III. from Mantua from the old Italian noble family of Gonzaga , from his marriage to the Margravine Barbara von Brandenburg from the Hohenzollern dynasty . After his father's death in 1478, his eldest brother succeeded him as Federico I in the margraviate of Mantua. The second oldest brother, Francesco , had been a cardinal since 1461 and became Bishop of Mantua in 1466 . After his death in 1483, the youngest brother Ludovico followed him as Bishop of Mantua. Rodolfo and the third brother Gianfrancesco , both of whom had embarked on a military career, did not opt for a clerical status. After their father's death, Federico I gave them parts of the margravate. This agreement between the brothers, which was fixed in February 1479, was on June 10th by Emperor Friedrich III. ratified.
Gianfrancesco became Count of Sabbioneta and Rodigo and Lord of Bozzolo and Gazzuolo. He became the progenitor of the later Dukes of Sabbioneta and Princes of Bozzolo, as the area was divided again under his sons. This branch line of the Gonzaga died out in the male line in 1703. His younger brother Rodolfo received Castiglione , Solferino and Castelgoffredo in the fraternal division . His descendants became extinct in the male line in 1819.
Life
Rodolfo Gonzaga grew up in the palace in Mantua and was brought up with his brothers in the spirit of the Renaissance, following the example of Vittorino da Feltre . His teachers were important humanists , like Bartolomeo Platina until 1457. His father intended him for a military career at an early age. So he began at a young age to take on official missions for the Marquis of Mantua. In the spring of 1463, the eleven-year-old Rodolfo traveled to Innsbruck at the side of his brother Gianfrancesco , to accompany Margaret of Bavaria , the bride of the firstborn Federico, from there to Mantua. On February 3, 1469 he was in Ferrara to meet Emperor Friedrich III. who stopped here from Rome to pay homage . On this solemn occasion he was knighted .
In the summer of the same year, Margrave Ludovico agreed with the Duke of Burgundy , Charles the Bold , to take his son Rodolfo into service. At the end of August 1469, the seventeen-year-old came to the court in Brussels , at that time one of the most splendid in Europe, to put himself in the service of the duke and to prove himself in the arms trade. After his return from Flanders in the winter of 1470, he was ready to undertake the military profession professionally, and his father arranged for him to be paid the Pope for two years. The influence of his brothers Francesco , cardinal in Rome, and Gianfrancesco , who had been in military service with the Pope since February 1469, certainly helped. Pope Sixtus IV felt compelled to make savings, and in the spring of 1473 Rodolfo had to quit his service, only Gianfrancesco remained in the pay of the Pope.
Between June and July 1474 Rodolfo accompanied his sister Barbara , who had married in April, to her new home, where her husband Eberhard von Württemberg was waiting for them in Urach . In October of that year he finally found a long-term job for the pay of the Republic of Florence , in whose service he remained until 1481. His service was mainly limited to Tuscany, where he hardly took part in military actions, but instead stayed near Lorenzo and Giuliano de 'Medici , by whom he was valued. In 1477, Rodolfo traveled with a group of forty people to represent the Marquis of Mantua in the Kingdom of Naples to be present at the wedding of King Ferdinand to Joan of Aragon, which took place on September 14th.
On June 12, 1478, the father died and Rodolfo and his brother Gianfrancesco were able to split off an independent territory from Mantua. Rodolfo, together with his brother Ludovico , who was still a minor at the time , received the border area with Castelgoffredo , Castiglione , Ostiano , Redondesco and Solferino . In renegotiations with Margrave Federico I in 1480 there was a smaller exchange of territory, through which Luzzara was added. (Investiture on February 11, 1494 by Maximilian I. ) The territories that Federico I ceded to his brothers were lost to Mantua forever. The main line died out with Vincenzo II Gonzaga in 1627 and this resulted in a war of succession which threatened the independence of the Duchy of Mantua itself.
In 1478 war broke out between Florence , allied with Milan and Venice , on the one hand, and the Pope in league with the King of Naples and the Republic of Siena on the other. Rodolfo, still in Florentine service, fought alongside his brothers Federico and Gianfrancesco in Tuscany, but was captured by the Duke of Calabria at the Battle of Poggio Imperiale in September 1479 and only released in February of the following year. After the end of his service in July 1481 he stayed in Florence until he placed himself in the service of the Serenissima in the Venetian war against Ferrara from 1483 , while his brother Gianfrancesco fought on the side of the Duke of Ferrara on the anti-Venetian side. The fact that the brothers were on the enemy side created new points of friction in the often tense relationship between the two brothers.
Perhaps as a result of these tensions , Federico , who died in 1484, advised his son Margrave Gianfrancesco II to rely on his advisers, primarily Francesco Secco and Eusebio Malatesta, rather than his uncles. The relationship between the three brothers Gianfrancesco, Rodolfo and Ludovico and their nephew Gianfrancesco II must have been extremely tense at first. The advisors of the young margrave put the rumor of a conspiracy into circulation, whether true or untrue remains unclear. It is a confusing episode that ended with the arrests and voluntary withdrawal of the three brothers to their lands.
Even more obscure are the circumstances surrounding the death of Antonia Malatesta , Rodolfo's first wife, whom he married in January 1481. She was born in 1451 as an illegitimate daughter of Sigismondo Malatesta , Lord of Rimini and his lover at the time, Isotta degli Atti , who became his third wife in 1456. Antonia died after just three years of marriage on December 25, 1483 in Luzzara, probably an unnatural death. The contemporary chronicler Andrea da Schivenoglia (* 1411) reports in his Cronaca di Mantova of beheading for adultery. According to other sources, she was killed with a sword stroke by Rodolfo, who surprised her with her dance teacher. Eusebio Malatesta, with his Jewish origins, also appears as the initiator of an intrigue that cost the woman her life. The historian Alessandro Luzio (1857-1946) took the view that Antonia died of natural causes, citing a letter of condolence to the widower Rodolfo, and that the whole matter was the result of a fictional translation of the hostilities.
What is certain is that Rodolfo married Caterina Pico, daughter of Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola and Giulia Boiardo, the following year. The thirty-year-old widow was married to Lionello Pio († 1480), the Lord of Carpi , and the mother of three children. She gave Rodolfo six more children, two sons and four daughters. Caterina outlived her husband by six years and died in December 1501. Even after her death, it should not have been natural things; Ariosto reports about it. Some sources say she was poisoned by her maid, others that she was strangled by her while she was sleeping. There is talk of spurned love on the one hand and greed for money on the other.
In 1486 Rodolfo went to the service of the Dukes of Milan as a lieutenant and was now back at the side of his nephew Gianfrancesco II when it came to the fight against King Charles VIII of France in 1495 . In the Battle of Fornovo on July 6, 1495, in which Gianfrancesco was in command of the troops of the Holy League , the Italians won a victory. The French troops left Italy. But this victory was bought at a price; the losses on the Italian side were almost twice as high as those of the French, over 2,000 Italians lost their lives, Rodolfo Gonzaga was one of them.
Marriages and offspring
Rodolfo Gonzaga married Antonia Malatesta (* 1451; † December 25, 1483 in Luzzara) on January 11, 1481. The marriage remained childless.
In his second marriage in 1484 he married Caterina Pico (* 1454 in Mirandola ; † December 5, 1501 in Luzzara), a sister of the philosopher Giovanni Pico , with whom he had six children:
- Paola Gonzaga (* 1486 in Mantua; † 30 May 1519 in Milan) ⚭ 1501 Gian Niccolò Trivulzio (* 1479; † 1512), Conte di Musocco, son of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio
- Gianfrancesco Gonzaga (* February 2, 1488 in Luzzara; † December 18, 1524) Lord of Luzzara, ⚭ Laura Pallavicino (* around 1495, †?), Daughter of Galeazzo Pallavicino, Marchese di Busseto († 1520)
- Lucrezia Gonzaga (born September 30, 1490; † young)
- Barbara Gonzaga (born September 30, 1490; † young)
- Giulia Gonzaga (March 16, 1493 - November 25, 1544), nun in Mantua
- Luigi Alessandro Gonzaga (born April 20, 1494 in Luzzara, † July 19, 1549 in Castel Goffredo) Marchese di Castiglione, Castel Goffredo e Solferino, ⚭ 1540 Caterina Anguissola († December 13, 1550), daughter of Gian Giacomo Anguissola, Conte di Piacenza - grandparents of St. Aloisius of Gonzaga
literature
- Isabella Lazzarini: GONZAGA, Rodolfo. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 57: Giulini – Gonzaga. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2001.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Isabella Lazzarini: GONZAGA, Gianfrancesco. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 57. Rome 2001. Retrieved May 26, 2018
- ↑ Isabella Lazzarini: GONZAGA, Rodolfo. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 57. Rome 2001. Retrieved May 26, 2018
- ↑ rimini.com: Amore e morte alla corte dei Malatesti , accessed on May 27, 2018
- ↑ Bruno Andreolli: PICO, Caterina. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 83. Rome 2015. Retrieved May 28, 2018
- ^ Genealogical page on the family
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| - | Lord of Castiglione and Solferino 1478–1495 |
Luigi Alessandro Gonzaga di Castiglione |
| - | Lord of Luzzara 1480–1495 |
Gianfrancesco Gonzaga di Luzzara |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gonzaga di Castiglione, Rodolfo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian nobleman, Lord of Castiglione, Solferino and Luzzara |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 18, 1452 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mantua |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 6, 1495 |
| Place of death | Fornovo |