Everything about Frederick Ii Duke Of Mantua totally explained
Federico II of Gonzaga (
May 17,
1500 –
August 28,
1540), was the ruler of the
Italian city of
Mantua (first as
Marquis, later as
Duke) from 1519 until his death. He was also
Marquis of Montferrat from 1536.
Biography
He was a son of his predecessor
Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua and
Isabella d'Este. Educated at the French and Papal courts, he inherited the Marquisate from his father in 1519, initially under the regency of his mother and his uncles
Sigismondo and Giovanni Gonzaga. He received the imperial investiture from emperor
Charles V on
April 7 1521.
Despite his poor military experience, Pope
Leo X named him
Gonfaloniere (commander in chief) of the Papal Army, though a clause allowed Frederick to avoid fighting against the Empire, to which Mantua has been always traditional ally. Frederick therefore didn't intervene when the Imperial troops passed through his lands in
1527, indirectly causing the subsequent
Sack of Rome.
Frederick had signed a marriage contract with the heir to the
Marquisate of Monteferrat,
Maria Palaeologina, aiming to acquire that lands as the marquess
Boniface IV of Montferrat was in poor health conditions. But, when Boniface seemed to recover, he set up an alleged plot from Maria against Frederick's mistress, Isabella Boschetti: this was sufficient to have the Pope cancel his contract. Frederick therefore signed another marriage contract with Charles V's aunt, Julia of Aragon. In lieu of this move, in 1530 he was granted the ducal title, whereby their dynasty became Dukes of Mantua. However, when Boniface died by a fall from horse on March 25 of that year, he paid 50,000 ducats to Charles in exchange of the annulment of the contract, and pushed the pope to return him to former marriage promise. When also Maria died, he was able anyway to marry her sister
Margaret on
November 16 1531. At the death of the last legitimate male heir of the
Palaiologos family,
Giovanni Giorgio (1533), the marquisate went therefore to the Gonzaga, who held it until the 18th century.
Frederick was the commissioner of the
Palazzo Te, as his summer palace, in the neighbourhood of Mantua.
Suffering from long of
syphilis, which he'd inherited from his father, he died in 1540 at his villa at
Marmirolo.
Family and issue
Frederick and Margaret were parents to seven children:
- Eleonora Gonzaga.
- Anna Gonzaga.
- Francesco III Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua (March 10, 1532 - February 22, 1550).
- Isabella Gonzaga. Married Fernando Francesco d'Ávalos.
- Guglielmo I of Gonzaga (April 24, 1538 - August 14, 1587).
- Louis Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers (October 22, 1539 - October 23, 1595). Father of Charles I, Duke of Mantua.
- Federico, Cardinal Gonzaga (1540 - February 21, 1565).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Frederick Ii Duke Of Mantua'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://frederick_ii__duke_of_mantua.totallyexplained.com">Frederick II, Duke of Mantua Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
