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Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua

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Reign
  
1519 - 1540

Predecessor
  
Successor
  

Successor
  
Francesco III Gonzaga

Name
  
Federico Gonzaga,

Reign
  
1536 - 1540

Role
  
Duke of Mantua

Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua wwwfermimngovitgonzagaimg17jpg

Died
  
August 28, 1540, Marmirolo, Italy

Spouse
  
Margaret Paleologa (m. 1531)

Children
  
Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, Louis Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers, Francesco III Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua

Parents
  
Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua, Isabella d'Este

Grandchildren
  
Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua

Similar People
  
Isabella d'Este, Vincenzo Gonzaga - Duke of, Ercole Gonzaga, Ferrante Gonzaga, Anne d'Alencon

Predecessor
  
Margaret Palaiologina

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.

Contents

Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua Federico II Gonzaga Duke of Mantua Wikipedia

Biography

Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua httpsthearkofgracecomwpcontentuploads2014

He was a son of his predecessor Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua and Isabella d'Este. Federico Gonzaga was crowned Marquis Mantua on 3 April 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 Gonfalonier and Captain General of the Church (commander in chief of the Papal Army), though a clause allowed Frederick to avoid fighting against the Empire, to which Mantua had always traditionally been an ally. Frederick therefore did not 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, with the aim of acquiring that land; its marquess Boniface IV of Montferrat was in poor health. But when Boniface seemed to recover, he set up an alleged plot on the part of Maria against Frederick's mistress, Isabella Boschetti: this was sufficient to have the Pope cancel the nuptial contract.

Frederick then signed another marriage contract with Charles V's third cousin, 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, Frederick paid 50,000 ducats to Charles in exchange for the annulment of the contract, and pushed the pope for the restoration of his earlier marriage agreement. When Maria also died, he was able 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 of Montferrat passed to the Gonzaga, who held it until the 18th century.

Frederick commissioned the Palazzo Te, designed and decorated by Giulio Romano, as his summer palace just outside Mantua.

Having suffered long from syphilis, which he had inherited from his father, he died in 1540 at his villa at Marmirolo. His son Francesco briefly held the title of 2nd Duke of Mantua before dying in his teens; the second son, Gugliemo, became 3rd Duke of Mantua as well as Duke of Montferrat and carried on the line.

Family and issue

Frederick and Margaret were parents to seven children:

  • Eleonora Gonzaga.
  • Anna Gonzaga.
  • Francesco III Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (March 10, 1533 - February 22, 1550).
  • Isabella Gonzaga. Married Francesco Ferdinando d'Ávalos.
  • Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (April 24, 1538 - August 14, 1587). Married Archduchess Eleanor of Austria
  • Louis Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers (October 22, 1539 - October 23, 1595). Father of Charles I, Duke of Mantua.
  • Cardinal Federico Gonzaga (1540 - February 21, 1565).
  • References

    Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua Wikipedia