Antonio Ferrante Gonzaga (9 December 1687 – 16 April 1729) was the reigning Duke of Guastalla and a member of the House of Gonzaga.

Early life

He was the son of

Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Guastalla Vincenzo Gonzaga (1634 – 28 April 1714) was the reigning Duke of Guastalla and a member of the House of Gonzaga. Early life Vincenzo was born as the second son of Andrea Gonzaga, Count of San Paolo (d. 1686) and his wife, Laura Crispano dei ma ...

and his second wife, who was also his cousin, Princess Maria Vittoria Gonzaga of Guastalla (1659-1707). His sister was

Eleonora Luisa Gonzaga Eleonora Luisa Gonzaga (13 November 1686 – 16 March 1741) was the Duchess of Rovere and Montefeltro as the wife of Francesco Maria de' Medici. She was the eldest child of Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Guastalla and Sabbioneta and his second wif ...

, sister in law to

Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany Cosimo III de' Medici (14 August 1642 – 31 October 1723) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1670 until his death in 1723, the sixth and penultimate from the House of Medici. He reigned from 1670 to 1723, and was the elder son of Grand Duke Ferdinan ...

. He succeeded his father in 1714.

Personal life

He was engaged to Maria Karolina Sobieska, granddaughter of

John III Sobieski John III Sobieski ( pl, Jan III Sobieski; lt, Jonas III Sobieskis; la, Ioannes III Sobiscius; 17 August 1629 – 17 June 1696) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696. Born into Polish nobility, Sobie ...

but Maria Karolina (known as Charlotte) refused and married Frédéric Maurice Casimir de La Tour d'Auvergne, Prince of Turenne instead. He married first with Margherita Cesarini (1695-1725). After death of his first wife, he was remarried on 23 February 1727 in

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

to Landgravine Theodora of Hesse-Darmstadt (6 February 1706 – 23 January 1784), daughter of Prince

Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt Philip of Hesse-Darmstadt (20 July 1671 in Darmstadt – 11 August 1736 in Vienna) was a Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt, Imperial Field marshal and Governor of Mantua. Life Philip was a younger son of Louis VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (163 ...

and his wife, Princess Marie Therese Ernestine of Croy-Havré (1673-1714). She was also granddaughter of

Louis VI, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt Louis VI of Hesse-Darmstadt (german: Ludwig) (25 January 1630 – 24 April 1678) was Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt from 1661 to 1678. He was the eldest of three sons of the Landgrave George II of Hesse-Darmstadt and Sophia Eleonore of Saxony. M ...

.
These marriages remained childless.

Death

Antonio Ferrante was burned alive in an accident in his capital, Guastalla. After his death, the

Duchy A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a Middle Ages, medieval country, territory, fiefdom, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or Queen regnant, queen in Western European tradition. There once exis ...

was inherited by his younger brother Giuseppe Gonzaga.

Ancestry

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzaga, Antonio Ferrante 1687 births 1729 deaths

Antonio Ferrante Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular male ...

17th-century Italian nobility 18th-century Italian people