Ferdinand I Gonzaga (26 April 1587 – 29 October 1626) was

Duke of Mantua During its history as independent entity, Mantua had different rulers who governed on the city and the lands of Mantua from the Middle Ages to the early modern period. From 970 to 1115, the Counts of Mantua were members of the House of Canoss ...

and

Duke of Montferrat The Marquises and Dukes of Montferrat were the rulers of a territory in Piedmont south of the Po and east of Turin called Montferrat. The March of Montferrat was created by Berengar II of Italy in 950 during a redistribution of power in the n ...

from 1612 until his death.

Biography

Born in

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...

, he was the son of Vincenzo I and

Eleonora de' Medici Eleanor de' Medici (28 February 1567 – 9 September 1611) was a Duchess of Mantua by marriage to Vincenzo I Gonzaga. She served as regent of Mantua 1595, 1597 and 1601, when Vincenzo served in the Austrian campaign in Hungary, and in 1602, whe ...

. He was appointed a

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

at the age of 20. A few years after his elder brother, Duke Francesco IV, died in 1612 without male heirs, he renounced the ecclesiastical career and succeeded his brother in both the Duchy of Mantua and the Duchy of

Montferrat Montferrat (, ; it, Monferrato ; pms, Monfrà , locally ; la, Mons Ferratus) is part of the region of Piedmont in northern Italy. It comprises roughly (and its extent has varied over time) the modern provinces of Alessandria and Asti. Mo ...

. In 1616 he secretly married Camilla Faà di Bruno, whom he divorced in the same year. Their son Francesco Giacinto Teodoro Giovanni Gonzaga, although accepted at court, was not made Ferdinando's heir. He died of the plague during the 1630 siege of Mantua. On 16 February 1617 he married

Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici ( it, Caterina de' Medici, ; french: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King ...

(1593–1629), the daughter of Ferdinand I,

Grand Duke of Tuscany The rulers of Tuscany varied over time, sometimes being margraves, the rulers of handfuls of border counties and sometimes the heads of the most important family of the region. Margraves of Tuscany, 812–1197 House of Boniface :These were origin ...

. Ferdinand Gonzaga died in 1626. His younger brother Vincenzo II inherited the duchy.

Family

In 1616 he married Camilla Faà di Bruno, they had: *

Francesco Giacinto Gonzaga Francesco, the Italian (and original) version of the personal name "Francis", is the most common given name among males in Italy. Notable persons with that name include: People with the given name Francesco * Francesco I (disambiguation), seve ...

(4 December 1616 – 1630), Lord of

Bianzè Bianzè is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Vercelli in the Italian region Piedmont, about northeast of Turin and about west of Vercelli Vercelli (; pms, Vërsèj ), is a city and ''comune'' of 46,552 inhabitants (January 1, 201 ...

since 1624, benefited Priest of St. Benedict Polirone.

Honours

Grand Master of the Order of the Redeemer * Order of St

Knight of Order of Malta

References

Sources

* *

Ancestry

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzaga, Ferdinando 1 1587 births 1626 deaths Ferdinando 1 Ferdinando 1 Ferdinando 1 17th-century Italian cardinals 17th-century Italian nobility Burials at the Palatine Basilica of Santa Barbara (Mantua)