Ferrante III Gonzaga (4 April 1618 – 11 January 1678), was a

Duke of Guastalla This is a list of rulers of Guastalla, a town in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, on the right bank of the Po River. The County of Guastalla was established in 1406 for the Torelli family. In 1456, the county was partitioned, with Montechiarugolo and Casei ...

He was the son of

Cesare II Gonzaga Cesare II Gonzaga (Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 20 ...

and

Duke of Amalfi Medieval Amalfi was ruled, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, by a series of dukes ( la, duces), sometimes called ''dogi'' (singular: ''doge''), corresponding with the republic of Venice, a maritime rival throughout the Middle Ages. Before the t ...

and Isabella

Orsini Orsini is a surname of Italian origin, originally derived from Latin ''ursinus'' ("bearlike") and originating as an epithet or sobriquet describing the name-bearer's purported strength. Notable people with the surname include the following: *Angel ...

Life

He succeeded his father in 1632. In 1638 he sold all the minor Neapolitan fiefs and in 1640 also sold the Principality of Molfetta. He was invested as Knight of the Order of San Jago and Commendator of Villahermosa in 1639.''GONZAGA: DUCHI SOVRANI DI GUASTALLA'' in genmarenostrum.com
etrieved 24 February 2015./ref>

Marriage and Issue

On 25 June 1647, Ferrante III married Princess Margherita

d'Este The House of Este ( , , ) is a European dynasty of North Italian origin whose members ruled parts of Italy and Germany for many centuries. The original House of Este's elder branch, which is known as the House of Welf, included dukes of Bavaria ...

(1619-1692), daughter of Duke

Alfonso III d'Este Alfonso III d'Este (22 October 1591 – 26 May 1644) was Duke of Modena and Reggio from 1628 to 1629. He was the husband of Princess Isabella of Savoy, daughter of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and his wife Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain ...

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

. They had six children: * Isabella (d. 1653). * Rinaldo (1652 – 9 October 1657). * Cesare (1653–1666). * Anna Isabella (12 February 1655 – 18 August 1703), married in 1670 Ferdinando Carlo Gonzaga (1652–1708), Duke of Mantua and Monferrato. * Maria Vittoria (9 September 1659 – 5 September 1707), married in 1679 her cousin

Vincenzo Gonzaga Vincenzo Ι Gonzaga (21 September 1562 – 9 February 1612) was ruler of the Duchy of Mantua and the Duchy of Montferrat from 1587 to 1612. Biography Vincenzo was the only son of Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and Archduchess Eleanor of Au ...

. * Vincenzo (d. 1665/66). When Ferrante III died without surviving male heirs, the Duchy of Guastalla became officially a part of the

Duchy of Milan The Duchy of Milan ( it, Ducato di Milano; lmo, Ducaa de Milan) was a state in northern Italy, created in 1395 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, then the lord of Milan, and a member of the important Visconti family, which had been ruling the city sin ...

, but was ruled by Ferdinando Carlo of Mantua (husband of the eldest surviving daughter) between 1678 and 1692. Due to Austrian intervention, the Duchy then passed to Vincenzo Gonzaga (husband of the second daughter).

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzaga, Ferrante 3 1618 births 1678 deaths Ferrante 3 Ferrante 3 17th-century Italian nobility