Ferdinand I Gonzaga (26 April 1587 – 29 October 1626) was Duke of Mantua 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 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 2017, it was named as the Eur ...

, he was the son of Vincenzo I and Eleonora de' Medici. He was appointed a cardinal 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 Province of Alessandria, ...

. 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 (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 (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)