Portret van Giuseppe Maria Gonzaga, RP-P-1909-5485

Giuseppe Gonzaga (20 March 1690 – 16 August 1746) was the last reigning

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 ...

and a member of the

House of Gonzaga ) , type = Noble house , country = , estates = Ducal Palace (Mantua) Ducal Palace (Nevers) , titles = * Prince of Arches * Duke of Montferrat * Duke of Mantua * Duke of Guastalla * Duke of Nevers * Duke ...

Early life

He was the second 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 m ...

and his second wife, Princess Maria Vittoria Gonzaga of Guastalla (1659-1707). Giuseppe was mentally handicapped.
When his elder brother Duke Antonio Ferrante died in an accident in 1729, Giuseppe was the only remaining male member of the Gonzaga family, so he became duke.

Marriage

Giuseppe would probably never have married, but when he became duke a marriage was arranged in 1731 with the sixteen-year-old Princess Eleonore von

Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Wiesenburg 240px , Wiesenburg Castle in Saxony gave its name to this branch of the ducal family The House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Wiesenburg was one of the many cadet branches of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg, itself a junior line of t ...

(1715–1760), daughter of Duke Leopold of

and his wife, Princess Maria Elisabeth of

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarch ...

(1683-1744). She was also granddaughter of Duchess

Karolina of Legnica-Brieg Karolina of Legnica-Brieg-Wohlau (german: Charlotte von Liegnitz-Brieg-Wohlau, pl, Karolina Piastówna; 2 December 1652 in Brzeg – 24 December 1707 in Wrocław), was a Silesian noble, duchess of Legnica, Brzeg and Wołów and the last mem ...

. The marriage remained childless.

Duchy

During the

War of Polish Succession The War of the Polish Succession ( pl, Wojna o sukcesję polską; 1733–35) was a major European conflict sparked by a Polish civil war over the succession to Augustus II of Poland, which the other European powers widened in pursuit of their ...

the Duchy was occupied by the French for four years, between 1734 and 1738. When Giuseppe Gonzaga died in 1746, Italy was again a

theater of war In warfare, a theater or theatre is an area in which important military events occur or are in progress. A theater can include the entirety of the airspace, land and sea area that is or that may potentially become involved in war operations. T ...

in the

War of Austrian Succession War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

, and the Duchy was annexed by Austria. Two years later, in the Treaty of Aix-La-Chapelle, Guastalla was ceded to the Spanish, together with the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza, with which it was merged.

Ancestry

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzaga, Giuseppe Maria 1690 births 1746 deaths Giuseppe Maria Giuseppe Maria 17th-century Italian nobility 18th-century Italian nobility