Charles I, Duke of Mantua

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Charles I of Gonzaga-Nevers (Italian: Carlo I Gonzaga; May 6, 1580 - September 22, 1637) was Duke of Mantua and Marquess of Montferrat from 1627 until his death. He was also Duke of Rethel and Nevers, as well as Prince of Arches.

[edit] Biography

Born in Paris, he was the son of Louis I of Gonzaga-Nevers and Henriette of Cléves. At the death of the last legitimate male heir of the Gonzaga line in the Duchy of Mantua, Vincenzo II (1626), Charles inherited the title through his marriage with Maria Gonzaga, daughter of former Duke Francesco IV.

However, his succession spurred the enmity of Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy, who aimed to the Gonzaga lands of Montferrat, and, above all, of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, which did not like a philo-French ruler in Mantua. In 1629 emperor Ferdinand II sent a Landsknecht army to besiege Mantua, Charles left without the promised support from Henry III of France. The siege lasted until July, 1630, when the city, already struck by a plague, was brutally sacked.

The subsequent diplomatic maneuvers granted Charles, who had fled to the Papal States, to return to the duchy in 1631, not without concessions to the House of Savoy and to the Gonzaga of Guastalla. The situation of the Mantuan lands was dramatic, but he was able to trigger some economical recover in the following years.

Charles died in 1637. His successor was his grandson Charles II, initially under the regency of Maria Gonzaga, Charles I's daughter-in-law.