Duchy of Mantua

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Duchy of Mantua
State of the Holy Roman Empire

1273 – 1707
 

Coat of arms of Duchy of Mantua

Coat of arms

Location of Duchy of Mantua
Northern Italy in 1796; the Duchy of Mantua can be seen centre-right, shaded in orange, as part of the Duchy of Milan.
Capital Mantua
Language(s) Lombard
Religion Roman Catholicism
Government Principality
Duke
 - from 1273 Pinamonte Bonacolsi (first People's Captain)
 - 132860 Luigi Gonzaga (People's Captain)
 - 140744 Gianfrancesco I of Gonzaga (first marquis)
 - 151940 Federico II of Gonzaga (first duke)
 - 16651708 Ferdinando Carlo IV of Gonzaga (last duke)
Historical era Middle Ages
 - Death of Matilde, Countess of Tuscany; creation of commune as Reichsstadt 1115
 - Bonacolsi seizes power 1273
 - Goganza revolt August 16, 1328
 - Sigismund creates marquisate 1433
 - Charles V raises to duchy 1530
 - Succession war 162831
 - Division between Austria and Savoy 1707
 - Treaty of Utrecht formalises division March–April 1713
Currency Florin

The Duchy of Mantua was a duchy in Lombardy, Northern Italy, subject to the Holy Roman Empire.

Contents

[edit] History

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Mantua was invaded by Byzantines, Longobards and Franks. In the 11th century it became a possession of Boniface of Canossa, marquis of Toscana. The last ruler of the family was the countess Matilde of Canossa (died 1115), who, according to legend, ordered the construction of the precious Rotonda di San Lorenzo (1082).

Ludovico II receiving the news of his son Francesco being elected cardinal, fresco by Andrea Mantegna in the Stanza degli Sposi of the Palazzo Ducale
Ludovico II receiving the news of his son Francesco being elected cardinal, fresco by Andrea Mantegna in the Stanza degli Sposi of the Palazzo Ducale

After the death of Matilde of Canossa, Mantua became a free commune and strenuously defended itself from the Holy Roman Empire in the 12th and 13th centuries.

During the Investiture Controversy, Pinamonte Bonacolsi took advantage of the chaotic situation to seize power — as Captain General of the People — in 1273. His family ruled Mantua for the next century, making it more prosperous and artistically beautiful.

On August 16, 1328, the last Bonacolsi, Rinaldo, was overthrown in a revolt backed by the House of Gonzaga, a family of officials, namely the 60-year-old Luigi and his sons Guido, Filippino and Feltrino. Luigi Gonzaga, who had been podestà of the city in 1318, was elected People's Captain. The Gonzaga built new walls with five gates and renovated the architecture of the city in the 14th century, but the political situation in the city did not settle until the third Gonzaga, Ludovico I, eliminated his relatives, seizing power for himself.

Through a payment of 120,000 golden florins in 1433, Gianfrancesco I was appointed marquis of Mantua by Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor, whose daughter Barbara of Brandenburg he married. In 1459 Pope Pius II held a diet in Mantua to proclaim a crusade against the Turks.

The first duke of Mantua was Federico II, who acquired the title from Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in 1530. The following year, the family acquired the Marquisate of Montferrat through marriage. Federico commissioned Giulio Romano to build the famous Palazzo Te, in the periphery of the city, and profoundly improved the urbanistic assets of the city.

In 1624, Francesco IV moved the ducal seat to a new residence, the Villa della Favorita, designed by the architect Nicolò Sebregondi.

In 1627, the direct line of the Gonzaga family came to an end with the vicious and weak Vincenzo II, and the town slowly declined under the new rulers, the Gonzaga Nevers, a cadet French branch of the family. The War of the Mantuan Succession broke out, and in 1630 an Imperial army of 36,000 Landsknecht mercenaries besieged Mantua, bringing the plague with them. Mantua never recovered from this disaster.

Duke Carlo III Ferdinando, an inept ruler whose only aim was to hold parties and theatrical representations, allied with France in the War of the Spanish Succession. After the latter's defeat, he was declared deposed by Emperor Joseph I and took refuge in Venice, carrying with him a thousand pictures. At his death, in 1708 his family lost Mantua forever in favour of the Habsburgs of Austria. Montferrat's territories were ceded to the Duke of Savoy. The emperor compensated the Duke of Lorraine, heir in female line of the Gonzaga, for the loss of Montferrat by ceding him the Duchy of Teschen.

[edit] Rulers of Mantua

[edit] Gonzaga rulers

The Duchy of Mantua then fell to the junior branch of Gonzaga-Nevers.

[edit] Gonzaga family tree (1360–1708)

Luigi I
|
+-Guido
  |
  +-Luigi II
    |
    +-Francesco I
      |
      +-Gianfrancesco
        |
        +-Luigi III
          |
          +-Federico I
            |
            +-Francesco II
              |
              +-Federico II
                |
                +-Francesco I
                |
                +-Guglielmo
                | |
                | +-Vincenzo I
                |   |
                |   +-Francesco II
                |   |
                |   +-Ferdinando
                |   |
                |   +-Vincenzo II
                |
                +-(Luigi di Nevers)
                  |
                  +-Carlo I
                    |
                    +-(Francesco)
                    |
                    +-(Carlo)
                      |
                      +-Carlo II
                        |
                        +-Carlo III Ferdinando

[edit] External links