Isabella Gonzaga (1576-1627), was a duchess consort of Mantua and Montferrat as married to Vincenzo II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua.
Isabella Gonzaga was the daughter of Alfonso Gonzaga, Marquess of Novellara, and Vittoria Capua. She married for the first time to Ferrante de Gazzuolo, who died in 1605. Isabella was described as a beauty. In 1617, she married her relative Vincenzo Gonzaga, twenty-two years her junior. Vincenzo had in 1615 been appointed cardinal by his brother, the sovereign duke of Mantua, but he fell in love with Isabella and dismissed his position of cardinal in 1616 after an appeal to the Pope to make it possible for him to marry her. The wedding was opposed by Vincenzo's brother Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. Vincenzo eventually became unhappy with the match because of the pressure of having children, which they could not have. Isabella Gonzaga was accused of witch craft in an accusation staged by Ferdinando Gonzaga; her husband eventually supported the accusations. Her husband, however, left Mantua, where he was affraid of being attacked, and transformed the witch trial to the jurisdiction directly under the Pope. In the following witch trial, Isabella was cleared of all charges of sorcery. In 1626, her husband inherited the throne of Mantua from his brother. Though the couple was separated, they were not divorced, which formally made her duchess consort. The couple had no children.
|
|||||