Ferrante Gonzaga
BIRTH
Mantua, 28 January 1507
DEATH
Bruxelles, 15 November 1557
Ferrante Gonzaga
Ferrante was born in Mantua on 28 January 1507 of Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, and Isabella d’Este. He was dispatched to the court of the Emperor Charles V in 1523; three years later he started his military career. Having joined the imperial army in Italy, Ferrante took part in the Sack of Rome (1527) and in the siege of NawWar of Florence (1529-1530); during that period he was appointed captain general ad interim following the death of the Prince d’Orange, Philibert de Chalon (3 August 1530). After the 1530s he took on the position of Viceroy of Sicily (1535-1546), then of Governor of Milan (1546-1555). He died on 16 November 1557 in Brussels, where he had gone to join the Imperial military campaign in the Flanders region.
Bibliography and sources:
Giampiero Brunelli, Ferrante Gonzaga, in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 57, 2000, s.v.
Arturo Pacini, «Desde Rosas a Gaeta». La costruzione della rotta spagnola nel Mediterraneo occidentale nel secolo XVI, Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2012