DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42861#0067
CHAPTER III
1478—1490
Reign of Federico Gonzaga—Death of his wife and mother—His
love for his daughters — Visit of Lorenzo dei Medici —
Accession of Francesco Gonzaga—His character and warlike
tastes—Betrothal of Elisabetta Gonzaga to Guidobaldo, Duke
of Urbino—His visit to Mantua—Marriage of Elisabetta—
Rer return to Mantua for Francesco’s wedding—Her friend-
ship with Isabella d’Este—Excursion to the Lago di Garda—
Visits to Ferrara.
Lodovico Gonzaga died at the age of sixty-four
on the 12th of June 1478, at his villa of Goito, less
than a month after writing his kind and dignified
reply to Mantegna’s remonstrances, while the plague
was still raging at Mantua. On his deathbed he was
induced by his wife, whose affection for her younger
children overcame her natural wisdom, to divide his
State, and leave her favourite son, Gianfrancesco,
the principality of Bozzolo and Sabbioneta, while
Castiglione was bequeathed to Rodolfo Gonzaga and
Gazzuolo to Bishop Lodovico. This division not
only weakened the State, but led to serious family
dissensions in the future. During Barbara’s life-
time, however, all went well. Her eldest son, the
new Marquis, Federico, consoled his widowed mother’s
grief, and treated her with the greatest respect, tell-
ing her, in true humanist fashion, that she had lost
a lord whom she was bound to obey and kept a son
whose duty it was to obey her. A year afterwards
his wife, Margaret of Bavaria, died, leaving a young
37
1478—1490
Reign of Federico Gonzaga—Death of his wife and mother—His
love for his daughters — Visit of Lorenzo dei Medici —
Accession of Francesco Gonzaga—His character and warlike
tastes—Betrothal of Elisabetta Gonzaga to Guidobaldo, Duke
of Urbino—His visit to Mantua—Marriage of Elisabetta—
Rer return to Mantua for Francesco’s wedding—Her friend-
ship with Isabella d’Este—Excursion to the Lago di Garda—
Visits to Ferrara.
Lodovico Gonzaga died at the age of sixty-four
on the 12th of June 1478, at his villa of Goito, less
than a month after writing his kind and dignified
reply to Mantegna’s remonstrances, while the plague
was still raging at Mantua. On his deathbed he was
induced by his wife, whose affection for her younger
children overcame her natural wisdom, to divide his
State, and leave her favourite son, Gianfrancesco,
the principality of Bozzolo and Sabbioneta, while
Castiglione was bequeathed to Rodolfo Gonzaga and
Gazzuolo to Bishop Lodovico. This division not
only weakened the State, but led to serious family
dissensions in the future. During Barbara’s life-
time, however, all went well. Her eldest son, the
new Marquis, Federico, consoled his widowed mother’s
grief, and treated her with the greatest respect, tell-
ing her, in true humanist fashion, that she had lost
a lord whom she was bound to obey and kept a son
whose duty it was to obey her. A year afterwards
his wife, Margaret of Bavaria, died, leaving a young
37