DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42863#0265
FERRANTE GONZAGA
237
she was about to send her third son, Ferrante, to the
Court of Spain. The marked favour which Charles
V. had lately shown the Marquis had encouraged her
to take this step, and Castiglione gladly promised to
serve the young prince to the best of his powers.
“ I long more than ever to enjoy Your Excellency’s
loggia,” he wrote on the 4th of August, “ and grieve
to think how little I am likely to be there now.
When I am in Spain, I shall often wish myself back
at Mantua, but shall console myself by serving Don
Ferrante, until God allows me to return, and find the
rest which is needful at my age and time of life.”
Ferrante Gonzaga was barely seventeen, but was
already a tall and active youth, who inherited his
father’s powers of horsemanship and skill in courtly
exercises, and his mother’s love of art and letters.
“ I rejoice,” wrote Ercole Gonzaga to his mother
from Bologna, “to hear that my brother Ferrante is
devoting himself to such laudable deeds, as well as to
those studies which by Your Excellency's kind care we
have learned to love from our tenderest years.” But
it was in the career of arms, rather than in that of
letters, that Isabella’s youngest son was to earn his
laurels, and rise to that high place in the Emperor’s
favour which he afterwards attained. Meanwhile his
mother had not abandoned the hope of obtaining a
Cardinal’s hat for Ercole, and by her orders Castig-
lione renewed his application on the subject to Pope
Clement. His Holiness seemed inclined, he wrote,
to lend a favourable ear to the proposal, but would
make no promises, and in October, the Count urged
Federico Gonzaga to come to Rome himself, say-
ing that the Pope was anxious to see him, and
his presence would, he felt sure, advance the
237
she was about to send her third son, Ferrante, to the
Court of Spain. The marked favour which Charles
V. had lately shown the Marquis had encouraged her
to take this step, and Castiglione gladly promised to
serve the young prince to the best of his powers.
“ I long more than ever to enjoy Your Excellency’s
loggia,” he wrote on the 4th of August, “ and grieve
to think how little I am likely to be there now.
When I am in Spain, I shall often wish myself back
at Mantua, but shall console myself by serving Don
Ferrante, until God allows me to return, and find the
rest which is needful at my age and time of life.”
Ferrante Gonzaga was barely seventeen, but was
already a tall and active youth, who inherited his
father’s powers of horsemanship and skill in courtly
exercises, and his mother’s love of art and letters.
“ I rejoice,” wrote Ercole Gonzaga to his mother
from Bologna, “to hear that my brother Ferrante is
devoting himself to such laudable deeds, as well as to
those studies which by Your Excellency's kind care we
have learned to love from our tenderest years.” But
it was in the career of arms, rather than in that of
letters, that Isabella’s youngest son was to earn his
laurels, and rise to that high place in the Emperor’s
favour which he afterwards attained. Meanwhile his
mother had not abandoned the hope of obtaining a
Cardinal’s hat for Ercole, and by her orders Castig-
lione renewed his application on the subject to Pope
Clement. His Holiness seemed inclined, he wrote,
to lend a favourable ear to the proposal, but would
make no promises, and in October, the Count urged
Federico Gonzaga to come to Rome himself, say-
ing that the Pope was anxious to see him, and
his presence would, he felt sure, advance the