Ill 



GONZAGA. 



GONZALO, HERNANDEZ DE CORDOVA. 



142 



uncommon turn of thought of their dazzling modeL They even split 

 into two distinct Although congenial schools : that of the ' cultoriatas,' 

 the more zealous adherents of the pedantry of their master ; and that 

 of the 'coneeptiatas,' the rivals of the Italian ' concettisti,' who formed a 

 sect of still more conceited revellers in the wild regions of fancy. 

 There are various compositions of Gongora still unpublished, but a 

 Romancero under the title of ' Delicias del Parnaso ' contains all hia 

 ' romances ' and ' letrillaV 



The cultorista Alonso Castillo Solorzano extended Gongorism even 

 to America, where he published his own works in Mexico in 1625. The 

 earliest German romances were imitations of Gongora by Gleim. 



GONZA'GA, a historical family of Italy, which was numbered 

 among the sovereigns of that country as hereditary dukes of Mantua 

 and Monferrato for more than three centuries. The Gonzaga, like the 

 Medici, did not belong to the feudal nobility; they were originally a 

 plebeian family, which took its name from their native village. Luigi 

 Gonzaga was appointed Podesta of Modena in 1313, through the 

 influence of Passerine Bonacolsi, lord of Mantua. In 132S, a con- 

 spiracy having broken out at Mantua against Bonacolsi, who was 

 murdered with all his relatives. Luigi Gonzaga, who was privy to the 

 conspiracy under the pretence of restoring liberty to his country, was 

 appointed captain-general, and in the following year the Emperor 

 Louis of Bavaria made him imperial vicar of Mantua. From that 

 time the Gonzagas became hereditary rulers of that country. A 

 century later they assumed the title of marquises of Mantua, still 

 acknowledging themselves feudatories of the empire. They were 

 repeatedly engaged in war with the visconti of Milan. In 1495 

 Giaufrancesco Gonzaga placed himself at the head of the Italian 

 league, for the purpose of driving the French under Charles VIII. out 

 of Italy. He commanded at the battle of Toruovo on the river Taro, 

 on the 6th of July of that year, in which the French were worsted, 

 and Charles was obliged to make a precipitate retreat across the Alps. 

 Gonzaga then marched towards Naples, was present at the battle of 

 Atella, and contributed with Gonzalo of Cordova to the evacuation of 

 the kingdom by the French, and the restoration of the Aragonese 

 dynasty. When Louis XII. again invaded Lombardy, Gonzaga was 

 obliged, in order to save himself, to do homage to him, and in 1509 

 he joined the league of C'ambrai against the Venetians. His son 

 Frederic fought against the French commanded by Lautrec and 

 Bonnivet, and as a reward for his service* was made Duke of Mantua 

 by Charles V., and obtained also the marquUatc of Monferrato in 

 1536. Frederic's brother, Ferrante Gonzaga, distinguished himself 

 also in the imperial service, and was made by Charles V. governor of 

 the Milanese. He founded the line of the dukes of Guastalla, a 

 principality which ho obtained partly by purchase and partly by 

 intrigue. Guglielmo, sou and successor of Frederic, was humpbacked, 

 and it is recorded that when he ascended the ducal throne the courtiers 

 vied with each other in putting on artificial humps, thinking to please 

 their sovereign thereby. He proved a good prince, and he protected 

 the learned ; Bernardo Tasso, the father of Torquato, was his secre- 

 tary ; Paolo Sarpi was for a time his theologian, and the Jesuit 

 Possevin his confessor. The city of Mantua in his time had a popu- 

 lation of 43,000 inhabitants, almost double it* present number. His 

 son Vincenzo early showed a disposition for learning, and a fondness 

 for learn* 1 men. He went to Ferrara on purpose to effect the deliver- 

 ance of Torquato Tasso, who was confined as being insane, and he 

 obtained his liberty from the Duke Alfonso d'Eate. But in the course 

 of time, after he succeeded his father on the ducal throne, Vincenzo 

 abandoned himself entirely to pleasure, neglected the interests of his 

 subjects, and dilapidated the property of his own family. It was he 

 who has been charged with the assassination of James Crichton, in 

 1583, who had been his preceptor. [CmcHTOH.] Vincenzo died in 

 1612, and was succeeded by his son Francis, who began by introducing 

 economy into the palace, from which he drove away the acton, lingers, 

 and parasites whom his father had gathered round him. He died a 

 fi-w months after his accession, and was succeeded by his brother, 

 Cardinal Ferdinando Gonzaga, who, dying in 1626, left his states to 

 his other brother, Vincenzo, who died in the following year. None 

 of these three princes left any legitimate son, and with the last, 

 Vincenzo, the direct line of the house of Gonzaga became extinct 

 in 1627. It was however succeeded in the sovereignty by the 

 lateral branch of Nevers, descended from Louis, brother of Guglielmo 

 the humpbacked, who, having gone to France, had married there 

 Henrietta of Cleves, heiress of the duchies of Nevers and Kethe). 

 His son Charles was called to Italy by the prospect of the extinction 

 of the ducal house of Mantua, and after the death of his cousin, the 

 Duke Vincenzo, he claimed the succession to the ducal throne. But 

 bis claims were disputed by his cousin Gouzaga, duke of Guastalla, a 

 descendant of Don Ferrante, already mentioned ; and the Duke of 

 Savoy, seizing the pretext of the disputed succession, invaded Mon- 

 ferrato, uj.on which be had some oil claims, while the emperor 

 md II. on his tide invaded Mantua as an imperial fief. 

 LouU XIII. took the part of the Duke of Nevers, and the question 

 of the Mantua succession occasioned a European war. The French 

 entered Piedmont, and obliged the Duke of Savoy to raise the siege of 

 Cuale in Monfcrrato in 1629, while the imperial army took Mantua 

 after an obstinate liege, and pillaged the town for three days. The 

 paintings, statues, and other work* of art, collected during centuries 



by the dukes Gonzaga, were carried to Prague, many of them were 

 purchased by Christina of Sweden, and afterwards bought by the 

 Duke of Orleaua for hia gallery of the Palais RoyaL At last, in 1630, 

 by the treaty of Ratisbou, between tho emperor and France, and that 

 of Cherasco, with the Duke of Savoy, Charles of Nevers waa put in 

 possession of Mantua and Monferrato, and received the solemn investi- 

 ture from the emperor. In 1635 he seized upou the principality of 

 Correggio, which he added to hia dominions. He died in 1637, and 

 was succeeded by his grandson Charles, under the regency of his 

 mother. Charles proved a weak dissipated prince ; he wavered 

 between the French aud Spanish alliances during the Italian wars ; 

 he sold, in 1659, the duchies of Nevers and Rethel and his other 

 possessions in France to Cardinal Mazarin, and died in 1605, leaving 

 an only son, Ferdinand Charles, under the guardianship of his mother, 

 who was an Austrian archduchess. Ferdinand, once on the throne, 

 showed himself even more dissolute than his father. He collected at 

 his court female performers, singers, and dancers from every part of 

 Italy, in whose company he delighted, and by whom he was attended 

 when he travelled about. Ou the breaking out of the war of tha 

 Spanish succession, Ferdinand, although a feudatory of the emperor, 

 allowed the French to garriaon Mantua. The emperor Joseph I. put 

 him under the ban of the empire as a traitor ; and as the French 

 ultimately lost their footing in Italy, the Austrians took possession of 

 Mantua, which was annexed to the Milanese. Ferdinand being 

 I deserted by the French, for whose sake he had lost bis dominions, 

 retired to Padua, where he died in 1708, leaving no issue. He was 

 the last duke of Mantua. The other lateral branches of the Gouzagas, 

 of Guastalla, Sabbioneta, Novellara, and Castiglioue, became also 

 extinct, or were dispossessed of their principalities. Some of their 

 descendants were living at Mantua not many years since as private 

 individuals. The 18th century saw the extinction of three Italian 

 sovereign houses, Medici, Gonzaga, aud Farnese, while that of Este 

 has been perpetuated only by a female. 



GONZA'LO, HERNANDEZ DE CO'RDOVA, surnamed the Great 

 Captain, was born of noble and wealthy parents at Montilla, near that 

 city, in 1453. Having early lost his father, he was brought up by a 

 knight called Diego Cdrcamo, who inspired him with that grandeur of 

 soul and love of glory by which Gonzalo amply compensated the 

 disadvantages to which the law of primogeniture had subjected him 

 as a second son. When the city of Cordova espoused the cause of 

 the Infante Don Alonso against his brother Henry IV., Gonzalo, 

 though yet an inexperienced youth, was sent by his brother Alonso 

 de Aguilar to Avila, where the unfortunate Henry was solemnly 

 despoiled of crown and sceptre. On the sudden death of the new 

 king, his sister Isabella, the right heiress to the Castilian crown, also 

 requested the service of Gonzalo against the partisans of Juana, called 

 La Bertraneja, the dubious daughter of the dethroned Henry, who 

 was married to the King of Portugal 



Gonzalo, by his military and fashionable accomplishments, height- 

 ened by his character for generosity, was hailed as the prince of the 

 Spanish youth, and became the greatest ornament of Isabella's court. 

 His intrepidity at the head of 120 horse belonging to his brother, 

 which aided in the defeat of the Portuguese at Albuera, excited 

 general admiration. In the protracted contest of ten years, which 

 resulted in the final conquest of Granada, he took part in all the 

 important engagements, and also carried on a sort of constant guerilla 

 warfare, which struck the Moors with terror and amazement. 



When Charles VIII. of France, instigated by Ludovico Sforza of 

 Milan, conquered Naples in 1495, Gonzalo was sent by Ferdinand the 

 Catholic to expel the invaders, and restore the crown to the native 

 king. Europe was soon astonished by the brilliancy and rapidity of 

 his success. His only difficulty was to garrison the numerous places 

 which be reduced in quick succession. Both friends and foes pro- 

 claimed him the Great Captain, a title which has always been attached 

 to his person and memory. 



After the expulsion of the French from Naples, Pope Alexander 

 VI. called in the aid of Gonzalo against one Menoldo Guerri of Biscay, 

 to whom Charles VIII., on his retreat, delivered Ostia in trust, and 

 who, by bis exactions from the trading-vessels of the Tiber, distressed 

 and starved Rome. Gonzalo surrounded that fortress with his veterans, 

 stormed it on the eighth day, and the capital of Christendom beheld 

 the hero of the age bringing in chains the monster who had kept her 

 so long in alarm a modern triumph, the glory of which the conqueror 

 enhanced by requesting and obtaining the pardon of the vanquished, 

 and an exemption from all taxes, during ten years, for the inhabitants 

 of Ostia and its environs. He took leave of the pontiff by pointing 

 out the necessity of a reform in his household and court. Thus did 

 the Great Captain crown hia firot expedition to Italy in 1498. Two 

 years after he suppressed a revolt of the converted Moors in the 

 Alpujarras, and requested their pardon also as the reward of his 

 victory. 



Louis XII., inheriting the throne and the ambition of his cousin 

 Charles VIII., made preparations to expel Sforza from Milan, and to 

 stretch his arm as far as Naples. Ferdinand, who now agreed to partake 

 of the spoils, sent Gonzalo to Italy again, but only as au ally of the 

 Venetians. The first result of this campaign was the taking of 

 Cephalonia from the Turks, after a siege of fifty days, at the end of 

 1500. On tha first news of the deposition of the king of Naples 



