The Real Story of Luigi “Rodomonte” Gonzaga—Hunter, Scholar, Warrior
Luigi “Rodomonte” Gonzaga. Nicknamed Rodomonte for his physical strength. A native of Mantua, he held the titles of Duke of Traietto (Minturno) and Count of Fondi. He was also lord of Casalmaggiore, Sabbioneta, Ostiano, Rivarolo Mantovano, Dosolo, Correggioverde, and Pomponesco. He bore the title of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. He was the son of Ludovico Gonzaga, brother of Cagnino Gonzaga, nephew of Pirro Gonzaga and Federico Gonzaga, and cousin of Carlo Gonzaga.
Born: 1500, August
Death: 1532, December
| Year, Month | State, Comp. ventura | Opponent | Command | Area of Activity | Actions Undertaken and Other Salient Facts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1512 | Lombardy | He is introduced to humanistic studies; his tutor is the Latinist Giovanni Bonavoglia (Benivelus), holder of the chair of eloquence in Mantua, archdeacon of the cathedral, as well as friend of Baldassarre Castiglione and Alfonso Capilupi. | |||
| 1517 | |||||
| June | Lombardy | Excellent hunter, Baldassarre Castiglione gives him a hunting dog. Also during this period his time is absorbed by demanding readings: he reads, in fact, the works of Cicero, Sallust, Valerius Maximus, Juvenal and Terence. He is also interested in astrology. While his brother Cagnino (1518) is sent to France, he must be content to remain in Mantua where he frequents the Neapolitan Augustinian Ambrogio Flandino. | |||
| 1519 | |||||
| Mar. | Lombardy | He is in Mantua for the appointment of Federico Gonzaga: the condottiero addresses him a “Triumph,” a poetic composition in imitation of those of Francesco Petrarca. | |||
| 1520 | |||||
| Feb. | Lombardy | He takes part in a joust. | |||
| May | He is entrusted by his father with his first diplomatic assignment. | ||||
| … | Spain | At the end of the year he leaves Lombardy for Spain. He is granted a pension by Emperor Charles V. | |||
| 1521 | |||||
| May | Empire | Spain | He frequents the Spanish court where he distinguishes himself for his prowess in knightly exercises. He fights in Madrid with a gigantic Moor, manages to free himself from his suffocating embrace, lifts him, spins him seven times around himself before hurling him to the ground: for this deed he will be nicknamed Rodomonte. The emperor takes a liking to him. | ||
| 1522 | |||||
| June | Great Britain | He embarks at Calais; follows the emperor to England who must meet with King Henry VIII: participates in a hunting party in Windsor park. | |||
| 1523 | |||||
| Jan. | Charles V grants him in fief Bozzolo and other lands confiscated from his uncle Pirro Gonzaga da Bozzolo; the goods belonging to his uncle Federico Gonzaga da Bozzolo are instead granted to the Marquis of Mantua Federico. | ||||
| 1525 | |||||
| … | Lombardy | He has himself recognized as lord of Ostiano, already belonging to his uncle Pirro. | |||
| Sept. Oct. | Lombardy | At Sabbioneta; he goes to Milan to regain from the Duke of Milan Francesco Sforza Casalmaggiore in favor of his father. | |||
| Nov. Dec. | Empire | France Venice | 200 light cavalry | Lombardy | In mid-November he enters Casalmaggiore, returned fief of his father. He is well received by the inhabitants who accept him as governor. Also during this period, in a pause due to a truce between the contenders, he has occasion to come to blows with Giovanni dei Medici: cause of the dispute is the duel between the Medici’s standard-bearer, Pietro Antonio da Verona, and a Spaniard who, blind in one eye, against previously signed pacts, wounded his adversary’s mount. The two are separated by their comrades. |
| 1526 | |||||
| June | Lombardy | He obtains from the Marquis of Vasto Alfonso d’Avalos and Antonio di Leyva the assignment of guarding Casalmaggiore; after a few days he assumes the government of the locality which is also recognized by Emperor Charles V. At his disposal there is a small Spanish garrison. The Gonzaga gathers the men of his company in the city; the local community, for its part, gives him many scudi and recognizes payment of his expenses with generosity. While he is about to complete the staff of his company, Fabrizio Maramaldo bursts into Casalmaggiore with 800 infantry: Luigi Rodomonte Gonzaga immediately threatens to ask for leave if the imperial captain does not withdraw from this center. | |||
| July | Lombardy | At the command of 170 light cavalry and 200 infantry he is defeated and taken prisoner with Costantino Boccali at Pieve San Giacomo by Marcantonio da Martinengo, who surprises him in this center with 50 men-at-arms, 200 light cavalry and 800 infantry. He is taken to Pontevico to be handed over to the brothers of the Venetian captain after the death of Martinengo, which occurred in Brescia from wounds received in combat. Imprisoned in the fortress of Soncino, he is freed in a short time also through the intervention of the captain general of the Serenissima, the Duke of Urbino Francesco Maria della Rovere. At Milan. | |||
| Aug. | Lombardy | With Roberto da San Severino he accompanies to the field of Lambrate Sigismondo Malatesta who must fight a duel with Ludovico Vistarini. | |||
| Sept. | Lombardy | He takes part in the defense of Cremona; he must yield to the attacks brought by della Rovere. In the same days the Connestabile di Borbone entrusts the lordship of Casalmaggiore to his father Ludovico. | |||
| Oct. | Lombardy | At Milan. He is given money to gather with Ludovico Barbiano da Belgioioso 6000 Italian infantry. | |||
| 1527 | |||||
| Jan. | Lombardy | He is in Pavia with the Prince of Orange. He leaves the city with the Connestabile di Borbone (5000 infantry, 5 companies of men-at-arms, 9 companies of light cavalry and 8 pieces of artillery); captures in the castle of Cassinelle 800 French who are heading from Savona to Asti. | |||
| Feb. | Emilia | At Fiorenzuola d’Arda. | |||
| Mar. | Emilia | In the Parma area with Spaniards and Landsknechts: his men sack the castle of Noceto; at the end of the month he is at Cento. | |||
| May | Lazio | He participates in the sack of Rome. He has the task of attacking the area around Porta San Pancrazio; he is among the first to scale the walls of the city between the Porta Aurelia and the Settimiana; he bursts into the Janiculum and seizes the borgo of San Pietro. He takes prisoner Lucantonio Cuppano who is immediately freed; he joins with the Landsknechts of Corrado di Bemelberg and Corrado Hess and assaults Ponte Sisto defended by Renzo di Ceri. He besieges Pope Clement VII in Castel Sant’Angelo. He reaches the palace of the Santi Apostoli where the Marchioness of Mantua Isabella d’Este is lodged and where twelve hundred Roman gentlewomen and a thousand men have found refuge, among ambassadors, priests and patricians, with their goods. The booty, including ransoms, is valued at two million scudi. With Luigi di Cordoba he asks for himself a ransom of 52,000 ducats which are paid in cash, in jewels and in bills of exchange: to the Gonzaga goes half the sum, 12,000 ducats to the Spanish captain, another 2,000 to four captains of the Landsknechts, the rest to Ferrante Gonzaga. With Alessandro Gonzaga and Maramaldo he defends the Spanish infantry from the Germans who consider themselves discriminated against in the division of booty: he assaults their lodgings in Trastevere and kills those who oppose him. After a few days, always with the two Gonzaga and Vespasiano Colonna, he has some boats prepared on the Tiber on which Isabella d’Este and many refugees from the palace of the Santi Apostoli embark, including the Venetian ambassador Domenico Venier, disguised as a porter. Troops are deployed by them in every district crossed for their personal defense. | |||
| July | Lazio | He is reported with his men at Castiglione in Teverina. | |||
| Nov. | Lazio | He recovers from an illness. He roams the nearby countryside and lives by robbery. | |||
| Dec. | Lazio and Umbria | The imperial troops leave Castel Sant’Angelo. At the head of 30 cavalry and a large company of arquebusiers he heads to the Prati district of Rome and helps the pontiff to flee from Rome disguised as a gardener and hidden in the bottom of a litter. The convoy also consists of a white palfrey and 40 mules provided to Clement VII by Cardinal Pompeo Colonna. The Gonzaga escorts the pope to Montefiascone, where almost all the infantry are dismissed, and to Orvieto. He thus acquires the benevolence of Clement VII. | |||
| 1528 | |||||
| Feb. | He is angered with the imperials because they give Ferrante Gonzaga, rather than him, command of the light cavalry: he is contacted by the French who offer him a condotta of 50 men-at-arms. He refuses the offer. | ||||
| Mar. | Puglia | At the defense of Molfetta with Giovanni Caracciolo. | |||
| Apr. | Church | Colonna | Lombardy and Lazio | He gathers infantry and cavalry in Lombardy; passes to the service of the Papal States and defends Paliano from the aims of Sciarra Colonna. Driven from the locality, he gathers new troops to defend the rights of his sister Giulia, widow of Vespasiano Colonna former lord of Paliano. | |
| May | Lazio | He assaults Paliano from two sides with 800 infantry. With Napoleone Orsini he defeats Sciarra and Prospero Colonna and enters the locality: in the clash he is wounded by two arquebus shots. He frees Sciarra Colonna and, with his sister’s help, aspires to marry Isabella Colonna, first daughter of Vespasiano; the woman too, for her part, prefers him to Ippolito dei Medici, chosen at the time as husband by her father Duke of Traietto. The Gonzaga separates from the Orsini and besieges him in Vicovaro. Finally, he leaves Paliano, whose guard remains with Girolamo Mattei, to return to Lombardy. | |||
| June | Lazio | He is forced to stop at Viterbo due to swelling of a leg. | |||
| July Aug. | Tuscany | He goes to Florence to plead his cause. Ippolito dei Medici yields; the pope remains always opposed to his marriage project. | |||
| Sept. | Emilia | At Fontanellato, guest of his sister Paola, wife of Galeazzo di San Vitale. | |||
| Dec. | Lombardy | His father grants him in fief Rivarolo Mantovano. | |||
| 1529 | |||||
| Jan. | Emilia | He protects Roberto Pallavicini, Marquis of Zibello and husband of his paternal aunt, against the claims of Ludovico Rangoni, husband of his cousin, supported instead by the pontiff. He goes to Zibello and strengthens the defenses of the locality. In the same month the appointment as cardinal of Ippolito dei Medici nullifies the testamentary dispositions of Vespasiano Colonna. | |||
| Mar. | Lombardy | He returns to his cousins Carlo and Federico, sons of Pirro who died in the same days, the lands of Gazzuolo, San Martino dall’Argine, Dosolo, Correggioverde and Pomponesco that have been assigned to him by the emperor. | |||
| Sept. | Lombardy and Liguria | He leaves Rivarolo Mantovano and goes to Genoa to pay homage to the emperor on behalf of Pope Clement VII. A new suitor appears for the hand of Isabella Colonna in the person of Ferrante Gonzaga, supported by Charles V himself. | |||
| Dec. | Emilia | At Bologna, where pope and emperor meet; there he defends the cause of his brother Cagnino. | |||
| 1530 | |||||
| Feb. | Emilia | At Bologna for the solemn coronation as emperor of Charles V. | |||
| Mar. | Lombardy | At Mantua, to attend the ceremony in which Federico Gonzaga is invested with the ducal title by the emperor. In the same days Isabella Colonna is questioned at Civita Castellana by imperial envoys Giambattista Montebuono and Diego de Soto: the woman reaffirms her desire to marry only Luigi Rodomonte Gonzaga. | |||
| … | Church | Florence | Tuscany | ||
| 1531 | |||||
| Jan. Mar. | Lazio | He marries Isabella Colonna in Rome. His wife brings him as dowry the duchy of Traietto (Minturno) and the county of Fondi. After three months he leaves his wife expecting a child, his son Vespasiano: before leaving he gives her a gem bound with a gold ring in which two eyes are carved surrounded by six Latin epigrams by various authors. | |||
| Apr. | Lombardy | At Mantua. | |||
| May | Lombardy | At Bozzolo, for the duel between two gentlemen of Piacenza, Giovanni Nicelli and Gianfrancesco Asinelli: after an hour and a half he intervenes to separate the contenders. He acts so that they are reconciled. | |||
| Dec. | Germany | In mid-month he departs for the imperial court perhaps to advocate, on behalf of the pope, some anti-Turkish initiative. | |||
| 1532 | |||||
| Apr. | Emilia Lombardy and Lazio | He meets at Rivalta Trebbia with his cousin Carlo and at Ferrara with Ludovico Ariosto who will remember him in the “Orlando Furioso.” He takes the road to Rome. He stops at Fondi with his wife for a few days. | |||
| May | 2000 infantry | Marche | He reaches the architect Antonio da Sangallo at Ancona: he has the task of following the construction work of a strong bastion at the Porta di Senigallia to defend the city from possible Turkish attacks. | ||
| June | Alfonso d’Avalos proposes that he follow him to Hungary against the Turks. He refuses. | ||||
| Sept. | Church | Ancona | Marche | He enters Ancona by night with 400 men between infantry and cavalry: the city still governs itself in republican form although with a papal governor (Bernardino della Barba). The Gonzaga occupies a gate and is immediately joined by the vicelegate of the March with 80 cavalry and 150 infantry. He asks for the government of the city in the name of Clement VII; the rest of the troops arrive (2000 infantry and 500 cavalry) to reinforce his contingent. Ancona is forced to yield after only one day; the citizens are stripped of their weapons and the pope orders the construction of a fortress on Mount San Ciriaco. Six rectors of the city are beheaded, the others are imprisoned. | |
| Oct. | Church | Orsini | Lazio | He opposes Napoleone Orsini; he besieges him again in the Aniene valley, in Vicovaro, with Capino da Mantova. | |
| Nov. | Lazio | He opens a breach in the walls and penetrates the borgo while the adversary’s troops retreat to the borgo. He deploys his men in the square; during the harangue he is seriously wounded in the left shoulder by three arquebus shots, which are fired at him by a soldier hidden in a small house. He is taken to the public palace where he makes his will. | |||
| Dec. | Lazio | He dies at Vicovaro, at the beginning of the month, after four days of agony. He is buried at Fondi. His son Vespasiano will have an equestrian statue in wood erected in his honor (with nine others) in the hall of the Ducal Palace of Sabbioneta. Friend of Baldassarre Castiglione, Ludovico Ariosto and other men of letters such as Facio, Alfonso Capilupi and Ambrogio Fiandino. Author of “Stanze” which he dedicates to Ludovico Ariosto. The latter will remember him twice in the “Orlando Furioso.” Bernardo Tasso also mentions the Gonzaga; Torquato Tasso places him instead among the “first heroes” in a dialogue on fencing printed in 1575. G. Muzio dedicates his “Eclogues” to him; Count Niccolò d’Arco addresses him a Latin elegy; other verses are written in his memory by Gandolfo Porrino (the “Pompe funerali”), Teofilo Folengo and Giammatteo Toscano. Mentioned in a novella by Matteo Bandello. |
Source
-“Il terrore dei tornei e delle battaglie.” ODORICI
-“Luigi da Gazolo il ferro caldo/ Fatto nel collo gli ha d’una ferita,/ che con l’arco gli dié Febo, quand’anco/ Marte la spada sua gli mise al fianco.” ARIOSTO
-“Era di tanta formosità di vita, e non di faccia, che la maestra natura a gran fatica con tutta l’arte sua imitar lo puotria… Era huomo e d’ingegno e di possa soprannaturale..Sua signoria non da arte, ma da natural forza aiutato ogni grosso ferro di cavallo con le mani apriva, e una fune di grossezza quanto sono quatro o ver cinque corde d’arco insieme poste..con un suolo scosso spezzata rimaneva.” GUAZZO
-“Era il Gonzaga uomo di amene lettere, e i migliori poeti del suo tempo ne piansero la morte.” LITTA
-“Huomo valoroso e forte.” ROSEO
-“Servì Luigi sì bene a un tempo stesso all’armi, ed alle Muse, che l’une invidiar non poterono all’altre tanto sollecito a’ doveri di entrambe prescritto.” AFFO’
-“Nati d’un sangue, il sangue incontro agli empj/ Spendeste, e l’Oglio quasi al Mincio eguale/ nelle glorie rendeste, e negli onori.” Da un sonetto scritto in onore suo e del cugino Carlo dal TASSO
-“Fu huomo molto perito nella militia, e anco letterato.” ALBERTI
-“..el gran sasso, al grave polo,/ Al lieve salto, ed alle forti lotte/ Alcun non era, che a tentarlo ardisse.” Da un’egloga del Luzio riportata dall’AFFO’
-“..fu di mortal piaga/ d’un archibuso lui ferito a morte/ da un fantacin, qual sotto era a mia paga.” Da un lamento per la morte di Napoleone Orsini riportato da MEDIN-FRATI
-“Capitano valorosissimo..Era di quadrata statura, e nerbuto assai: di volto bianco: d’occhi, e capelli castagnicci: e di barba rossa.” CAPRIOLO
-“Si distinse in molti fatti d’arme.. Fu amico dell’Ariosto, in lode del quale scrisse alcune bellissime stanze, che in molte edizioni, sono poste dopo l'”Orlando furioso”.” MAINARDI
-“La morte di Luigi Rodomonte suscitò il cordoglio generale perché veniva a mancare nel fiore della giovinezza un valoroso cavaliere. Tra i letterati del tempo che strinsero rapporti con Rodomonte, oltre a Ludovico Ariosto, che lo cita nel ventesimo canto della terza edizione dell'”Orlando furioso”, chiamandolo semplicemente “Luigi di Gazolo”, si ricorda anche Gandolfo Porrino, segretario di Giulia Gonzaga a Fondi. Porrino compose in occasione della morte di Rodomonte una lirica in ottavo dal titolo “Pompe funebri nella morte del Signor Luigi Gonzaga chiamato Rodomonte”. Luigi Gonzaga fu legato da un vincolo di amicizia e dal conseguente scambio di lettere e rime a Baldassarre Castiglione, a Pietro Bembo e a Stefano Guazzo. Questi celebri letterati considerarono Luigi un loro pari, anche se sembra che il figlio Vespasiano lo abbia superato come rimatore.” SARTORI
-“Precoce nel verseggiare, si presta subito a una mitizzazione encomiastica cui non è estraneo T. Folengo, ammiccante nel Gonzaga “magnanimum pectus forzamque leonis/grandizamque anime”- convocante su di lui la numinosa tutela d’Apollo e Marte, in lui riscontrante la “robur” d’Achille e una vocazione “Hetruscis numeris”, a tal punto imperiosa da precofigurare, quasi “alter Homerus”, come azzarda, senza tema d’esagerare, un epigramma latino di Gianmatteo Toscano. Prima ancora che dia prova di sé e con le gesta e con meno immaturi versi – e quando la darà di gran lunga eccedenti la sua modesta portata – le amplificazioni che ne esalteranno il profilo “post mortem”, sfruttato, vien da dire, a mo’ di pretesto per svarianti modulazioni sulla tastiera offerta dall’animo gentile racchiuso in un corpo possente, dall’intreccio nobiltà di sentire e maestosa figura – il Gonzaga è innalzato da una affabulazione in costante crescita, anche perché incentivata dall’orgoglio del padre e dall’ambizione del precettore (il Bonavoglia) di brillare di gloria riflessa… La notizia della sua scomparsa si diffonde immediatamente “Ebbi grandemente doluta la morte” del Gonzaga scrive il Bembo a Carlo Gualterucci. “La povera Italia -commenta – dopo tane altre perdite, ha or fatto questa: che ha perduto il più valoroso uomo che ella nelle armi avesse.” Trasportata a Fondi la salma è qui sepolta, mentre Gandolfo Porrino, segretario della sorella Giulia, compone in versi le “Pompe funerali”. “Spietata la parca – così a Giulia Bernardo Tasso – ha “spento” uno dei “lumi maggiori” della penisola nel pino della “gloria” dei suoi “fatti egregi””. BENZONI
-“Luigi, detto Rodomonte per la sua forza e prestanza fisica, aveva trascorso la sua fanciullezza, attorniato da maestri scrupolosamente scelti, fra i quali primeggiava Giovanni Bonavoglia, illustre latinista. Ebbe così un’educazione umanistica molto accurata che, unita alle sue proverbiali doti atletiche, gli permisero di rendersi noto come soldato e autore di componimenti poetici, di traduttore e collezionista bibliofilo.” AGOSTA DEL FORTE
-“Fu egli nel volto oltre ogni comparazione bello ed aggraziato; viril però nel medesimo tempo ed aperto, barba folta e nerissima, ricciuti capelli, labbra sporgenti forse un po’ troppo, a indicarti, secondo i fisionomanti, la schiettezza e buona fede dell’animo suo; l’occhio vivacissimo e d’un ceruleo pendente al nero; spaziosa e rilevata la fronte al più menomo sentimento dell’anima. Della sua statura varie sono le sentenze!” A. Racheli, riportato da AGOSTA DEL FORTE
-“Alla forza somma, che la natura per non mancare a se medesima, aveva messo in sì prodigiose membra, andavan congiunte tutte le virtù e le doti più rare dello spirito; egli maturo in prudenza, facile a tutti, egli facondo, liberale, magnanimo, e di tanta fedeltà all’impero, che ne facea scrupolo. Direbbesi anzi che in lui la virtù dell’obbedienza fosse per eccesso portata alla cecità, il che più delle volte poté esser fatto strumento efficacissimo di turpi imprese.” G.M. Faroldi riportato da AGOSTA DEL FORTE
-Epigrafe posta alla base del suo monumento equestre “Aloysius Marchio de Gonzaga Dux Trajecti Sacri/ Romani Imperii Princeps”
Specific Biographies
-I. Affò. Vita di Luigi Gonzaga detto Rodomonte.
Featured image: wikimedia
