The Renaissance

led by Luigi Gonzaga, a city official, and
his three sons. Mantua went through a
century of turmoil until Ludovico Gonzaga
seized power and his descendant, Gian-
fresco Gonzaga, was named as the mar-
quess of Mantua by the Holy Roman Em-
peror through his marriage to the
emperor’s daughter Barbara of Branden-
burg. In 1530, Federigo Gonzaga was given
the title of Duke by Emperor Charles V,
and it was under Federigo’s reign that
Mantua reached its full glory as a center
of art, architecture, and music. Federigo
commissioned the lavish Palazzo Te and
improved the city with new gardens, roads,
and monuments. The Gonzaga dynasty
came to an end in 1627, after which it
came under the control of a related French
clan, the Nevers. A war soon broke out
over the contested duchy, and a siege of
the city by the emperor’s forces in 1630
brought hunger, destruction, and the
plague. Prominent citizens and artists fled
the city and Mantua entered a long period
of neglect and decline. The dukes were
overthrown and the city finally seized by
the Habsburg dynasty in 1708.

SEEALSO: Gonzaga, House of; Tasso,
Torquato

Manuel I .........................................

(1469–1521)

King of Portugal during whose reign the
Portuguese extended their overseas empire
and made it the largest among all Euro-
pean nations. Born in Alcochete, he was
the grandson of King John I and the
cousin and brother-in-law of John II,
whom he succeeded as king in 1495. Al-
though he was raised in a court of dan-
gerous intrigue and violence, he was fa-
vored by John II as his heir after John’s
legitimate son died in an accident and his
illegitimate son was denied the throne. For

this reason Manuel is also known as “the

Fortunate.”

Manuel was an enthusiastic supporter

of Portugal’s explorations in Asia and

South America. During his reign, Vasco da

Gama found a sea route to the Indian port

of Calicut, Pedro Alvares Cabral discov-

ered Brazil, and Portugal won a monopoly

over the trade of the entire Indian Ocean.

Portuguese merchants were settled in the

Indian port of Goa, which served as a cen-

tral base for Portugal’s commercial empire

in the east. These merchants brought home

a fortune in trade goods from the East In-

dies, allowing the king the money to raise

many important palaces and religious

buildings designed in a uniquely national

style known as Manueline. The king signed

important trade treaties with China and

Persia, and also was an energetic ruler at

home, reforming the tax and justice sys-

tems and making the nobility more sub-

servient to the king. He took two daugh-

ters of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella

as wives, but failed in his ambition to unite

the monarchies of Spain and Portugal and

pass the throne on to his descendants. Al-

though the Spanish monarchs demanded

that Manuel expel all the Jews from his

kingdom as a condition of these marriages,

he instead allowed them to remain for a

period of twenty years and banned any of-

ficial inquiry into their religious beliefs.

SEEALSO: Aviz, House of; da Gama, Vasco;

exploration; Portugal

Margaret of Austria .........................

(1480–1530)

The daughter of Emperor Maximilian I

and Mary of Burgundy, Margaret of Aus-

tria became known as a wise and just ruler

of the Spanish Netherlands, then part of

the Holy Roman Empire. She was born in

Brussels and betrothed at the age of three

Manuel I