Camilla Faà di Bruno, also di Casale (c. 1599 – 14 July 1662) was an Italian noblewoman who was married secretly, briefly and morganatically to Ferdinando the Gonzaga Duke of Mantua and Duke of Montferrat. Events 1223 - Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father Philip II of France. A morganatic marriage is a type of Marriage which can be contracted in certain countries usually between people of unequal Social rank, which prevents the passage Ferdinando I Gonzaga ( April 26, 1587 - October 29, 1626) was Duke of Mantua and Duke of Montferrat from 1612 until his The Gonzaga family ruled Mantua in Northern Italy from 1328 to 1708. The Duchy of Mantua was a Duchy in Lombardy, Northern Italy, subject to the Holy Roman Empire. The Marquises and Dukes of Montferrat were the rulers of a territory in Piedmont south of the Po and east of Turin called Montferrat.
She was born to Margherita Fassati and Ardizzino Faà, Count of Bruno, a military man and diplomat. Bruno is a Comune (municipality in the Province of Asti in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 70 km southeast of Turin The young Camilla became one of the many companions of the duchess Margherita di Savoia at the Gonzaga court of Casale: capital of the Duchy of Montferrat of which Margherita’s husband Francesco Gonzaga was governor. Margaret of Savoy, Duchess Consort of Mantua and Montferrat (Torino 28 April 1589 - Miranda 26 June 1655) (Italian Casale Monferrato is a town in the Piedmont region of north-west Italy, part of the Province of Alessandria. Francesco IV Gonzaga ( Mantua, May 7 1586 – Mantua, December 22 1612) was Duke of Mantua and (as In February 1612 Francesco’s father Vincenzo died. Vincenzo I of Gonzaga ( September 21, 1562 - February 9, 1612) was ruler of the Duchy of Mantua and Montferrat from 1587 Francesco succeeded him as Duke of Mantua and of Montferrat and the court transferred from Casale to Mantua where, on 22 December of the same year Francesco himself died during an outbreak of smallpox. Events 1790 - The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Suvorov and his Russian armies Smallpox is an Infectious disease unique to humans caused by either of two virus variants named Variola major and Variola minor.
His successor as Duke was Ferdinando, until then a cardinal at Rome with a reputation as a womaniser. Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 The 16 year old Camilla, now a great beauty and known to all as La bella Ardizzina, became the object of his attention: attentions which she resisted, however, to the point that he was first obliged to promise marriage in writing and then actually to marry her. The nuptials took place in secret on 19 February 1616 in the chapel of the Palazzo Ducale and Camilla became pregnant shortly afterwards. Events 197 - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus defeats usurper Clodius Albinus in the Battle of Lugdunum The Palazzo Ducale di Mantova ("Ducal Palace" is a group of buildings in the Italian city of Mantua ( Lombardy) built between the 14th and the
Attempts to keep the marriage secret failed and both the court and Ferdinando’s relations took the news very badly, whether out of envy, or because they thought that the duke had married beneath himself and had failed to protect the dynasty. It appears that initially Ferdinand wanted to maintain the marriage: in August he granted her the marquisate of Mombaruzzo and the income from various territories in Montferrat and in the area of Acqui. Mombaruzzo is a Comune (municipality in the Province of Asti in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 70 km southeast of Acqui Terme ( Äich in Piedmontese) is a city and Comune of Piedmont, northern Italy, in the Province of Alessandria However the hostility that she faced from the Mantuan nobility became too much for Camilla and, at her own request, she left the city for Bruno. At this time Montferrat was at war with Savoy, who wanted to wrest it from the Gonzagas. For the two French départements of the region of Savoy see Savoie and Haute-Savoie Savoy ( French Either out of fear that she would flee to the enemy, or for her own protection from them, she was moved from Bruno to the Castle of the Paleologi at Casale, one of the most heavily fortified cities in Italy. Ferdinando joined her there in November and on 5 December she gave birth to their son, Giacinto Teodoro Giovanni. Ferdinando recognised the boy as his son, while failing to legitimate him as his heir; the duke remained in Casale until the New Year.
In the meantime he had been persuaded that he should repudiate la bella Ardizzina and make a more dynastically suitable marriage. He achieved both with some alacrity. A pronouncement that the marriage had been invalid was obtained from Pope Paul V, and on 7 February 1617 he married Caterina de’ Medici. For Napoleon's brother-in-law see Camillo Filippo Ludovico Borghese. Events 457 - Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1074 - Battle of Montesarchio in which the Prince
Camilla was recalled to Mantua where, to avoid the humiliation of returning as a mere courtier, she took lodgings in a monastery. Giacinto, however, was brought up at the Mantuan court and achieved some popularity. In November 1618 the duke compelled her to enter an enclosed order of nuns in the convent of Corpus Domini at Ferrara. Enclosed religious orders of the Christian church have solemn vows with a strict separation from the affairs of the external world Ferrara is a city in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. She entered as a secular but in 1622 took her vows and spent the rest of her life there as a nun.
Camilla Faà di Bruno died on 14 July 1662 at the age of 63 in the convent of Corpus Domini where she was buried next to an earlier beauty of Ferrara, Lucrezia Borgia. Events 1223 - Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father Philip II of France. This article is about the historical person For the biographical opera see Lucrezia Borgia (opera. She had far outlived Duke Ferdinando, who died in 1626; Caterina de' Medici, who died, childless, in 1629; and Giacinto, who died of the plague (or perhaps was murdered) in 1630.
References
- Franco Scrivanti. Camilla Faà.
Further reading
- In his Italian Journeys William Dean Howells gives a lively if dated account of the affair: Caterina de’ Medici, for instance, is described as ‘too fat to bear children, but not to bear malice. ’ (Search for ‘Camilla Faa di Casale’)
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