Francesco Gonzaga (15 March 1444, Mantua, Italy – 21 October 1483, Bologna, Italy ) was an Italian bishop and a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church during the reigns of Popes Pius II, Paul II and Sixtus IV.
Background
Born in Mantua on 15 March 1444, Francesco Gonzaga was the second son of Ludovico III Gonzaga, the second Marquis of Mantua, and his wife Barbara of Brandenburg. His mother was the daughter of John, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, and the niece of Emperor Sigismund of the Holy Roman Empire. His first education was in the "Ca' Giocosa" under Iacopo da San Cassiano, Ognibene da Lonigo, and Bartolomeo Platina.
After completing his studies at Padua, Francesco went to the University of Pisa. After he graduated, he was appointed by Pope Nicholas V to the offices of prothonotary apostolic in February 1454 and later of the Procurator of the Church for Mantua. Although he had chosen an ecclesiastical career, he led a mostly secular life. In 1477, when he had already been a Cardinal for eleven years, a certain Barbara bore him an illegitimate son, Francesco ( † 1511 ), nicknamed "il Cardinalino [ The Little Cardinal ]".
The Cardinal
Under Pope Pius II
At the request of his cousin, Albert III, the Elector of Brandenburg, Francesco was elevated, on 18 December 1461, at the age of seventeen to the rank of Cardinal by Pope Pius II after the Pope had been in Mantua for eight months for the council held in that city. The meeting between the father, Ludovico III, the Marchese di Mantova, and the son, the new Cardinale di Mantova, coming to his hometown for the consecration as a cardinal, was immortalized in one of the most famous paintings of the Italian Renaissance – the frescoes of Andrea Mantegna's Camera degli Sposi ( Italian, "Chamber of the Bride" ). Francesco was the first of the ten members of the House of Gonzaga to be given the red biretta of the cardinal and he was assigned to Santa Maria Nuova, a church near the Via Sacra in Rome.
Under Pope Paul II
Appointed as the 39th Prince-Bishop of Bressanone ( now Brixen ) on 12 August 1464, the Cardinal of Mantua participated in the conclave that elected in the same year Pope Paul II, whom he personally hosted a splendid banquet on 16 September to commemorate the occasion of taking possession of the Throne of St. Peter by the new Pope.
Two years later, on 18 July 1466, the Bishop of Mantua, Galeazzo Cavriani, died and Francesco was appointed a month later, on 20 August, to succeed him. His great grandfather's first cousin, Sagramoso Gonzaga ( 1360 – 1405 ), had been the Bishop of Mantua for four years ( 1386 – 1390 ). But Francesco's own title was the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Mantua. He would keep it until his death but he was never raised to the rank of Bishop. He would be succeeded by five consecutive members of his family. The first two were Apostolic Administrators but the third, Ercole Cardinal Gonzaga, Francesco's grandnephew, was the first to be Bishop.
Francesco participated in the secret consistories of 7 January 1467 and 30 June 1470. During the consistory celebrated at the basilica of St. Mark on 18 February 1471, Pope Paul II appointed him the Papal legate a latere [ Latin, “from the [ Pope's] side" ] to Bologna and at the same time Francesco was appointed Apostolic Commissioner for the Paternal States [ commissario apostolico per gli stati paterni ], with the authority to persuade their dioceses in favor of a crusade against the Turks, which was, however, not accomplished at that time. During his stay in Rome, where he had by then made his home, Francesco, with Marco Cardinal Barbo, welcomed the new Duke of Ferrara, Borso d'Este. He left Rome for Bologna on 5 July 1471 and arrived in Emilia on 21 July.
Under Pope Sixtus IV
Francesco then returned to Rome on 4 August of that year to participate in the conclave of 1471 that elected Francesco della Rovere as Pope Sixtus IV. For his legation in Bologna, Gonzaga was confirmed by the new Pope and received commendam also the Abbey of San Gregorio at Mantua but he renounced it on 18 March 1472 for the commendam of San Tommaso Maggiore at Verona. On 2 May 1472, during his stay in Bologna, he received at his palace Johannes Cardinal Bessarion, who was passing on his way to France to negotiate peace between the King of France, Louis XI, and the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold.