Annibale Gonzaga

He rose quickly through the ranks, partly by his competences, partly by his family name (His relative Eleonora Gonzaga was the Holy Roman Empress, and wife of Emperor Ferdinand II).

In 1642 he commanded with Count Bruay the right wing of the Imperial army in the disastrous Battle of Breitenfeld.

He was a member of a delegation that negotiated the Treaty of Oliva in Berlin with Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg.

Since 1666 he was president of the Imperial War Council (Hofkriegsrat) and High Steward of the widowed Empress Eleonora (the wife of Ferdinand III).

After her death in 1644, he remarried in 1646 with Maria Barbara, Countess of Czaky, and into the Hungarian nobility.