Ferrante Gonzaga

At the age of sixteen, he was sent to the court of Spain as a page to the future emperor Charles V, to whom Ferrante remained faithful for his whole life.

He defended Naples from the assault of the French troops under Odet of Foix, Viscount of Lautrec, and obtained the surrender of the Republic of Florence.

In 1529 Ferrante married Isabella di Capua, who brought him the fiefdoms of Molfetta and Giovinazzo and thanks to this marriage he became one of the major feudal lords of the Kingdom of Naples.

[3] Ferrante was a patron and protector of the sculptor and medallist Leone Leoni, who executed a bronze medal for him about 1555, with a reverse that depicts Hercules with upraised club besting the Nemean Lion and the legend TV NE CEDE MALIS, "You do not yield to evil",[4] alluding to his acquittal after indictment for misappropriation of funds and corruption.

His son Cesare commissioned from Leone a more public monument, a bronze Triumph of Ferrante Gonzaga over Envy, (1564), which stands in Piazza Roma, Guastalla.