A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Gonzaga, Isabella de
GONZAGA, ISABELLA DE,
Wife of Guido Ubaldo de Montefeltro, Duke d'Urbino, was aunt Eleonora Gonzaga, who married the successor of her husband, This lady is celebrated for her conjugal fidelity and attachment. Her husband who was sick and infirm, was driven from his dominions by Caesar Borgia. In his distress, he implored the assistance of Louis the Twelfth of France; but he dared not comply with this request, lest he should draw on himself the resentment of the house of Borgia. The duke then intimated to the King of France, that, in consequence of his infirm health, he was willing to enter into holy orders, and divorce Isabella, whom a ceremony only made his wife. The duchess was powerfully solicited, in consequence of this declaration of her husband, to make another choice, but she resolutely refused. She devoted herself to the duke in his adversity with the tenderest affection. After his death, she abandoned herself to an excessive and unfeigned sorrow. She had been married twenty years, and devoted the rest of her life to the memory of her husband.