Lavinia Gonzaga, Contessa di Novellara

http://genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00025135&tree=LEO

BIOGRAPHY Lavinia was born 14 October 1607, the daughter of Camillo Gonzaga, conte di Novellara, and Maria Caterina d'Avalos. She came to the Viennese court in the entourage of Eleonora Gonzaga, who had become the second wife of Emperor Ferdinand II in 1622. The empress was a second cousin of Lavinia's mother.

On 17 December 1628 Lavinia became the third wife of Graf Wratislaw von Fürstenberg, son of Albrecht, Graf von Fürstenberg, and Baroness Elisabeth z Pernstejna. They had a daughter Katharina who would have progeny, marrying Graf Franz Wilhelm I von Hohenems in Vaduz und Schellenberg, and a son Franz Wratislaw who was born after the death of his father in 1631, and died in 1641.

Although the marriage contract had indicated that Wratislaw was wealthy, owning the estate of Kornhaus in Bohemia and a house in Prague as well as other assets, his death left the young Lavinia in a degree of financial difficulty, forced to live in the country and rent out the Prague house. In her letters to her former mistress, the empress Eleonora Gonzaga, she complains of her feeling of isolation, speaking neither German nor Czech, and of her struggles to economise in her reduced circumstances.

On 7 October 1635 Lavinia married the Austrian soldier and diplomat Graf Otto Friedrich von Harrach zu Rohrau, son of Graf Karl Franz von Harrch zu Rohrau and Freiin Maria Elisabeth von Schrattenbach. Their son Ferdinand Bonaventura and daughter Maria Elisabeth would have progeny.

Lavinia was painted in 1635 wearing black, the year of her second marriage. Some sources indicate that she continued to wear widow's black into her second marriage.

She died on 7 May 1639, the same day as her husband. Her son Ernst had died within days of his birth in February.

-http://www.genmarenostrum.com/pagine-lettere/letterag/gonzaga/Gonza...

H1. N.D. Lavinia Tecla (* 14-10-1607 + 20-2-1639), Patrizia Veneta.

1. a) = 17-12-1628 Wratislaw I Conte von Fuerstenberg (* Praga 31-1-1584 + Vienna 10-7-1631);
2. b) = 7-10-1635 Ottone Federico Conte von Harrach zu Rohrau (* 2-9-1610 + 7-5-1639).