duchy · Italy

Duchy of Montferrat

1574 CE – 1708 CE · capital Casale Monferrato

A Piedmontese duchy of the Gonzaga, whose fortress of Casale was one of the most contested strongholds in 17th-century Europe.

Origins

The Gonzaga of the Duchy of Mantua had inherited the March of Montferrat in 1536. In 1574 Emperor Maximilian II raised it to a duchy for Duke Guglielmo Gonzaga, who governed it from Mantua through a council at Casale.

Montferrat was a hilly wine-growing region split into two parts and surrounded by the Duchy of Savoy and the Duchy of Milan. Its local nobles resented Mantuan rule. Vincenzo I Gonzaga built the great citadel of Casale around 1590. When the main Gonzaga line died out in 1627, the War of the Mantuan Succession brought sieges of Casale by Spain and Savoy against France. The Peace of Cherasco in 1631 gave parts to Savoy and the rest to Charles I Gonzaga-Nevers.

The last duke, Ferdinando Carlo, sided with France and was deposed in 1708. Montferrat was given to the Duchy of Savoy, a transfer confirmed by the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

Cite this page

APA: The Epoch Institute. (2026). Duchy of Montferrat. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-montferrat
MLA: “Duchy of Montferrat.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-montferrat. Accessed .
Chicago: The Epoch Institute. “Duchy of Montferrat.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-montferrat.
Harvard: The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Duchy of Montferrat’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/duchy-of-montferrat (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻