Fiorino - Carlo Gonzaga

Carlo Gonzaga ruled Castiglione delle Stiviere as a prince of the Holy Roman Empire during one of the most destructive periods in northern Italian history — the tail end of the Thirty Years' War and its prolonged economic aftermath. The Gonzaga cadet branch at Castiglione was a tiny lordship, and gold coinage of this type was struck less for circulation than to assert dynastic standing among peers who had far greater resources. Carlo himself was beatified in 1821, an unusual distinction for a ruling prince, owing to his founding of a religious congregation during the 1630 plague.