Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence
Alessandro de' Medici | |
---|---|
Duke of Florence | |
Reign | 1 May 1532 – 6 January 1537 |
Predecessor | Ippolito de' Medici |
Successor | Cosimo I de' Medici |
Born | Florence, Republic of Florence | 22 July 1510
Died | 6 January 1537 Florence, Duchy of Florence | (aged 26)
Spouse |
Catholicism |
Alessandro de' Medici (22 July 1510 – 6 January 1537), nicknamed "il Moro" due to his dark complexion,
Life
Born in Florence, Alessandro was recognized by a plurality of his contemporaries as the only son of
Alessandro's nickname "il Moro" is attributed to his relatively dark pigmentation.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
Some historians, such as Christopher Hibbert, present two hypotheses as to Alessandro de Medici's ancestry: he was "rumoured to be Cardinal Giulio's son by either a Moorish slave or a peasant woman from the Roman Campagna".[12][8] His mother was identified in documents as Simonetta da Collevecchio.[13] French author Jean Nestor reported in the 1560s that the claim of a black slave origin was a false rumor first spread by Alessandro's exiled enemies in Naples.[14] University of Florence historian Giorgio Spini too, described this rumour as unfounded, instead tracing Alessandro's mother to a peasant from the Roman countryside who would later go on to marry a carrier from Lazio.[15]
Early life
Alessandro spent his early childhood in Rome, where he received a humanist education by
When Cardinal Giulio became Pope Clement VII in 1523, he left leadership of Florence to Alessandro and Ippolito, under the regency of Papal representative Cardinal
During the Sack of Rome in 1527, a faction of Florentines overthrew the Medici and installed a theocratic, Savonarola-influenced Republic.[23][22] Alessandro and Ippolito de' Medici were advised to leave the city with Cardinal Passerini. Many of the Medicis’ main supporters fled Florence; but eight-year-old Catherine de' Medici was left behind.[24] Alessandro lived in exile for the next three years.[25]
Duke of Florence
In 1530, after a nearly ten month
The Florentine Constitution of 1532 consolidated Duke Alessandro’s power.[29] While Clement lived, Alessandro ruled "with the advice of elected councils, trying to calm the nerves of the defeated republicans"; however, as his reign progressed he showed authoritarian tendencies.[30] In 1534, he ordered construction of Florence’s Fortezza da Basso, “to secure the Medici’s control of the city following their recent return after the Siege of Florence, and to provide lodging for a massive contingent of troops.”[31]
Duke Alessandro’s government drew both praise and criticism. His “common sense and his feeling for justice won his subjects’ affection”; and he “enjoyed some status as the champion of the poor and the helpless, as ballads and novelle record.”
In 1536, Emperor Charles kept a promise to Pope Clement by marrying his daughter, Margaret of Austria, to Duke Alessandro.[36] He seems to have remained faithful to one mistress, Taddea Malaspina, who bore his only children: Giulio de' Medici (c. 1533/37–1600), who had illegitimate issue, and Giulia de' Medici.[37]
Assassination
In 1537, Duke Alessandro's distant cousin and close friend Lorenzino de' Medici, "Lorenzaccio" ("bad Lorenzo"), assassinated him.[38] The event is the subject of Alfred de Musset’s play Lorenzaccio; Alexandre Dumas’ play Lorenzino; and the basis for Thomas Middleton’s play The Revenger's Tragedy, among other works.[39][17]
On 5/6 January, the Night of Epiphany, Lorenzino entrapped Duke Alessandro through the ruse of a promised sexual encounter with a beautiful widow.[40] As Duke Alessandro waited alone and unarmed, Lorenzino and his servant Piero di Giovannabate, also called Scoronconcolo, ambushed him and "stabbed Alessandro with a dagger several times while the Duke fought back to the point that he bit off a significant portion of one of Lorenzino's fingers. Eventually, Alessandro succumbed to his wounds and Lorenzino and Scoronconcolo fled from the palace – after locking the door to the chamber to prevent their crime from being discovered too quickly."[34][25]
For fear of starting an uprising if news of his death became public, Medici officials wrapped Alessandro's corpse in a carpet and secretly carried it to the cemetery of San Lorenzo, where it was hurriedly buried.[34] In Valladolid, Spain, at the imperial court of Charles V, a solemn funeral was held for Alessandro.[41]
Lorenzino, in a declaration published later, said that he had killed Alessandro to preserve the Republic of Florence. When Florence's anti-Medici faction failed to rise, Lorenzino fled to
Alessandro was survived by two illegitimate children: son
References
- ^ "Portrait of Alessandro de' Medici". Philadelphia Museum of Art. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
- ^ a b c "Africans in Medieval & Renaissance Art: Duke Alessandro de' Medici". Victoria and Albert Museum. 13 January 2011. Archived from the original on 5 January 2019. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
- ISBN 978-0-275-93975-5. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
- ^ Catherine Fletcher, The Black Prince of Florence: The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de' Medici (London: Bodley Head, 2016), pp. 16, 280–81.
- ISBN 0-688-00339-7. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-2071-1. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
- ^ "The Blurred Racial Lines of Famous Families: Alessandro De Medici". Frontline. c. 1995. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
- ^ a b "The Blurred Racial Lines of Famous Families: A View on Race: A View on Race and the Art World". Frontline. 14 January 2005. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
- ^ Hibbert 1999, p. 236.
- ISBN 0684815826
- ISBN 978-0-19-531439-7
- ISBN 0-688-00339-7. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
- ^ So named because for being a native or living in Collevecchio, a small town in the historical region of Sabina, in the Papal States
- ^ Jean Nestor, Histoire des hommes illustres de la maison de Medici, 1564, p. 187.
- ^ Spini, Giorgio. "ALESSANDRO de' Medici, primo duca di Firenze". The Enciclopedia Italiana di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana. Retrieved 16 January 2022.
- ISBN 978-1-85754-277-6..
- ^ S2CID 153239187.
- ISBN 9780190612726.
- ^ "The Mad Monarchist: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence". March 2016. Archived from the original on 28 January 2021.
- ^ Staley, Edgcumbe. The Tragedies of the Medici. Project Gutenberg.
- ^ "The Tragedies of the Medici, by Edgcumbe Staley". www.gutenberg.org.
- ^ a b "The Mad Monarchist: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence". March 2016.
- ^ "Alessandro". Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 11 September 2021.
- ^ "Queens of Infamy: The Rise of Catherine de' Medici". 27 September 2018.
- ^ a b Tracy E. Robey (2012). Glory and Infamy: Making the Memory of Duke Alessandro de' Medici in Renaissance Florence (PhD thesis). The City University of New York. p. 10.
- ^ a b "Alessandro | duke of Florence".
- ^ Hibbert 1999, pp. 250–252.
- ^ Schevill 1936, pp. 482, 513–514.
- ^ "History of Florence".
- ^ a b "The Mad Monarchist: Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence". March 2016.
- ^ "Fortezza da Basso". Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ^ "Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence – the Medici Family".
- ^ "Alessandro de' Medici, 1512-1537, 1st Duke of Florence 1523 [obverse]". www.nga.gov.
- ^ ISBN 9780190092146.
- ^ Hibbert 1999, p. 254.
- ^ "Alessandro | duke of Florence". Encyclopedia Britannica.
- ISBN 0-8020-3825-5
- ^ "Lorenzino de' Medici | Italian writer and assassin".
- Washington Post./
- ^ Baker, Nicholas Scott. 2010. "Power and Passion in Sixteenth-century Florence: The Sexual and Political Reputations of Alessandro and Cosimo I De' Medici". Journal of the History of Sexuality 19 (3). University of Texas Press: 432–57.
- ISBN 978-84-8448-521-6.
- ^ Leeds, University of. "A Renaissance Mystery Solved: Lorenzino de' Medici's assassination was ordered by the Emperor Charles V Habsburg". PRLog.
Sources
- Hibbert, Christopher (1999). The House of Medici, Its Rise and Fall.[ISBN missing]
- Schevill, Ferdinand (1936). History of Florence.[ISBN missing]
- Brackett, John (2005) "Race and Rulership: Alessandro de' Medici, first Medici Duke of Florence, 1529–1537," in T.F. Earle and K.J.P. Lowe, Black Africans in Renaissance Europe.[ISBN missing]
- Fletcher, Catherine (2016). The Black Prince of Florence: The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de' Medici.[ISBN missing]
External links
- Alessandro de Medici PBS online page discussing his ancestry, and his heirs (Note: this article is known to contain at least one elementary error, involving the well-known Medici tombs.). Updated in A View on Race and the Art World.