Alessandro de' Medici

“ This will show how all popular revolutions resemble each other. Catherine’s subsequent policy, which upheld so firmly the royal power, may well have been instigated in part by such scenes, of which an Italian girl of nine years of age was assuredly not ignorant.
The rise of Alessandro de’ Medici, to which the bastard Pope Clement VII. powerfully contributed, was no doubt chiefly caused by the affection of Charles V. for his famous illegitimate daughter Margaret. Thus Pope and emperor were prompted by the same sentiment. At this epoch Venice had the commerce of the world ”

“ Some historians believe that Alessandro was the son of Clement VII. The fact that led to the recognition of this bastard as chief of the republic and head of the house of the Medici was his marriage with Margaret of Austria, natural daughter of Charles V.
Francesco de’ Medici, husband of Bianca Capello, accepted as his son a child of poor parents bought by the celebrated Venetian; and, strange to say, Ferdinando, on succeeding Francesco, maintained the substituted child in all his rights. That child, called Antonio de’ Medici, was considered during four reigns as belonging to the family ”

“ Somehow or another at last the news leaked out that Alessandro was dead, and that Lorenzino had killed him. Cardinal Cibo convened the Council of Forty-eight to discuss the situation. To him full powers were accorded to administer the government for three days, until a settlement was reached. This decision was most unpopular with the citizens, who began to rise in opposition.
Just when another bloody revolution seemed imminent, Cosimo de’ Medici, the young son of Giovanni “delle Bande Nere,” rode into the city, accompanied by a few of his friends. ”

“ When the leading Florentine families realized not only that the republic was destroyed, but that they were reduced to equality with those whom they had hitherto regarded as their inferiors and subjects, their rage was indescribable, and hardly a day passed without the departure of influential citizens who were resolved to achieve the overthrow of their new ruler. They found a leader in Cardinal Ippolito dei Medici, who was then in Rome,Cardinal Ippolito. embittered by the preference given to Alessandro, and anxious to become his successor with the least possible delay. ”

“ He gained the goodwill of his fellow-citizens by his unselfishness and generosity—truly not too common in the bearing of men of his time. He served the office of Prior in 1402, 1408, 1411; he was ambassador to Naples in 1406, and to Pope Alessandro V. in 1409; and, in 1407, he held the lucrative post of Podesta of Pistoja.
In 1421 Messer Giovanni de’ Medici was elected Gonfaloniere di Giustizia, as the representative of the middle classes, and in opposition to Messeri Rinaldo degli Albizzi and Niccolo da Uzzano, the Ghibelline nominees. The Republic sighed for peace, the crafts for quietness ”

“ Ippolito assumed at once the style of “Il Magnifico,” and began to display a lust for power and a taste for extravagance quite unusual in so young a lad. The Cardinal yielded to every whim, and very soon a goodly number of courtiers rallied round the handsome youth.
Having launched one of his protégés successfully upon the troubled sea of Florentine politics, Clement despatched Alessandro, under the care of Rosso de’ Ridolfi, one of his most trustworthy attendants, with little Caterina de’ Medici. ”

“ Duke Alessandro having then been done to death in the year 1536, and Signor Cosimo de' Medici elected in his place, many of the servants of the dead Duke remained in the service of the new, but others did not, and among those who went away was the above-named Giorgio Vasari, who returned to Arezzo, with the intention of having nothing more to do with Courts, having lost Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, his first lord, and then Duke Alessandro ”

“ Alessandro, great-nephew of the Tommaso Guadagno who settled in France, assassinated Andrea Davanzati in 1566, and was condemned to death in contumaciam. After some years Catherine de’ Medici obtained his pardon from her uncle the Grand Duke Francesco I., and he returned to Florence, where he built, after the design of Gherardo Silvani, says Passerini, a fine palace on the site of the old houses of his family on the Piazza del Duomo, which now belongs to the Marchese Strozzi of Mantua. ”

“ The genius of Lorenzo de’ Medici has never, perhaps, been so highly estimated, as his exertions on behalf of Italian literature. Yet he was not only an author unsurpassed by any of his illustrious contemporaries, but, as a statesman, gave evidence of profound ability. A week illustrating the value of his character and discussing his vast influence upon his age, has been long wanting, and no man lives who could better supply the desideratum than Mr. ”

“ The Medici, continuing exiles, had entered into alliances with all the tyrants in the pontifical states: they took part in every plot against their country; at the same time, they sought the friendship of the king of France, who was more disposed to favour a prince than a republic. Piero de’ Medici had accompanied the army sent, in 1508, against the kingdom of Naples, and lost his life at the defeat of the Garigliano. His death did not deliver Florence from the apprehension which he had inspired. His brothers Giovanni and Giuliano carried on their intrigues against their country. ”

“ The ancestors given to the Medici are many, and their origin is not easy to trace amid the conflicting accounts of friends and foes. The latter declare they sprang from the very dregs of the people, and that a charcoal-burner in the Mugello was their progenitor, whose son was a doctor (medico) . Their friends say they descend from Perseus, from a Roman consul, or even from an emperor. Others state that a brave knight, Averardo de’ Medici, came into Italy with Charlemagne and killed the fierce giant Mugello, who for years had kept Tuscany in bondage ”

“ Nevertheless, in the midst of this general excitement, men's minds were daunted by an equally general feeling of uncertainty and distrust. It was true that the Medici had left no soldiers in Florence, and that the people could at any moment make themselves masters of the whole city ”

“ You may think how I love him; particularly when his joyous neighs resound and rejoice all the neighbourhood. I owe you and I send you many thanks for such a fine gift, and I shall try and repay you by becoming what you wish. Of this be sure. I promise you that I shall try with all my heart. We are all well, and we all long for your arrival. God save you.—1479. [257]
Your son Piero at Gagliano. [258]
Antonio Pucci to Lorenzo de’ Medici at Cafaggiuolo
Magnifice Frater honorande,—That priest from Imola has been interrogated. ”

“ I am certain that our citizens will unite to protect their liberty, so that by the grace of God it will be defended as was always done by our fathers. I go full of hope, and with no other object than the good of the city, and I pray God to give me grace to perform what is the duty of every man towards his country. I commend myself humbly to Your Excellencies of the Signoria.—From San Miniato on the 7th day of December 1479. Your Excellencies’ Servant,
Laurentius de Medicis. [272]
Lorenzo de’ Medici to Antonio Montecatino, Ambassador to Florence of the Duke of Ferrara ”

“ Leo X. He accordingly removed to Rome, leaving his brother Giuliano with his nephew Lorenzo in Florence, and accompanied by his cousin Giulio, who was a natural son of the Giuliano murdered in the conspiracy of the Pazzi, and was soon destined to be a cardinal and ultimately a pope. Meanwhile his kinsmen in Florence continued to govern that city by means of a balía. And thus, being masters of the whole of central Italy, the Medici enjoyed great authority throughout the country and their ambition plumed itself for still higher flights. ”

“ It contains the Adoration of the Magi, and wonderful feeling is seen in the first old man, who, kissing the foot of Our Lord, and melting with tenderness, shows very clearly that he has achieved the end of his long journey. The figure of this King is an actual portrait of the elder Cosimo de' Medici, the most lifelike and most natural that is to be found of him in our own day. The second, who is Giuliano de' Medici, father of Pope Clement VII, is seen devoutly doing reverence to the Child with a most intent expression, and presenting [Pg 250] Him with his offering. ”

“ The only evidence remaining to us of her is poetry of a fame almost divine—of a purity almost religious; and this young maiden, of whom no mention has come down to us, in addressing herself to our imagination, borrows the accents of the most extraordinary genius possessed by a generation hitherto unequalled in achievements of the mind. The place of sepulture of Luigia de' Medici is unknown; her remains were most probably deposited, without monumental inscription, in the vaults of San Lorenzo, the gentilizia church of her house. ”

“ Nevertheless if Florence was free from the excesses that disgraced every other Italian state, if Lorenzo’s rule was mild and blameless compared to that of Cosmo, not only the continuance of peace, the assured position of the country, and the habit on the part of the people of submitting to such a rule were to be thanked for it, but the views and ability of the man who stood at the head. Lorenzo de’ Medici was determined to be obeyed, but he was no tyrant: on the one hand too keen-sighted a reader of men, and too well-versed in the traditions of his people ”

“ Recalled to Rome on the death of Leo X., he left Cardinal Silvio Passerini of Cortona his deputy: a man useful as a tool but of no ability or judgment. Adrian VI., who succeeded to the Papacy, was a weak pontiff, and Rome became a hot-bed of intrigue and villainy.
A plot to assassinate Cardinal de’ Medici failed, and, in 1523, he was, after many weeks of wrangling, elected Pope, with the title of Clement VII. In the Vatican, that “refuge for bastards and foundlings,” room was found for two boys, cousins, each the offspring of a Medici father, but illegitimate. ”

“ Giuliano dei Medici had died during Leo’s reign, in 1516, without having ever done anything worthy of record. He was the husband of Philiberta of Savoy, was duke of Nemours, and left a natural son, Ippolito dei Medici (1511–1535) , who afterwards became a cardinal. Lorenzo, being of more ambitious temper, was by no means content to remain at the head of the Florence government hampered by many restrictions imposed by republican institutions, and subject to the incessant control of the pope. ”

“ Florence and Genoa had fared badly in the war. The former had been defeated over and over again, and the whole of the Western Riviera had been overrun by the Milanese troops. The interference of Venice had changed the state of affairs, and the Duke of Milan was desirous for peace. Averardo de’ Medici with Palla Strozzi were the ambassadors of Florence, and Cosimo discusses the difficulties attending the negotiation. The Florentines thought that Venice was too grasping, as she demanded Bergamo as well as Brescia ”

“ The murder of Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, had further complicated matters. Girolamo Riario was astute enough to realise that if the Pope died, the change of government in Milan might expose him to the resentment of Florence, and determined to try and overthrow the Medici. Francesco de’ Pazzi and Archbishop Salviati were easily persuaded to join, but shrewd old Jacopo de’ Pazzi, who lived in Florence and knew the hold the Medici had over the people, gave them no encouragement. ”

“ Lorenzo de’ Medici lived entirely in the classical world; and yet if we read his poems we only see the man of his time, the admirer of Dante and of the old Tuscan poets, who takes inspiration from the popular muse, and who succeeds in giving to his poetry the colours of the most pronounced realism as well as of the loftiest idealism, who passes from the Platonic sonnet to the impassioned triplets of the Amori di Venere, from the grandiosity of the Salve to Nencia and to Beoni, from the Canto carnascialesco to the Lauda. ”

“ But they don’t care. It is of no use; they are all enthusiastic and cannot hold their tongues. When Lorenzo goes out he will have to lock the boy in a cupboard if he does not want to hear questions put to him to answer. I cannot tell you what charm there is about him, so that all who talk for a while with him are captivated. [323]
Lorenzo de’ Medici to the Duke Ercole d’Este ”

“ In the wide court-like space between the wings is a fine old white marble fountain that never plays. Its dusty idleness completes the general air of abandonment. Chancing on such a cluster of objects in Italy—glancing at them in a certain light and a certain mood—I get (perhaps on too easy terms, you may think) a sense of history that takes away my breath. Generations of Medici have stood at these closed windows, embroidered and brocaded according to their period, and held fetes champetres and floral games on the greensward, beneath the mouldering hemicycle. And the Medici were great people! ”

“ Lorenzo de Medici has been extolled with immoderate applause as a poet, a patron of learning, and a statesman. His voluminous poetical compositions, embracing subjects of love, rural life, philosophy, religious enthusiasm, and coarse licentiousness, exhibit an uncommon versatility of genius, a rich imagination, and a remarkable purity of language ”