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Francesco I de' Medici

Not to be confused withFrancis I, Holy Roman Emperor.

Francesco I(25 March 1541 – 19 October 1587) was the secondGrand Duke of Tuscany,ruling from 1574 until his death in 1587. He was a member of theHouse of Medici.

Francesco I de' Medici
Portrait byAlessandro Allori,c. 1580-1585
Grand Duke of Tuscany
Reign21 April 1574 – 19 October 1587
PredecessorCosimo I
SuccessorFerdinando I
Born25 March 1541
Florence,Duchy of Florence
Died19 October 1587(1587-10-19)(aged 46)
Medici VillainPoggio a Caiano,Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Burial
Cappella dei Principi
SpouseJoanna of Austria
Bianca Cappello
Issue
among others...
HouseMedici
FatherCosimo I
MotherEleanor of Toledo
ReligionRoman Catholicism

Biography

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Francesco I of Tuscany as a young boy, painted byBronzino.

Born inFlorence,Francesco was the son ofCosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany,andEleanor of Toledo.[1]He served asregentfor his father Cosimo after he retired from his governing duties in 1564.

Marriage to Joanna of Austria

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On 18 December 1565, Francesco married ArchduchessJoanna of Austria,youngest daughter ofFerdinand I, Holy Roman Emperorand his wifeAnne of Bohemia and Hungary.[2]By all reports, it was not a happy marriage. Joanna was homesick for her native Austria, and Francesco was neither charming nor faithful. In 1578, Joanna died at the age of thirty-one, after falling down a flight of stairs while pregnant with their eighth child.[3]

Bianca Cappello

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Soon after Grand Duchess Joanna had died, Francesco went on to marry his Venetian mistress,Bianca Cappello,after aptly disposing of her husband, a Florentine bureaucrat. Because of the quick remarriage and similar occurrences among the Medici (Francesco's younger brother Pietro had reportedly killed his wife), rumours spread that Francesco and Bianca had conspired to poison Joanna. Francesco reportedly built and decorated theVilla di Pratolinofor Bianca. She was, however, not always popular among Florentines. They had no legitimate children, but Bianca had borne him a son, Antonio (29 August 1576 – 2 May 1621), in his first wife's lifetime. Following the death of Francesco's legitimate sonFilippoin 1582, Antonio was proclaimed heir. Francesco also adopted Bianca's daughter by her first marriage, Pellegrina (1564–?).

The "Apennine Colossus"in its niche
Francesco as a young man in a painting attributed toAlessandro Allori.

Like his father, Francesco was often despotic, but while Cosimo had known how to maintain Florentine independence, Francesco acted more like a vassal of the Habsburgs of Austria and Spain. He continued the heavy taxation of his subjects to pay large sums to the emperor.

Francesco had an avid interest in manufacturing and sciences. He foundedporcelainand stoneware manufacture, but these did not thrive until after his death. He continued his father's patronage of the arts, supporting artists and building the Medici Theater as well as founding theAccademia della Crusca.Francesco was also passionately interested in chemistry and alchemy and spent many hours in his private laboratory and curio collection, theStudioloin thePalazzo Vecchio,which held his collections of natural items and stones and allowed him to dabble inchemistryandalchemicalschemes.

Francesco and Bianca died on 19 and 20 October, both at the Medici Villa inPoggio a Caiano.Although the original death certificates mention malaria, it has been widely speculated that the couple was poisoned, possibly by Francesco's brotherFerdinando.[4]While some early forensic research supported the latter theory,[4]forensic evidence from a study in 2010 found the parasitePlasmodium falciparum,which causesmalaria,in the skeletal remains of Francesco I,[5]which strongly bolstered the infection theory and the credibility of the official documents.[6]Francesco was succeeded by his younger brother Ferdinando.

In 1857, all members of the Medici family were exhumed and reburied in the place where they still lie today, theBasilica of San Lorenzoin Florence. The painterGiuseppe Moricciattended the ceremony and depicted Francesco with a facial droop, a right claw hand appearance, the right shoulder internally rotated, the right calf muscle wasted and a right clubfoot confirmed by orthopaedic footwear within the coffin.[7]These are the signs of a right-sided stroke possibly within theinternal capsule.The presence of the orthopaedic footwear suggests that this stroke happened significantly before his death. During life, in his official portraits, the grand duke was always depicted as being in perfect physical condition. The cause of his stroke is not known, but malaria is known to cause this condition.

There is a famous portrait of Francesco as a child byBronzinothat hangs in theUffizi GalleryinFlorence.Francesco's marriage to Bianca and the couple's death was exploited byThomas Middletonfor his tragedyWomen Beware Women,published in 1658.

Children

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Francesco and Joanna had eight children:

  1. Eleonora(28 February 1567 – 9 September 1611), who marriedVincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua(1562–1612)[8]
  2. Romola (20 November 1568 – 2 December 1568)
  3. Anna(31 December 1569 – 19 February 1584)
  4. Isabella (30 September 1571 – 8 August 1572)
  5. Lucrezia (7 November 1572 – 14 August 1574)
  6. Marie(26 April 1575–3 July 1642), who became Queen of France by her marriage toHenry IVin 1600[9]
  7. Filippo(20 May 1577 – 29 March 1582)
  8. a son, died in a miscarriage

In fiction

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References

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  1. ^Henderson 2022,p. 160.
  2. ^van Veen 2013,p. 190.
  3. ^Campbell 2021,p. 146.
  4. ^abMari et al. 2006,p. 1299.
  5. ^Lorenzi 2010.
  6. ^Fornaciari et al. 2010,p. 568-569.
  7. ^Arba et al. 2012,p. 589-593.
  8. ^Boltanski 2006,p. 503.
  9. ^Beem 2020,p. 98.

Sources

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  • Arba, F; Inzitari, D; Barnett, HJ; Lippi, D (2012)."Stroke in Renaissance time: The case of Francesco I de' Medici".Cerebrovascular Diseases.33(6). Elsevier: 589–593.doi:10.1159/000338667.PMID22699046.S2CID19949701.
  • Beem, Charles (2020).Queenship in Early Modern Europe.Bloomsbury Publishing.
  • Boltanski, Ariane (2006).Les Ducs de Nevers et L'etat Royal: Genese d'un compromis (ca 1550 - ca 1600)(in French). Librairie Droz S.A.
  • Campbell, Katie (2021).Cultivating the Renaissance: A Social History of the Medici Tuscan Villas.Routledge.
  • Fornaciari, Gino; Giuffra, Valentina; Ferroglio, Ezio; Bianucci, Raffaella (2010). Mathiasen, Helle (ed.)."Malaria Was" the Killer "of Francesco I de' Medici (1531-1587)"(PDF).The American Journal of Medicine.123(6). Elsevier: 568–569.doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2009.12.020.PMID20569768.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 29 July 2010.
  • Henderson, Paula (2022). "Gardens". In Griffey, Erin (ed.).Early Modern Court Culture.Routledge.
  • Lorenzi, Rosella (2010)."Medici Family Cold Case Finally Solved: Discovery News".News.discovery.com. Archived fromthe originalon 27 February 2011.Retrieved18 March2012.
  • Mari, Francesco; Polettini, Aldo; Lippi, Donatella; Bertol, Elisabetta (2006)."The mysterious death of Francesco I de' Medici and Bianca Cappello: an arsenic murder?".BMJ: British Medical Journal.333(23–30 June 2006). BMJ: 1299–1301.doi:10.1136/bmj.38996.682234.AE.PMC1761188.PMID17185715.
  • van Veen, Hendrik Thijs (2013).Cosimo I De' Medici and His Self-Representation in Florentine Art and Culture.Cambridge University Press.
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Regnal titles
Preceded by Grand Duke of Tuscany
1574–1587 		Succeeded by
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