Departure of Marguerite Louise Ferdinando II died on 23 May 1670 of
apoplexy and
dropsy and was interred in the
Basilica of San Lorenzo, the Medicean necropolis. At the time of his death, the population of the grand duchy was 720,594 souls; the streets were lined with grass and the buildings on the verge of collapse in
Pisa, while
Siena was virtually abandoned. Grand Duchess Marguerite Louise and Dowager Grand Duchess Vittoria vied with each other for power. The Dowager, after a protracted battle, triumphed: The novelty soon wore off, however. In the midst of this, on the first anniversary of Ferdinando II's death,
Gian Gastone was born to the grand ducal couple. Marguerite Louise feigned illness at the start of 1672: Louis XIV send
Alliot le Vieux,
Anne of Austria's personal physician, to tend to her. Marguerite Louise, instead of going back to Florence, chose to live in semi-retirement at the
Villa di Poggio a Caiano. The Grand Duke eventually consented, but feared she may abscond, so she was not allowed to go to leave without his permission and when she went riding she was to be escorted by four soldiers. All the doors and windows of the villa had to be secured, too. The saga between them continued until 26 December 1674, after all attempts at conciliation failed, a beleaguered Cosimo agreed to allow his wife to depart for the
Convent of Montmartre, France. The contract signed that day renounced her rights as a
Princess of the Blood and with them the dignity
Royal Highness. Cosimo granted her a pension of 80,000
livres in compensation. She departed the next June, after stripping bare Poggio a Caiano of any valuables.
Persecution of Jews and the Lorrainer succession Without Marguerite Louise to occupy his attention, Cosimo turned to persecuting the Jewish population of Tuscany.
Sexual intercourse between Jews and Christians was proscribed, and by a law promulgated on 1 July 1677, Christians could not work in establishments owned by Jews. If they did regardless, a fine of 50 crowns was incurred; if the person in question had insufficient funds, he was liable to be tortured on the rack; and if he was deemed unfit for torture, a four-month prison sentence was substituted. The
antisemitic roster was supplemented by further declarations on 16 June 1679 and 12 December 1680 banning Jews from visiting Christian prostitutes and co-habitation, respectively. Meanwhile, in
Lorraine,
Charles V was without an heir and Marguerite-Louise, as the daughter of a Lorrainer princess, delegated the right to succeed to the duchy to her elder son, Ferdinando. Grand Duke Cosimo tried to get his son international recognition as heir-apparent, to no avail.
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, supported Cosimo's claim, not wanting to see Lorraine revert to France. The
Treaties of Nijmegen, which concluded the
Franco-Dutch War, did not rubber stamp Cosimo's ambitions, as he had wished. The Lorrainer question was concluded with the birth of a son to Charles V in 1679, ending Cosimo's dream of a Medici cadet branch, dreams which were to be revived in 1697 by Gian Gastone's marriage to an heiress.
1679–1685 bearing the effigy of Cosimo III. Latin inscription: COSMVS III D[EI] G[RATIA] MAG[NVS] DVX ETRVR[AE]. "Cosimo III, by the Grace of God, Grand Duke of Etruria (Tuscany)" Cosimo kept himself apprised of his wife's conduct in France through the Tuscan emissary, Gondi. Marguerite Louise frequently requested more money from the Grand Duke, while he was scandalised by her behaviour: she took up with a groom named Gentilly. In January 1680 the Abbess of Montemarte asked Cosimo to pay for the construction of a reservoir, following a scandal at the convent: The Grand Duchess had placed her pet dog's basket in close proximity to the fire, and the basket burst into flames, but instead of trying to extinguish it, she urged her fellow nuns to flee for their lives. On previous occasions, she had explicitly stated that she would burn down the convent if the Abbess disagreed with her, too, making the Abbess view the accident as intentional. Cosimo, unable to do much else for fear of upsetting Louis XIV, reproached her in a series of letters. Another scandal erupted that summer, the Grand Duchess bathed nude, as was the custom, in a local river. Cosimo exploded with anger upon hearing of this. Louis XIV, tiring of Florence's petitions, retorted: "Since Cosimo had consented to the retirement of his wife into France, he had virtually relinquished all right to interfere in her conduct." Following Louis XIV's rebuff, Cosimo fell grievously ill, only to be roused by
Francesco Redi, his physician, who helped him reform his ways so illness would never strike him again. It was after this event that Cosimo finally stopped bothering with the Grand Duchess's life. In 1682 Cosimo III appointed his brother,
Francesco Maria de' Medici, Governor of Siena.
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor requested Cosimo's participation in the
Great Turkish War. At first, he resisted, but then sent a consignment of munitions to
Trieste, and offered to join the
Holy League. They defeated the Turks at the
Battle of Vienna in September 1683. To Cosimo's dismay, "many scandals and disorders continued to occur in the matter of carnal intercourse between Jews and Christian women, and especially putting their children out to be suckled by Christian nurses." In addition, public executions increased to six per day.
Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury and a famed memorialist, visited this Florence in November 1685, of which he wrote that "[Florence] is much sunk from what it was, for they do not reckon that there are fifty thousand souls in it; the other states, that were once great republic, such as Siena and Pisa, while they retained their liberty, are now shrunk almost into nothing..." The main suitors were:
Violante of Bavaria, a Bavarian princess,
Isabel Luisa of Portugal (the heiress-apparent of Portugal) and the
Elector Palatine's daughters. Ferdinando rejected it outright with the fullest support of Louis XIV, his great-uncle. Cosimo's eyes now fell upon Violante of
Bavaria. Choosing her would strengthen ties between France—where
Violante's sister was the dauphine—and Bavaria. There was only one obstacle in the way, Ferdinando II, Cosimo's father, impartially advised Violante's father,
Ferdinand Maria, to invest a huge sum into a bank. Soon after the Elector deposited the sum, the bank collapsed.
Royal Highness Duke
Victor Amadeus II of
Savoy procured the style
Royal Highness from Spain and the
Holy Roman Empire in June 1689, infuriating Grand Duke Cosimo, who complained to Vienna that a duke was inferior status to a grand duke, and proclaimed it "unjustly exalted...since the
House of Savoy had not increased to the point of vying with kings, nor had the House of Medici diminished in splendour and possessions, so there was no reason for promoting one and degrading the other." Cosimo also played upon all the times Tuscany provided financial and military assistance to the Empire. The Emperor, anxious to avoid friction, suggested that Anna Maria Luisa should marry
Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine to compensate for the affront. The Elector Palatine, two years later, several months before his marriage to Anna Maria Luisa, went about acquiring the aforesaid style for Cosimo and his family, despite the fact that they had no claim to any kingdom. Henceforth, Cosimo was
His Royal Highness The Most Serene Grand Duke of Tuscany.
1691–1694 Louis XIV was angered by Anna Maria Luisa's marriage to his sworn foe. Cosimo, after much coaxing, persuaded him otherwise. The Empire, meanwhile, was attempting to extract feudal dues from Cosimo, and ordering him to ally with
Austria. This coincided with a new wave of taxes that stagnated Tuscany's already declining economy.
Harold Acton recounts that a bale of wool "sent from Leghorn and
Cortona had to pass through ten intermediate customs." The Grand Duke oversaw the establishment of the Office of Public Decency, whose goal was to regulate prostitution, also. Prostitutes were oft thrown into the
Stinche, a jail for women of that profession, for years, with scant food, if they could not afford the fines levied on them by the Office of Public Decency. Evening permits and exemptions were available for those willing to pay six crowns per month. Cosimo resurrected a law from the regency of his father which banned Students from attending college outside Tuscany, thus strengthening the
Jesuits' hold on education. A contemporary wrote that not a single man in Florence could read or write Greek, a stark contrast to those of the
old republic. In a letter dated 10 October 1691, Cosimo's personal secretary wrote, "By the Serene Master's express command I must inform Your Excellencies that His Highness will allow no professor in his
university at Pisa to read or teach, in public or in private, by writing or voice, the philosophy of
Democritus, or of atoms, or any save that of
Aristotle." Ferdinando would not attend to Violante, instead lavishing his attentions on his favourite, a castrated Venetian, Cecchino
de Castris. The same year, Dowager Grand Duchess
Vittoria, who had once exercised a great deal of influence over Cosimo, died. Her allodial possessions, the Duchies of Montefeltro and Rovere, inherited from her grandfather, the last Duke of Urbino, were bestowed upon her younger son,
Francesco Maria de' Medici.
Marriage of Gian Gastone Cosimo became perturbed by the question of the Tuscan Succession following the death of his mother. Ferdinando was lacking any children, as was Anna Maria Luisa. The latter, who was high in her father's estimation, put forward a German princess to marry Gian Gastone. The lady in question,
Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg, nominal heiress of the Duchy of
Saxe-Lauenburg, was extremely wealthy. Cosimo once again dreamed of a Medici cadet branch in a foreign land. They were married on 2 July 1697. Gian Gastone and herself did not get along; he eventually abandoned her in 1708. In May 1700 Cosimo embarked on a pilgrimage to Rome.
Pope Innocent XII, after much persuasion, created Cosimo a
Canon of Saint John in the Lateran, in order to allow him to view the
Volto Santo, a cloth thought to have been used by Christ before his crucifixion. Delighted by his warm reception from the Roman people, Cosimo left Rome with a fragment of Saint
Francis Xavier's bowels.
Charles II of Spain died in November 1700. His death, without any ostensible heir, brought about the
War of the Spanish Succession, which involved all of the European powers. Tuscany, however, remained neutral. Cosimo recognised
Philip, duc d'Anjou, as Carlos's successor, whose administration refused to sanction the
Trattamento Reale reserved for the royal family. The Grand Duke, soon after the royal altercation, accepted the investiture of the nominal Spanish fief of Siena from Philip, thereby confirming his status as a Spanish vassal. Gian Gastone was consuming money at a rapid pace in
Bohemia, wracking up titanic debts. The Grand Duke, alarmed, sent the Marquis Rinnuci to scrutinise the Prince's debts. Rinnuci was abhorred to discover that Jan Josef, Count of Breuner and Archbishop of Prague, was among his creditors. In an attempt to salvage Gian Gastone from shipwreck, Rinnuci tried to coerce Anna Maria Franziska to return to Florence, where Gian Gastone longed to be. She blankly refused. Her confessor, hoping to keep her in Bohemia, regaled her with tales of the "
poisoned"
Eleanor of Toledo and
Isabella Orsini, other Medici consorts. The
Scottish artists
John Smibert and
John Alexander benefited from Cosimo's patronage in the early years of the 18th Century. Smibert was accorded the privilege of copying from paintings in his collection. The Duke's help led Alexander to dedicate his engravings by
Raphael to him.
Tuscan succession and later years Cosimo's piety had not faded in the slightest since his youth. He visited the Florentine
Convent of Saint Mark on a daily basis. A contemporary recounted that "The Grand Duke knows all the monks of Saint Mark at least by sight..." This, however, did not occupy all his efforts: He was still trying to coax Anna Maria Franziska to Florence, where he believed her caprices would cease. Additionally, in 1719, he claimed that God asked him to pledge the grand duchy to "the governance and absolute dominion of the most glorious
Saint Joseph".
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, died in May 1705. His successor,
Joseph I, took to government with a burst of ebullience. Following the
Battle of Turin, a decisive Imperial victory, the Emperor sent an envoy to Florence to collect feudal dues, amounting to 300,000
doubloons, an exorbitant sum; and to force Cosimo to recognise the Archduke
Charles as king of Spain. Fearing a Franco-Dutch invasion, Cosimo III refused to recognise Charles's title, but he did pay a fraction of the dues. The Grand Prince Ferdinando was grievously ill with
syphilis; he had become prematurely senile, not recognising anybody who came to see him. Cosimo despaired. He successfully requisitioned the assistance of
Pope Clement XI with Anna Maria Franziska. He sent the Archbishop of Prague to reproach her. She cited the example of Marguerite-Louise, adding that the Pope did not bother himself to machinate a reconciliation. Cosimo wrote desperate missives to the Electress Palatine: "I can tell you now, in case you are not informed, that we have no money in Florence..." He added that "two or three-quarters of my pension are fallen into arrears". The Emperor, thinking it unlikely that any male heirs were to be born to the Medici, prepared to occupy Tuscany, under the pretext of Medici descent. He intimated that upon the Grand Prince's death the Tuscans would rebel against Cosimo's autocratic government. Cosimo, in an act of desperation, had Francesco Maria, the Medici family cardinal, renounce his religious vows and marry
Eleanor of Gonzaga, the youngest child of
the incumbent Duke of Guastalla. Two years later, Francesco Maria died, taking with him any hope of an heir. Without any ostensible heirs, Cosimo contemplated restoring the
Republic of Florence. However, this presented many obstacles. Florence was nominally an Imperial fief, and Siena a Spanish one. The plan was about to be approved by the powers convened at
Geertruidenberg when Cosimo abruptly added that if he and his two sons predeceased the Electress Palatine she should succeed and the republic be re-instituted following her death. The proposal sank and was, ultimately, put on hold following Emperor Joseph's death.
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, agreed to an audience with the Electress Palatine in December 1711. He concluded that the Electress's succession brought no quandary, but added that he must succeed her. Cosimo and herself were abhorred by his reply. Realising how unforthcoming he had been, Charles wrote to Florence agreeing to the project, mentioning but one clause: the Tuscan state must not be bequeathed to the enemies of the
House of Austria. At the culmination of the War of the Spanish Succession, at the Treaties of Utrecht and Rattstatt, Cosimo did not vie for international assurances for the Electress's succession, inaction that he would later lament. The Grand Prince finally succumbed to syphilis on 30 October 1713. Cosimo deposited a succession bill in the Senate, Tuscany's nominal legislature, on 26 November. The bill promulgated that if Gian Gastone predeceased the Electress Palatine, she should ascend to
all the states of the grand duchy. The senators responded to the proposal by giving a standing ovation. Charles VI, however, was furious. He retorted that the grand duchy was an Imperial fief and that he alone had the prerogative to choose who would succeed.
Elisabeth Farnese, heiress to the
Duchy of Parma and the second wife of Philip V of Spain, as a great-granddaughter of
Margherita de' Medici, exercised a claim to Tuscany. , by
Johann Gottfried Auerbach In May 1716, the Emperor assured the Electress and the Grand Duke that there was no insurmountable obstacle preventing her accession, but that Austria and Tuscany must soon reach an agreement regarding which royal house which was to succeed the Medici. As an incentive to accelerate Cosimo's reply, the Emperor hinted that Tuscany would reap territorial advancements. In June 1717 Cosimo declared his wish that the
House of Este should succeed. Charles VI's promises never materialised. In 1718 he repudiated Cosimo's decision, declaring a union between Tuscany and
Modena (the Este lands) unacceptable. On 4 April 1718
Great Britain, France and the
Dutch Republic (and later Austria) selected Infante
Charles of Spain, the eldest child of Elisabeth Farnese and Philip V of Spain, as the Tuscan heir. By 1722 the Electress was not even acknowledged as heiress, and Cosimo was reduced to a spectator at the conferences for Tuscany's future.
Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine died in June 1717. Anna Maria Luisa returned home in October 1717, bringing with her vast treasures. Cosimo created his elder son's widow,
Violante of Bavaria, Governess of Siena as to clearly define her precedence. That did not stop the two ladies from quarrelling, as was his intention. Cosimo discontinued hunting following an accident in January 1717 during which he shot and killed a man. He was so distraught that he wished to be tried by the Knights of the
Order of Saint Stephen. The navy composed of three galleys and the crew 198. In September 1721, the Grand Duchess died; instead of willing her possessions to her children, as prescribed by the 1674 agreement; they went to the
Princess of Epinoy.
Death and legacy On 22 September 1723, the Grand Duke experienced a two-hour-long fit of trembling. His condition steadily deteriorated. Cosimo was attended by the Papal
nuncio and the Archbishop of
Pisa on his deathbed. The latter pronounced, "that this Prince required little assistance in order to die well, for he had studied and cared for nothing else throughout the long course of his life, but to prepare himself for death". On 25 October 1723, six days before his death, Grand Duke Cosimo disseminated a final proclamation commanding that Tuscany shall stay independent; Anna Maria Luisa shall succeed uninhibited to Tuscany after Gian Gastone; the Grand Duke reserves the right to choose his successor, but these stanzas were completely ignored. Six days later, on All Hallow's Eve, he died. He was interred in the
Basilica of San Lorenzo, the Medici necropolis. Cosimo III left Tuscany one of the poorest nations in Europe; the treasury empty and the people weary of religious bigotry, the state itself was reduced to a gaming chip in European affairs. Among his enduring edicts is the establishment of the
Chianti wine region. Gian Gastone repealed Cosimo's Jewish persecution laws, and eased tariffs and customs. Cosimo's inability to uphold Tuscany's independence led to the succession of the
House of Lorraine upon Gian Gastone's death in 1737. ==Issue==