13th century (1200s) The Medici family came from the agricultural
Mugello region north of Florence, and they are first mentioned in a document of 1230. The origin of the name is uncertain.
Medici is the plural of
medico, meaning "medical doctor". In 1293, the
Ordinances of Justice were enacted; effectively, they became the constitution of the
Republic of Florence throughout the Italian Renaissance. For most of the 13th century, the leading banking centre in Italy was
Siena. In 1298, however, as the century came to a close, one of the leading banking families of Europe, the
Bonsignoris, went bankrupt, and the city of Siena lost its status as the banking centre of Italy to Florence.
14th century (1300s) Members of the Medici family rose to some prominence in the early 14th century in the wool trade, especially with
France and
Spain. Despite the presence of some Medici in the city's government
institutions, they were still far less notable than other outstanding families such as the
Albizzi or the
Strozzi.
Salvestro de' Medici was speaker of the
woolmakers' guild during the
Ciompi revolt of 1378–1382, and Antonio de' Medici was exiled from Florence in 1396. Involvement in another plot in 1400 caused all branches of the family to be banned from Florentine politics for twenty years, with the exception of two. In 1397, late in the 14th century, the Medici dynasty began with the founding of the
Medici Bank in Florence.
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici (c. 1360–1429), son of
Averardo de' Medici (1320–1363), increased the wealth of the family through the creation of the Medici Bank, and he became one of the richest men in the city of Florence. Although he never held any political office, he gained popular support for the family through his backing for the introduction of a
proportional system of taxation. Giovanni's son
Cosimo the Elder, (father of the country), took over in 1434 as
gran maestro (the unofficial head of the Florentine Republic).
Rise to power Until the late 14th century, the leading family of Florence was the
House of Albizzi. The main challengers to the Albizzi family were the Medici, first under
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, later under his son
Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici and great-grandson,
Lorenzo de' Medici. The Medici controlled the Medici Bank—then Europe's largest bank—and an array of other enterprises in Florence and elsewhere.
15th century (1400s) ,
Pater patriae, Uffizi Gallery, Florence. In 1433, the Medici benefited from the discovery of vast deposits of
alum in
Tolfa. Alum is essential as a
mordant in the dyeing of certain cloths and was used extensively in Florence, where the main industry was textile manufacturing. Before the Medici, the Turks were the only exporters of alum, so Europe was forced to buy from them until the discovery in Tolfa.
Pius II granted the Medici family a monopoly on the mining there, making them the primary producers of alum in Europe. In 1433, the Albizzi managed to have Cosimo exiled. The next year, however, in 1434, a pro-Medici
signoria (civic government), led by Tommaso Soderini, Oddo Altoviti, and Lucca Pitti, was elected and Cosimo returned. The Medici became the city's leading family, a position they would hold for the next three centuries. Florence remained a republic until 1537, traditionally marking the end of the High Renaissance in Florence, but the instruments of republican government were firmly under the control of the Medici and their allies, save during intervals after 1494 and 1527. Cosimo and Lorenzo rarely held official posts but were the unquestioned leaders. Three successive generations of the Medici—Cosimo, Piero, and Lorenzo—ruled over Florence through the greater part of the 15th century. They clearly dominated Florentine
representative government without abolishing it altogether. These three members of the Medici family had great skills in the management of so "restive and independent a city" as Florence. When Lorenzo died in 1492, however, his son Piero proved quite incapable of responding successfully to challenges caused by the
French invasion of Italy in 1492, and within two years, he and his supporters were forced into exile and replaced with a republican government.
Lorenzo de' Medici (1449–1492), called "the Magnificent", was more capable of leading and ruling a city, but he neglected the family banking business, which led to its ultimate ruin. To ensure the continuance of his family's success, Lorenzo planned his children's future careers for them. He groomed the headstrong
Piero II to follow as his successor in civil leadership; Giovanni (future
Pope Leo X) was placed in the church at an early age; and his daughter
Maddalena was provided with a sumptuous dowry to make a politically advantageous marriage to a son of
Pope Innocent VIII that cemented the alliance between the Medici and the Roman branches of the
Cybo and
Altoviti families. The
Pazzi conspiracy of 1478 was an attempt to depose the Medici family by killing Lorenzo with his younger brother
Giuliano during Easter services; the assassination attempt ended with the death of Giuliano and an injured Lorenzo. The conspiracy involved the
Pazzi and
Salviati families, both rival banking families seeking to end the influence of the Medici, as well as the priest presiding over the church services, the
Archbishop of Pisa, and even
Pope Sixtus IV to a degree. The conspirators approached Sixtus IV in the hopes of gaining his approval, as he and the Medici had a long rivalry themselves, but the pope gave no official sanction to the plan. Despite his refusal of official approval, the pope nonetheless allowed the plot to proceed without interfering, and, after the failed assassination of Lorenzo, also gave
dispensation for crimes done in the service of the church. After this, Lorenzo adopted his brother's illegitimate son Giulio de' Medici (1478–1535), the future Pope
Clement VII. Lorenzo's son Piero II took over as the head of Florence after Lorenzo's death. The Medici were expelled from Florence from 1494 to 1512 after Piero acceded to all of the demands of invader
Charles VIII of France.
16th century The exile of the Medici lasted until 1512, after which the "senior" branch of the family—those descended from Cosimo the Elder—were able to rule until the assassination of
Alessandro de' Medici, first
Duke of Florence, in 1537. This century-long rule was interrupted only on two occasions (between 1494–1512 and 1527–1530), when anti-Medici factions took control of Florence. Following the assassination of Duke Alessandro, power passed to the "junior" Medici branch—those descended from
Lorenzo the Elder, the youngest son of Giovanni di Bicci, starting with his great-great-grandson
Cosimo I "the Great". Cosimo the Elder and his father started the Medici foundations in banking and manufacturing—including a form of
franchises. The family's influence grew with its patronage of wealth, art, and culture. Ultimately, it reached its zenith in the
papacy and continued to flourish for centuries afterward as Dukes of Florence and Tuscany. At least half, probably more, of Florence's people were employed by the Medici and their foundational branches in business.
Medici popes The Medici briefly became leaders of
Western Christendom through their two famous 16th century popes,
Leo X and
Clement VII. Both also served as
de facto political rulers of Rome, Florence, and large swaths of Italy known as the
Papal States. They were generous patrons of the arts who commissioned masterpieces such as
Raphael's
Transfiguration and
Michelangelo's
The Last Judgment; however, their reigns coincided with troubles for the
Vatican, including
Martin Luther's
Protestant Reformation and the infamous
sack of Rome in 1527. Leo X's pontificate bankrupted Vatican coffers and accrued massive debts. From Leo's election as pope in 1513 to his death in 1521, Florence was overseen, in turn, by
Giuliano de' Medici, Duke of Nemours,
Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Giulio de' Medici, the latter of whom became
Pope Clement VII. Clement VII's tumultuous pontificate was dominated by a rapid succession of political crises—many long in the making—that resulted in the
sack of Rome by the armies of
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1527 and rise of the Salviati, Altoviti and Strozzi as the leading bankers of the
Roman Curia. From the time of Clement's election as pope in 1523 until the sack of Rome, Florence was governed by the young
Ippolito de' Medici (future cardinal and vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church),
Alessandro de' Medici (future duke of Florence), and their guardians. In 1530, after allying himself with Charles V, Pope Clement VII succeeded in securing the engagement of Charles V's daughter
Margeret of Austria to his illegitimate nephew (reputedly his son)
Alessandro de' Medici. Clement also convinced Charles V to name Alessandro as Duke of Florence. Thus began the reign of Medici monarchs in Florence, which lasted two centuries. , founder of the
Grand Duchy of Tuscany After securing Alessandro de' Medici's dukedom, Pope Clement VII married off his first cousin, twice removed,
Catherine de' Medici, to the son of Emperor Charles V's arch-enemy, King
Francis I of France—the future King
Henry II. This led to the transfer of Medici blood, through Catherine's daughters, to the royal family of Spain through
Elisabeth of Valois, and the
House of Lorraine through
Claude of Valois. In 1534, following a lengthy illness, Pope Clement VII died—and with him the stability of the Medici's "senior" branch. In 1535, Ippolito Cardinal de' Medici died under mysterious circumstances. In 1536, Alessandro de' Medici married Charles V's daughter, Margaret of Austria; however, the following year he was assassinated by a resentful cousin,
Lorenzino de' Medici. The deaths of Alessandro and Ippolito enabled the Medici's "junior" branch to lead Florence.
Medici dukes Another outstanding figure of the 16th-century Medici family was Cosimo I, who rose from relatively modest beginnings in the
Mugello to attain supremacy over the whole of
Tuscany. Against the opposition of
Catherine de' Medici,
Pope Paul III and their allies, he prevailed in various battles to conquer Florence's hated rival
Siena and found the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Cosimo purchased a portion of the island of
Elba from the
Republic of Genoa and based the Tuscan navy there. He died in 1574, succeeded by his eldest surviving son
Francesco, whose death without male heirs led to the succession of his younger brother,
Ferdinando, in 1587. Francesco married
Johanna of Austria, and with his consort produced
Eleonora de' Medici, Duchess of Mantua, and
Marie de' Medici, Queen of France and Navarre. Through Marie, all succeeding French monarchs (bar the
Napoleons) were descended from Francesco. Ferdinando eagerly assumed the government of Tuscany. He commanded the draining of the Tuscan marshlands, built a road network in southern Tuscany and cultivated trade in
Livorno. To augment the Tuscan silk industry, he oversaw the planting of
mulberry trees along the major roads (silk worms feed on mulberry leaves). In foreign affairs, he shifted Tuscany away from Habsburg
hegemony by marrying the first non-Habsburg marriage candidate since Alessandro,
Christina of Lorraine, a granddaughter of Catherine de' Medici. The Spanish reaction was to construct a
citadel on their portion of the island of Elba. Francesco and Ferdinando, due to lax distinction between Medici and Tuscan state property, are thought to have been wealthier than their ancestor, Cosimo de' Medici, the founder of the dynasty. The Grand Duke alone had the prerogative to exploit the state's mineral and salt resources, and the fortunes of the Medici were directly tied to the Tuscan economy. Ferdinando's pro-papal foreign policy, however, had drawbacks. Tuscany was overrun with religious orders, not all of whom were obliged to pay taxes. Ferdinando died in 1609, leaving an affluent realm; his inaction in international affairs, however, would have long-reaching consequences down the line. In France, Marie de' Medici was acting as regent for her son,
Louis XIII. Louis repudiated her pro-Habsburg policy in 1617. She lived the rest of her life deprived of any political influence. Ferdinando's successor,
Cosimo II, reigned for less than 12 years. He married Maria Maddalena of Austria, with whom he had his eight children, including
Margherita de' Medici,
Ferdinando II de' Medici, and an
Anna de' Medici. He is most remembered as the patron of astronomer
Galileo Galilei, whose 1610 treatise,
Sidereus Nuncius, was dedicated to him. Cosimo died of consumption (
tuberculosis) in 1621. Cosimo's elder son, Ferdinando, was not yet of legal maturity to succeed him, thus Maria Maddalena and his grandmother, Christina of Lorraine, acted as regents. Their collective regency is known as the
Turtici. Maria Maddelana's temperament was analogous to Christina's, and together they aligned Tuscany with the
papacy, re-doubled the Tuscan clergy, and allowed the
heresy trial of Galileo Galilei to occur. Upon the death of the last
Duke of Urbino (Francesco Maria II), instead of claiming the duchy for Ferdinando, who was married to the Duke of Urbino's granddaughter and heiress,
Vittoria della Rovere, they permitted it to be annexed by
Pope Urban VIII. In 1626, they banned any Tuscan subject from being educated outside the Grand Duchy, a law later overturned, but resurrected by Maria Maddalena's grandson,
Cosimo III.
Harold Acton, an Anglo-Italian historian, ascribed the decline of Tuscany to the
Turtici regency. In 1657,
Leopoldo de' Medici, the Grand Duke's youngest brother, established the
Accademia del Cimento, organized to attract scientists to Florence from all over Tuscany for mutual study. Tuscany participated in the
Wars of Castro (the last time Medicean Tuscany proper was involved in a conflict) and inflicted a defeat on the forces of Pope Urban VIII in 1643. The war effort was costly and the treasury so empty because of it that when the Castro mercenaries were paid for, the state could no longer afford to pay interest on government bonds, with the result that the interest rate was lowered by 0.75%. At that time, the economy was so decrepit that
barter trade became prevalent in rural market places. At the time of his death, the population of the grand duchy was 730,594; the streets were lined with grass and the buildings on the verge of collapse in
Pisa. Ferdinando's marriage to Vittoria della Rovere produced two children: Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and
Francesco Maria de' Medici, Duke of Rovere and Montefeltro. Upon Vittoria's death in 1694, her
allodial possessions, the Duchies of Rovere and
Montefeltro, passed to her younger son.
18th century: the fall of the dynasty , the last of the grand ducal line, in ''Minerva, Merkur und Plutus huldigen der Kurfürstin Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici'' () after
Antonio Bellucci, 1706 Cosimo III married
Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, a granddaughter of
Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici. An exceedingly discontented pairing, this union produced three children, notably
Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, Electress Palatine, and the last Medicean Grand Duke of Tuscany,
Gian Gastone de' Medici.
Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine, Anna Maria Luisa's spouse, successfully requisitioned the dignity
Royal Highness for the Grand Duke and his family in 1691, despite the fact that they had no claim to any kingdom. Cosimo frequently paid the Holy Roman Emperor, his nominal feudal overlord, exorbitant dues, and he sent munitions to the emperor during the
Battle of Vienna. The Medici lacked male heirs, and by 1705, the grand ducal treasury was virtually bankrupt. In comparison to the 17th century, the population of Florence declined by 50%, and the population of the grand duchy as a whole declined by an estimated 40%. Cosimo desperately tried to reach a settlement with the European powers, but Tuscany's legal status was very complicated: the area of the grand duchy formerly comprising the
Republic of Siena was technically a Spanish fief, while the territory of the old
Republic of Florence was thought to be under imperial
suzerainty. Upon the death of his first son, Cosimo contemplated restoring the Florentine republic, either upon Anna Maria Luisa's death, or on his own, if he predeceased her. The restoration of the republic would entail resigning Siena to the Holy Roman Empire, but, regardless, it was vehemently endorsed by his government. Europe largely ignored Cosimo's plan. Only Great Britain and the
Dutch Republic gave any credence to it, and the plan ultimately died with Cosimo III in 1723. On 4 April 1718, Great Britain, France and the Dutch Republic (also later, Austria) selected
Don Carlos of Spain, the elder 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 spectator at the conferences for Tuscany's future. On 25 October 1723, six days before his death, Grand Duke Cosimo disseminated a final proclamation commanding that Tuscany stay independent: Anna Maria Luisa would succeed uninhibited to Tuscany after Gian Gastone, and the grand duke reserved the right to choose his successor. However, these portions of his proclamation were completely ignored, and he died a few days later. Gian Gastone despised the electress for engineering his catastrophic marriage to
Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg; while she abhorred her brother's liberal policies, he repealed all of his father's anti-Semitic statutes. Gian Gastone revelled in upsetting her. On 25 October 1731, a Spanish detachment occupied Florence on behalf of Don Carlos, who disembarked in Tuscany in December of the same year. The
Ruspanti, Gian Gastone's decrepit entourage, loathed the electress, and she them. Duchess
Violante of Bavaria, Gian Gastone's sister-in-law, tried to withdraw the grand duke from the sphere of influence of the
Ruspanti by organising banquets. His conduct at the banquets was less than regal; he often vomited repeatedly into his napkin, belched, and regaled those present with socially inappropriate jokes. Following a sprained ankle in 1731, he remained confined to his bed for the rest of his life. The bed, often smelling of
faeces, was occasionally cleaned by Violante. In 1736, following the
War of the Polish Succession, Don Carlos was disbarred from Tuscany, and
Francis III of Lorraine was made heir in his stead. In January 1737, the Spanish troops withdrew from Tuscany, and were replaced by Austrians. Gian Gastone died on 9 July 1737, surrounded by prelates and his sister. Anna Maria Luisa was offered a nominal
regency by the Prince de Craon until the new grand duke could peregrinate to Tuscany, but declined. Upon her brother's death, she received all the House of Medici's allodial possessions. Anna Maria Luisa signed the
Patto di Famiglia ("family pact") on 31 October 1737. In collaboration with the Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke Francis of Lorraine, she
willed all the personal property of the Medici to the Tuscan state, provided that nothing was ever removed from Florence. The "Lorrainers", as the occupying forces were called, were popularly loathed, but the regent, the Prince de Craon, allowed the electress to live unperturbed in the
Palazzo Pitti. She occupied herself with financing and overseeing the construction of the
Basilica of San Lorenzo, started in 1604 by
Ferdinando I, at a cost to the state of 1,000 crowns per week. The electress donated much of her fortune to charity: £4,000 a month. On 19 February 1743, she died, and the grand ducal line of the House of Medici died with her. The Florentines grieved her, and she was interred in the crypt that she helped to complete, San Lorenzo. The extinction of the main Medici dynasty and the accession in 1737 of
Francis Stephen,
Duke of Lorraine and husband of
Maria Theresa of Austria, led to Tuscany's temporary inclusion in the territories of the
Austrian crown. The line of the
Princes of Ottajano, an extant branch of the House of Medici who were eligible to inherit the grand duchy of Tuscany when the last male of the senior branch died in 1737, could have carried on as Medici sovereigns but for the intervention of Europe's major powers, which allocated the sovereignty of Florence elsewhere. As a consequence, the grand duchy expired and the territory became a
secundogeniture of the
Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty. The first grand duke of the new dynasty, Francis I, was a great-great-great-grandson of Francesco I de' Medici, thus he continued the Medicean Dynasty on the throne of Tuscany through the female line. The Habsburgs were deposed in favor of the
House of Bourbon-Parma in 1801 (themselves deposed in 1807), but were later restored at the
Congress of Vienna. Tuscany became a province of the United Kingdom of Italy in 1861. However, several extant branches of the House of Medici survive, including the
Princes of Ottajano, the Medici Tornaquinci, (see
Medici family tree) ==Legacy==