The Medici: A chronology
1500-1599
1500
Niccolò Machiavelli visits the French court to ask Louis
XII to help Florence recover Pisa.
1503
Piero de' Medici dies in a shipwreck, never having returned to Florence. The Medici's money, political aspirations and power now pass to Piero's brothers: Giovanni, the cardinal, and Giuliano, the future Duke of Nemours. Giuliano gives himself the nickname 'Popolesco' – man of the people.
1504
25 January: Michelangelo's David, begun in 1501, is finished and erected in front of Florence's town hall as a symbol of resistance against the Medici.
The Medici, Michelangelo and the Art of Late Renaissance Florence
www.artic.edu/aic/exhibitions/michelangelo.html
Website of an exhibition held at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002-03. The 'Exhibition Themes' section has a great deal of information on the patronage of the arts carried out by the Medici throughout their history, plus reproductions of significant works.
1506
Machiavelli obtains the Florentine government's approval to hire
and train Florentine men for military service instead of using mercenaries,
who proved so unsuccessful against Pisa.
1509
The Florentines recover Pisa.
1510
Alessandro de' Medici is born, bastard son of the cardinal Giovanni de' Medici and Simonetta da Ilavechio. Alessandro is known as 'the Moor', possibly because his mother is black.
1512
Pope Julius II gives Giovanni and Giuliano de' Medici a papal army to retake Florence. Machiavelli forms a Florentine militia of 12,000. But after the Medici forces sack the nearby town of Prato on 29 August, Florence surrenders, and two days later, the Medici are back in control.
With the return of the Medici, Machiavelli loses his job as an official of
the republic and is exiled, the Medici ignoring all his appeals for employment.
He gets his revenge by writing The Prince (1513-14), in which, using
what he has observed under the Medici and during the republic, he presents
the ideal of an active, astute prince able to create a strongly centralised
state in Italy. He also gives posterity the basic notion that politics are
divorced from ethics. He dies in 1527.
History of Florence: Lorenzo de' Medici
www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/machiavelli-histflo-lorenzo.html
Machiavelli's take on the Magnificent one.
1513
Giovanni de' Medici becomes Pope Leo X. He makes his cousin Giulio archbishop of Florence and, later, a cardinal.
1514
Raphael completes his fresco The Repulse of Attila by Pope Leo I. The pope pictured is actually Leo X (Giovanni de' Medici), although the work was originally commissioned by his predecessor Julius II who died the year before.
The Making of a Master
www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/raphael/feature.htm
Discussion of Raphael's early influences, as seen in the National Gallery (London) 2004/05 exhibition Raphael: From Urbino to Rome.
1516
17 March: Pietro de' Medici's son Lorenzo de' Medici, head of the Medici regime in Florence, is proclaimed Duke of Urbino by his uncle Pope Leo X after Lorenzo defeats the previous Duke.
Leo X undergoes an operation for an abscessed anal ulcer.
Michelangelo leaves Rome and returns to Florence, where he will remain for a decade working for, first, Leo X and then Clement VII, designing a facade and a new sacristy for San Lorenzo, carving two Medici tombs and creating the Biblioteca Laurenziana (see 1571).
1517
The German monk Martin Luther writes the 95 Theses, primarily in protest at the huge increase in the sale of indulgences allowed by Leo X. (Indulgences are payments to the Church that are supposed to shorten a person's time in Purgatory, or even that of a loved one.) Luther's posting of the Theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg is often seen as the beginning of the Reformation.
1519
13 April: Caterina de' Medici is born, daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino (who dies of syphilis eight days before she is born), and Madeleine de la Tour d’Auvergne.
Florence is now ruled by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici.
Catherine de' Medici
www.newadvent.org/cathen/03443a.htm
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, a thorough and interesting biography of the Medici who became queen of France.
1519
15 June: Cosimo de' Medici (the future Cosimo I) is born, only child of Giovanni delle Bande Nere and Maria Salviati.
1520
Michelangelo begins the Sagrestia Nuova in the church of San Lorenzo. This mausoleum, commissioned by Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, was intended to provide tombs for Pope Leo X, Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano, plus Giuliano, Duke of Urbino, and Lorenzo, Duke of Nemours and son of Pietro lo Sfortunato. However, only the tombs for the last two are completed.
1521
Giovanni delle Bande Nere – with his Black Bands of mercenaries, so called because of their black uniform – captures Milan from the French for Pope Leo X (Giovanni de' Medici). This Medici condottiere is kept constantly on the battlefield by both Leo X and Clement VII to, it is said, prevent him from defecting or usurping their Medici power.
1 December: Leo X dies of a 'winter chill' – probably malaria,
which he contracted at Malliana when supervising the manoeuvres of the
papal army.
1523
Following the death of Pope Adrian VI, Leo X's cousin Giulio becomes Pope Clement VII. He abdicates as ruler of Florence in favour of two illegitimate Medici: Alessandro, bastard son of the Duke of Urbino, and Ippolito, bastard son of Giuliano, Duke of Nemours.
1525
24 February: At the siege of Pavia, Giovanni delle Bande Nere is shot in the leg by a firearm. The wound refuses to heal.
1526
Discontent and rebellion, especially by the powerful Colonna family, erupt in Rome against Clement VII. He takes refuge in the Castel Sant' Angelo, reaching it via a secret passage. Released when he agrees to everything that his enemies demand, he later attacks the Colonna family, laying waste to their estates and razing their castle to the ground.
November: Giovanni delle Bande Nere leads his mercenaries against
Charles V's forces at Governola. Another bullet hits his already injured
leg, shattering it. It is amputated, but the greatest Medici soldier
dies anyway.
1527
May: The sack of Rome by the (mainly Lutheran) army of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V. Some 8,000 are murdered on the first day. Under siege in the Castel Sant' Angelo for seven months, Clement VII hears little news.
17 May: Florence throws out the representatives of the Medici, Alessandro and Ippolito. A lethal epidemic kills several thousand inhabitants.
Clement gets word of the situation in Florence and also that some of the papal states want to become independent. He decides to take the risk and escapes Rome dressed as a pedlar.
1528
October: Clement returns to Rome, having made a conciliatory approach to the emperor, who agrees to send his army against Florence.
1529
Siege of Florence: the city's inhabitants – including Michelangelo
– withstand the combined might of Charles V and Clement VII for 10 months,
before finally surrendering on 12 August 1530. Clement deals extremely
punitively with the rebels.
1532
1 May: Alessandro de' Medici announces that the Florentine republic is abolished. He has the Vacca – the bell that, for centuries, has summoned the populace to defend their rights and liberties – lowered from its belfry and melted. Alessandro is made Duke of Florence by Charles V and Clement VII; his cousin Ippolito is made cardinal to prevent him from competing with Alessandro.
For the first time, a Florentine coin – designed by Benvenuto Cellini – is minted that bears the head of a sovereign: Alessandro.
Florence's population of 60,000 is half of what it was in 1529.
Benvenuto Cellini
www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/c/cellini/biograph.html
Short biography of the goldsmith and sculptor, famed for his racy autobiography.
1533
28 October: Caterina de' Medici, daughter of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino, marries Henri, duc d'Orleans, son of Francois I, king of France. Her uncle Pope Clement VII regards her as a useful pawn in his game of international diplomacy. Unfortunately, when he dies the following year, Caterina's importance to the French court fades.
The First Ladies' High-heeled Shoe
www.skirtman.org/1st_high_heels.html
Article on Caterina de' Medici's contribution to women's footwear. Fanciful but probably based on fact.
1534
25 September: Alessandro builds the Fortezza da Basso, a fortress intended to intimidate his newly chastened subjects rather than impress enemies outside.
Clement VII dies. Many Florentines light bonfires of joy. Clement's grave is robbed several times, and his body is mutilated – one time being found with a sword thrust through its chest.
1535
10 August: Alessandro de' Medici has his cousin Ippolito poisoned.
1536
10 August: Dauphin Francois, the French king's heir, dies suddenly. Henri, duc d'Orleans, married to Caterina de' Medici, takes his place in the line of succession.
1537
6 January: Alessandro's jealous cousin Lorenzino tricks him to come to what the Duke thinks will be a tryst with Lorenzino's sister Laudomia, a beautiful widow. Instead, Lorenzino murders him in cold blood.
For fear of starting an uprising if news of his death gets out, Medici officials wrap Alessandro's corpse in a carpet and secretly carry it to the cemetery of San Lorenzo, where it is hurriedly buried.
Holy Roman emperor Charles V chooses the 18-year-old Cosimo, son of Giovanni delle Bande Nere, to succeed the murdered Alessandro – as Cosimo I – and on 28 February he is declared an hereditary duke. From now on, Florence will be ruled by members of the cadet branch of the de' Medici family, descended from Lorenzo de' Medici, the second son of the founder Giovanni.
The Strozzi conspiracy: Some 200 members of the most distinguished Florentine
families – exiled after the Siege of Florence in 1529-30 – gather round
the standard of Filippo Strozzi (who is married to a Medici) in opposition
to the new Duke, who rules Florence by virtue of foreign armies.
31 July: Cosimo I defeats them at the battle of Montemurlo. All the remaining rebels are killed, some after trial but many others meet 'accidental' violent and highly suspicious deaths, all attributable to Cosimo I. Thus all the rival families to the Medici disappear.
The Medici Archive Project
www.medici.org
Website of the project to translate and disseminate the archive of the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany (1537-1743), housed in the Archivio di Stato in Florence. Check out the 'Document highlights' section: particularly fascinating insights into life at the top, accompanied by good background information.
Crafting the Medici
www.brown.edu/Facilities/David_Winton_Bell_Gallery/medici.html
Website of an exhibition held at Brown University in the US in 1999. Contains an introductory article on the grand dukes as patrons, plus a number of works of art, including portraits of various members of the Medici dynasty.
1539
29 June: Cosimo I marries Eleonora da Toledo, daughter of the Spanish viceroy of Naples.
1540
Cosimo I moves his residence to the Palazzo della Signoria, indicating symbolically that he is now the supreme authority in Florence. Over the years, Giorgio Vasari – Cosimo's 'minister of culture' and chief spin doctor – will decorate many of the rooms of the palace.
Giorgio Vasari
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/giorgio.vasari/vaspref.htm
Extracts from Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, first published in Florence in 1550, plus many examples of the artists' work.
1541
The future Francesco I, son of Cosimo I and Eleonora da Toledo, is born.
1543
Cosimo agrees to provide 100,000 scudi to the Holy Roman emperor Charles V, who is desperate for money to finance his war with the French. In return, Charles agrees to withdraw the imperial garrisons in Florence and Leghorn. Tuscany is finally free of a foreign military presence. Cosimo writes: 'We ... recognise as our benefactor no one save God.'
1547
31 March: The French king Francois I dies. He is succeeded by his son as Henri II. Caterina de' Medici becomes Queen of France.
1548
Lorenzino de' Medici, Alessandro's murderer, is himself murdered in Venice by assassins hired by Cosimo I.
1549
30 July: The future Ferdinando I is born, son of Cosimo I and Eleonora da Toledo. The latter buys the Pitti Palace, which she and Cosimo (and their descendants) enlarge and remodel.
1554
Cosimo I commissions Benvenuto Cellini to produce a statue of Perseus to
be placed in front of the Palazzo della Signoria.
1555
17 April: Cosimo I defeats his most implacable enemy, the republic of Siena, after laying siege to it and starving it. Its population falls from 14,000 to 6,000.
1559
Montalcino – run as a state by exiles from Siena - surrenders to Cosimo I. His campaign to make Tuscany a unified state is now complete.
1560
Cosimo I's son Giovanni is made a cardinal.
1562
Cosimo I's wife Eleonora and two of their sons – Garcia and Cardinal Giovanni – die from malaria after a visit to the swampy Maremma.
In a move to help 'aristocratise' Florence's great families, Cosimo establishes the Order of Santo Stefano, a crusading order modelled on the chivalric fraternities of Europe's monarchies. In exchange for their titles, members agree to protect the Tuscan coast from pirates.
Malaria, not murder, killed Medicis
www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hsrich0309,0,2485634.story?
coll=ny-top-headlines
Article about the exhumation of the remains of Eleonora, Garcia and Giovanni, which has disproved the rumour that Garcia killed Giovanni and was then run through with a sword by his father.
1564
Cosimo I makes his son Francesco regent, while retaining all ducal titles.
The future Ferdinando I, aged 14, becomes a cardinal.
February: Following Michelangelo's death in Rome, Cosimo I arranges for his body to be brought to Florence and buried in the church of Santa Croce.
1565
18 December: The future Francesco I marries Archduchess
Joanna of Austria, daughter of Emperor Ferdinand.
1569
Cosimo I is named the Grand Duke of Tuscany by Pope Pius V, thus raising him above all the other princes of Italy.
1570
Cosimo I, aged 51, marries his mistress Camilla Martelli.
1571
Cosimo I opens to the public the Biblioteca Laurenziana, the priceless library founded by the first Cosimo de' Medici and extended by Lorenzo the Magnificent. After the fall of the Medici, it was entrusted to the priests of San Marco, then carried off to Rome by Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici (later Pope Leo X). It was finally returned to Florence by Pope Clement VII, who commissioned Michelangelo to build the splendid building that now houses it.
Giorgio Vasari finishes the frescoes that Cosimo I has commissioned for the Sala del Maggior Consiglio.
1574
21 April: Cosimo I dies and is succeeded by his son Francesco I, who is interested in science and alchemy and is carrying on an affair with Bianca Capello, a Venice beauty.
Vincenzo Galilei moves his family, including the 10-year old Galileo, from Pisa to Florence.
1578
April: Francesco I's first wife, the 30-year-old Joanna
of Austria, dies in childbirth. Francesco marries Bianca Capello, spending
300,000 florins on the wedding. Bianca's new brother-in-law Ferdinando
spreads rumours that she has the 'evil eye' and may be a witch.
1587
October: Francesco I and Bianca die on the same day, possibly poisoned. She is refused burial in the family tomb. Francesco is succeeded by his brother Ferdinando I. The latter gives up his cardinal's hat and marries Christine de Lorraine, grand-daughter of Caterina de' Medici, Queen of France.
1588
Ferdinando I appoints Galileo professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa.
1589
5 January: Caterina de' Medici dies.
1590
12 May: The future Cosimo II is born, son of Ferdinando I and Christine de Lorraine.
