The following account of the assassination of Alexander de’ Medici is
taken from Sismondi’s _Histoire des Républiques Italiennes du Moyen
Age_, Paris, 1826, vol. xvi. p. 95 et seq.:--
“But few months had elapsed since Alexander’s marriage, and he had
employed them in his wonted debauchery, carrying depravity and dishonour
alternately into the convents and noblest abodes of Florence, when, on
January 6, 1537, he was assassinated by the man whom, of all men, he
the least mistrusted. This was his cousin, Lorenzino de’ Medici....
Lorenzino had already helped Alexander to seduce several women of noble
birth; and to facilitate his assignations had often lent him his house,
which adjoined the ducal residence in the Via Larga. He engaged to bring
the Duke the wife of Leonardo Ginori--sister to his own mother, but much
younger than she was. Alexander had long been struck with this lady’s
beauty, but so far she had virtuously repulsed him. After supper,
however, on the day of the feast of the Epiphany, when the Carnival
begins, Lorenzino informed the Duke that if he would repair to his
house, unaccompanied and observing the greatest secrecy, he would find
Catherine Ginori there. Alexander accepted the assignation, dismissed
all his guards, rid himself of all those who wished to keep a watch upon
him, and entered Lorenzino’s house without being perceived. He was tired
and wished to rest awhile, but before throwing himself on the bed he
unbuckled his sword, and Lorenzino, on taking it from him to hang it
at the head of the bedstead, wound the belt around the hilt in such a
fashion that the weapon could not be easily drawn from its scabbard.
After telling the Duke to rest whilst he went to fetch his aunt, he
went away, locking the door of the room behind him; but returned shortly
afterwards with a spadassin, nicknamed Scoronconcolo, whom he had
previously engaged, for the purpose, he said, of ridding him of a great
personage of the Court whose name he had prudently not given. In fact
Lorenzino had carried his design to the very point of execution without
taking a single person into his confidence. On returning into the room,
followed by Scoronconcolo, he called to the Duke: ‘Are you asleep, my
lord?’ and at the same moment transpierced him with a short sword which
he was carrying. Alexander, although mortally wounded, tried to resist
his murderer, whereupon Lorenzino, to prevent him from crying out,
thrust two of his fingers into his mouth, at the same time exclaiming:
‘Be not afraid, my lord.’ Alexander, it appears, bit his assailant’s
fingers with all the strength of his jaws, and holding him in a tight
embrace, rolled with him about the bed, so that Scoronconcolo was unable
to strike the one without striking the other. He endeavoured to get at
the Duke from between Lorenzino’s legs, but only succeeded in piercing
the mattress, till at last he remembered that he had a knife about him,
and drove it into the Duke’s throat, turning it round and round until he
eventually killed him. (1)
1 Bened. Varchi, lib. xv.; Bern. Segni, 1. vii.; Filippo de
Nerli, 1. xii.; Gio. Batt. Adriani, 1. i.; Scipione
Ammirato, 1. xxxi.; Pauli Jovii. Hist. 1. xxxviii.; Istorie
di Marco Guazzo, fol. 159.
“Lorenzino failed to reap the fruits of the crime, which he had planned
with so much skill and such profound secrecy. By the life he had led, he
had aroused the distrust of all honest folks, he had no friends to whom
he could apply for advice or help, he had no party behind him, he had
never been known to display that zeal for liberty which he subsequently
affected. Although he was the first of the Medici in the order of
succession, no one thought of him. For his own part, he only thought of
ensuring his safety. He locked the door of the room, taking the key away
with him, and having obtained an order for the city gates to be opened,
and for post-horses to be provided for him, under pretence that he had
just learned that his brother was ill, in the country, he started for
Bologna, whence he proceeded to Venice, accompanied by Scoronconcolo.”