ELEANORA DEGLI ALBIZZI
SFORZA ALMENI
CAMMILLA DE' MARTELLI
_Pathetic Victims of Fateful Passion_
"_Di fare il piacere di Cosimo_"--To serve for Cosimo's pleasure! In
such words, an immoral father condemned his lovely daughter to feed the
unholy lust of the "Tyrant of Florence"--Moloch was never better served.
Eleanora and Cammilla, cousins after the flesh, were each dedicated as a
_cosa di Cosimo_--the property of Cosimo. If he did not murder their
bodies, he slew their souls--that was the manner of the man, the fashion
of his time.
Romantic attachments, full of thrilling pathos, ran then like golden
threads through the vulgar woof and web of woe and death. Someone has
said that "Love and murder are next of kin"; true, indeed, was this what
time Eleanora and Cammilla were fresh young girls in Florence. They were
each made for love, and love they had; but that love was the embrace of
a living death, selfish, cruel, and damning. Better, perhaps, had they
died right out by sword or poison than suffer, as they did, the
extremity of pathos--the shame of illicit love!
* * * * *
The tragedy of Eleanora degli Albizzi was, perhaps, the most callous and
the most pathetic of all those lurid domestic vicissitudes which traced
their source to the "Tyrant of Florence," Cosimo I., Grand Duke of
Tuscany.
She was not the only Eleanora whose name as, alas, we know, spelled
misfortune. Eleanora de Toledo of the broken heart, and Eleanora de
Garzia de Toledo of the bleeding heart, awaited in Paradise Eleanora
degli Albizzi of the heart of desertion.
"_Albizzi o Medici_?" had once and again divided the power of Florence,
but in the course of high play in the game of politics the latter held
the better hands, drew more trumps, and gained rubber after rubber. But
what a splendid record the Albizzi had! When the Medici were only
tentatively placing their feet upon the ladder of fame, Orlando,
Filippo, Piero, Luca, and Maso--to name a few only of those leaders of
men and women--had scored the name Albizzi as _Anziani, Priori,
Gonfalonieri_, and _Capitani di Parte Guelfa_.
In fact that aristocratic family dominated Florence and the Florentines
until Salvestro, Giovanni, and Cosimo, of the democratic Medici,
disputed place and power, and built up their fortunes upon the ruins of
their rivals' faults and favours.
Eleanora was the daughter of Messer Luigi di Messer Maso degli Albizzi.
This Messer Maso, a hundred years before, had not seen eye to eye with
his masterful brother--the autocratic Rinaldo, but, noting the trend of
political affairs, had, truth to tell, turned traitor to the traditions
of his family, and had thrown in his lot with the rising house of
Medici.
Messer Luigi was not a rich man, but in fairly comfortable
circumstances, and slowly retrieving the shattered fortunes of his
ancestors. His mansion was in the fashionable Borgo degli Albizzi, and
he owned other town property and some farms in the _contado_. He held,
too, several public offices, and was an aspirant to a Podestaship, as a
stepping-stone to that most coveted of all State appointments, the rank
of ambassador.
In some way or another he gained the favourable notice of Duke Cosimo,
and seems to have rendered him some acceptable service: at all events,
he found himself at home in the entourage of the Sovereign. By his
second wife, Madonna Nannina, daughter of Messer Niccolo de' Soderini--a
lineal descendant of the self-seeking and notorious adviser of Don Piero
de' Medici--he had two daughters, Constanza and Eleanora, named after
her godmother, the Duchess Eleanora.
Constanza was married to Antonio de' Ridolfi, the same year that the
poor broken-hearted Duchess sobbed herself to death at Pisa after the
terrible tragedies of 1557 and 1562, and Messer Luigi was left with
Eleanora, the pride of her father's heart, the joy of his home. As
beautiful as any girl in Florence, she was just sixteen, highly
accomplished, full of spirits, and endowed with some of that pride and
haughty bearing which had distinguished her forbears. She had, in short,
all the makings of a successful woman of the world.
Admitted to intimacy and companionship with the children of the Duke, he
had noted the graceful development of the bright young girl's physical
and mental charms; and he had given evidence of his interest in her by
many pleasant courtesies, both to herself and to her parents.
Messer Luigi soon observed the partiality of his Sovereign for his
fascinating young daughter, and being a man anxious, after the manner of
a true Florentine, even in those degenerate days, to better himself and
his family, he saw that something more than mere romance could be made
out of the situation. The commercial assets of his daughter's person
loomed large in his estimation, for if the Duke took a serious fancy to
Eleanora, it was conceivable that she might one day become his consort!
When the girl told her father of the Duke's kindness to her, and of his
embraces and tender words, he counselled her not to repel her admirer,
for what he meant was all for her good and for the distinction of her
family. The _liaison_ went on unrebuked, encouraged by Cosimo's promises
and Luigi's hopes. Nannina's tears of apprehension were brushed aside by
Eleanora's kisses.
Very tactfully Messer Luigi let the Duke know that his attentions were
acceptable, and that he and his good wife were vastly honoured by his
condescension to their daughter. In view of favours to come, he plainly
intimated that Eleanora was quite at his disposal, or, as he put it,
quite courtier-like, _di fare il piacere di Cosimo_!
The Duke needed no encouragement as the universal lover and ravisher of
the most comely maidens in Florence. He was only too pleased to carry
off this charming young _druda_ to his villa at Castello, and Eleanora
was nothing loth to go--the prospect of a throne has always been an
irresistible attraction to women in all ages!
Cosimo's sons were well aware, as indeed, was the whole Court and the
city too, of their father's love affairs. The Duke and the Prince-Regent
Francesco were mutually suspicious, and fawning, faithless courtiers
fanned the flame of jealousy and mistrust between them. The father threw
Bianca Cappello into his son's face, and he, in exchange, flung back
Eleanora degli Albizzi! At length, Cosimo desisted from the acrimonious
warfare, content to let things be as they might be at the Pitti Palace
and Pratolino, whilst he was left in seclusion with his _innamorata_ at
Castello. Cardinal Ferdinando, a boy of fifteen, lived in Rome, and
Don Piero, only ten, was indifferent to such matters, but Duchess
Isabella of Bracciano was intensely interested, an amiable go-between
her father and Don Francesco. Cosimo did nothing with respect to
removing the reproach attached to his intrigue with Eleanora degli
Albizzi, and, consequently, when in December 1566, a little girl was
born to him, the whole of Florence was conventionally shocked. Duchess
Giovanna, Don Francesco's sanctimonious Austrian wife, offered a
vigorous protest, and declined to have anything to do with the
unfortunate young mother and her dissolute old lover. Her feeling ran so
strongly, both with respect to the _liaison_ of Cosimo and to her
husband's intrigue with the "beautiful Venetian," that she made an
urgent appeal to her brother, the Emperor Maximilian to intervene.
It was said that the young Duchess sent a copy of her letter to Duke
Cosimo, who was furious at her conduct. He asked her by what right she
had dared to stir up ill-will at the Imperial court, and advised her to
mind her own business in the future. To the Emperor Cosimo, addressed a
dignified reply to the Imperial censure: "I do not seek for quarrels,"
he said, "but I shall not avoid them if they are put in my way by
members of my own family."
What Messer Luigi and Madonna Nannina degli Albizzi thought and said, no
one has related. They could not say much by way of complaint, for they
had foreseen, from the beginning of the Duke's intimacy with Eleanora,
that an "accident," as they euphemistically called it, was to be
expected. They had, in fact, sold their child to her seducer, and must
be content with their bargain!
Cosimo, for his part, was delighted with his dear little daughter, come
to cheer the autumn of his life. He loaded Eleanora with presents,
watched by her bedside assiduously, and told her joyfully that he meant
to marry her and so legitimatise their little child. Born at Messer
Luigi's, the baby girl was anxiously watched lest emissaries from the
Pitti Palace should try to get hold of her.
The Duke made indeed no secret of his pleasure, and moreover consulted
with his most trusted personal attendant, Sforza Almeni, how the
legitimatisation could be best effected, so as to secure for the little
lady a goodly share in the Ducal patrimony, and also a pension in
perpetuity for the mother, Eleanora.
This Sforza Almeni, when quite a youth, had been attached to the
household of Duke Alessandro. He was the son of Messer Vincenzio Almeni,
a gentleman of Perugia, and, when the Duke was assassinated by Lorenzino
de' Medici, he performed the first charitable offices of the dead upon
the bleeding body. Moreover, young Almeni's father was a faithful friend
and confidant of Madonna Maria de' Salviati, the mother of Cosimo. In
consequence of the devotion of both father and son, Sforza was taken
into the household of the new Duke and eventually became his private
secretary.
With Duchess Eleanora, Sforza became a great favourite, for he was most
sympathetic and helpful in her schemes for the advancement and
protection of her Spanish protégés. Both Cosimo and his consort bestowed
many benefactions upon their faithful servitor. Among them was a
monopoly in the supply of fish from Perugia to Florence, a privilege
which put, upon the average, a good six hundred gold florins per annum
into Messer Sforza's pocket!
The Duke also conferred upon his fortunate and trusty counsellor
valuable property in the parish of San Piero a Quintole, a farm and
buildings at Fiesole, and lastly, in 1565, a very fertile estate at
Peccioli, originally the property of Piero de' Salviati.
Had Messer Sforza Almeni only been content with these opulent
benefactions, all might have gone well with him; but, alas, human
ambition and the interests of self lead good men often enough astray,
and the Duke's private secretary began to look for favours at the hands
of the heir to the Ducal throne, the Prince-Regent Francesco. In short,
he attempted to serve two masters.
With a view to obtain the good graces of Don Francesco, Almeni began a
system of betraying confidences of a strictly private and familiar
character. Blessed with the spirit of flattery, like all consummate
courtiers, he conceived it to be a stroke of excellent personal policy
to purvey for his Highness' appreciation or the reverse, his father's
intimate concerns.
He repeated the conversation the old Duke and he had held about Eleanora
degli Albizzi and her child, and advised the Prince, for his own
advantage, to inform his father that any steps he might take to advance
his _innamorata_ or their bastard, would be resented by him as Regent of
the Duchy. Apparently Almeni did not regard the young mother with
lenient eyes, but viewed her ascendency over the infatuated Duke with
disfavour, as offering rivalry to his own position.
Francesco, smarting under his father's strictures in respect to his
amours with Bianca Buonaventuri, and resenting his constant interference
in his private affairs no less than in his public duties, was only too
ready to give ear to any scandal which he might turn to good account. At
first he kept his own counsel, but one day, being unusually exasperated
with words of reproach uttered by his father, Francesco proclaimed his
displeasure at, and opposition to, the views of the Duke with respect to
Eleanora degli Albizzi.
Cosimo knew at once how his secret had been exposed, and by whom. He
managed to control his passion, but indignantly retorted that there was
a son's duty to a father which should have taught Francesco to
disbelieve unfavourable rumours. He returned at once to Castello.
Sforza Almeni, of course, entirely ignorant that Prince Francesco had
unwittingly betrayed him, presented himself as usual before the Duke to
learn his pleasure. Cosimo addressed him sternly: "Almeni, you have
betrayed my confidence. You, who of all men I trusted implicitly! Go,
get out of my sight. Go at once anywhere you will--only go--never let me
see your face again!"
Almeni, dumfounded, set off at once for Florence. He knew too well
Cosimo's temper to bandy words, and sought interviews with Prince
Francesco and the Duchess Isabella. With their knowledge he remained in
the city, perhaps faintly hoping the Duke might relent and send for him
back. A few days later Cosimo went into Florence, and passing through an
ante-chamber at the Pitti Palace, he was astounded to see Almeni calmly
standing in the recess of a window.
No one else was in the room, and, as Almeni saluted his master and
proceeded to make an appeal for mercy, Cosimo became infuriated at his
disobedience and impertinence, and, reaching up to a hunting-trophy on
the wall, he seized a stout boar-spear, and cried out in a loud
voice--"Traitor, base traitor, thou art not fit to live, thou hast
slandered thy master and fouled thy nest! Die!"
With a sudden thrust he struck the affrighted Almeni to the heart. It
was a fatal wound, for, with a shriek of agony, the unhappy man fell at
his master's feet, the shaft of the weapon still fast in his wound. The
day was Wednesday, 22nd May 1566, the Eve of the Annunciation. The
corpse lay there for several hours, and no questions were asked as to
how and by whom Almeni had been done to death. At nightfall the
_Misericordia_ brethren wound him to his burial in the secret vaults of
the dismantled church of San Piero Scheraggio.
* * * * *
In less than a month after the murder of Sforza Almeni, Cosimo's
dearly-loved little daughter died in sudden convulsions, due, it was
reported, to the administration of poison. Eleanora was inconsolable,
and the Duke did all he could to comfort her. He organised fêtes and
hunting-parties for her, and both at Castello and, even in Florence, he
drove with her quite openly, treating her as his lawful wife.
Early in the following year Eleanora was once more _enceinte_ and, on
13th May, she became the mother of another child, a boy, whom Cosimo
declared was a true likeness of his famous father, Giovanni "delle Bande
Nere," and consequently that name was given him. The Duke's happiness
knew no bounds, but the arrival of this second child, born out of
wedlock and in the face of the hot displeasure of Duke Francesco and
Duchess Giovanna, was the disenchantment of Cosimo's love-dream. The
_liaison_ could not continue, and, truth to tell, Cosimo himself was
the cause of its cessation. The lustful old man had seen another lovely
girl in Florence, and Eleanora's star became dimmed in the new
effulgence!
Eleanora's recovery and convalescence were not this time marked by the
devotion of her lover, he never so much as went near her, although she
was at Castello all the time and Giovanni was born there. The
disillusionment of them both was as immediate as it was dramatic. It was
reported that the Pope had written a remonstrance to Cosimo, and hinted
that the creation of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, which the Duke
earnestly coveted, was entirely out of the question until he had put
away his mistress, and had renounced the errors of his way.
It may have been court gossip, but one reason for Duke Cosimo's drastic
treatment of his _innamorata_, was the intimacy which had sprung up
between Eleanora and his own precocious and vivacious son, Piero. If the
father had fouled his couch, he could not allow his own son access
thereto as well.
Then it was that Duke Cosimo missed the intelligent services of
faithful, faithless Sforza Almeni--he would have done the dirty work of
extricating his master from his false position as well, or better, than
any one else. Eleanora and he had from the first been rivals for the
confidences of the Duke, and hated each other heartily. She had good
grounds doubtless for her contempt and distrust, by reason of the
heartless and mean insinuations affecting her manner of life, which the
trusty private secretary poured into the perhaps too ready ears of his
master.
The solution, however, of Cosimo's dilemma came quite suddenly from a
perfectly unexpected quarter--from the Pitti Palace. Francesco and
Giovanna had never ceased trying to detach the old debauchee from his
lascivious entanglements. His conduct was fatal to the reputation and
the authority of his successor.
On 17th July a party of young men of good family riding out of one of
the gates of the city, encountered another like company. One of the
former, Carlo de' Panciatichi, accidentally cannoned against Jacopo
d'Antonio, and the latter dismounted and demanded satisfaction for the
presumed insult. A duel was promptly arranged, in which young
Panciatichi dealt his opponent a fatal blow with his dagger. D'Antonio
fell and was carried to the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, where he died
three days after.
By Duke Cosimo's recent enactment, such an occurrence was counted as a
criminal offence, which required purgation by the payment of a heavy
fine, failure to pay being punished by sentence of death. The _Otto di
Guardia e Balia_ met and deliberated the matter, and imposed a fine of
four thousand gold lire. This sum Messer Bartolommeo de' Panciatichi,
Carlo's father, was unable to pay, and, in consequence, the lad was
required to surrender himself for incarceration in the dungeons of the
Bargello.
Carlo de' Panciatichi failed to report himself, and his sentence bore
the added punishment for contempt of court. The unhappy father appealed
for mercy, and, because the law of the Ducal Court was superior to that
of the State, threw himself upon the protection of Duke Francesco.
It was woman's wit which now untied the knot twisted about the young
man's throat. The Duchess Giovanna has, by some, been credited with the
origination of the tactful expedient, but some say Bianca Buonaventuri
was its inspiratrix. Anyhow, the solution came in a form agreeable to
all parties concerned, namely, the full pardon of the criminal--on
condition of his immediate marriage with Eleanora degli Albizzi!
Carlo de' Panciatichi was thus made the scapegoat for Duke Cosimo's
intrigue. The sentence of the _Otto_ was quashed by the payment by the
Duke of the heavy fine imposed in the first case; and in response to
Duke Francesco's request, the charge of contempt was withdrawn. Neither
Carlo nor Eleanora were consulted in the matter, but she was laden with
costly presents by Duke Cosimo, and ten thousand gold florins found
their way into Carlo's empty pockets!
This timely arrangement was made on 20th July, and Carlo and Eleanora
became man and wife the following month. Duke Cosimo on the same day
caused little Giovanni to be legitimatised, and he was entered in the
Register of Baptisms as "Giovanni de' Medici, undoubted son of Cosimo I.
Duke of Florence and Siena." An ample provision was made for the child's
maintenance by the Duke, and Carlo de' Panciatichi agreed to his being
an inmate in his house along with his mother.
The marriage was celebrated privately in the presence of the two Dukes,
in the chapel of the Pitti Palace, and the young couple at once took up
their residence at the Panciatichi Palace in the Via Larga. Upon Carlo
was conferred the order of "Knight of San Stefano," and Messer
Bartolommeo, his father, was enrolled as a senator for life.
It would appear that Eleanora abandoned herself to her new life with
exemplary fortitude and resignation. She certainly had exchanged "new
lamps for old," and she made the best of an honourable marriage, in
spite of the violent and arrogant manner of her husband, whose fame as a
violent _braggadocio_ was a safeguard against the advances of young
Piero de' Medici. Three years after the marriage a child was born, to
whom the name of Cosimo was given, a laconic compliment to the old
libertine! A second son appeared in 1571, Bartolommeo, but he died
within a twelvemonth of his birth, and then, in 1577, came a third child
to the Panciatichi mansion, another Bartolommeo, so Eleanora decreed.
This boy, however, brought with him ineffaceable trouble, for Cavaliere
Carlo refused to acknowledge him, and angrily pointed to Don Piero de'
Medici as his putative father!
Piero made light of this charge--he was well used to that sort of thing,
but, with rare effrontery, he held the infant at the font, whilst
Panciatichi absented himself, and Eleanora made a tacit avowal of his
parentage. The relations between Carlo and his wife had quite naturally
never been of the best, and as gradually fears of death, upon the
scaffold faded, or by a retributive d'Antonio hand, and he found himself
the untrammelled master of his actions, he began to resent the
callousness of the arrangement with Duke Cosimo, after 1570, Grand Duke
of Tuscany.
Eleanora's intrigue with Don Piero clenched the matter of her
cohabitation with her husband. Carlo refused her both bed and board,
and, in the spring of 1578, he forced her into the Franciscan convent of
San Onofrio da Foligno--a favourite place of sanctuary for dishonoured
gentlewomen!
Poor, sinful, sinned-against Eleanora, the pathetic example of a young
and beautiful life wasted and corrupted by the ill-conditioned lusts of
a profligate lover and his libertine son! With her freedom of action
absolutely curtailed, and her complete isolation from her family, the
gay and attractive mistress of Castello and of the Medici Palace at
Pisa, with countless admirers and many lovers, was indeed an object of
sympathetic commiseration. To be sure, the Cavaliere made ample
provision for his wife's maintenance, appointed a small suite of
attendants, and permitted her to carry with her many cherished bits of
furniture and _bric-à-brac_. He likewise committed to her charge both
her children, and offered no objection to occasional visits to his
mother of Don Giovanni de' Medici, now a growing boy of eleven.
The Grand Duke Francesco cordially approved this arrangement. With
respect to certain jewels and personal effects which Eleanora retained,
the Grand Duke made an order that, as they belonged to _Guardaroba_ of
the Sovereign, they should be deposited, during the period of her
residence in the convent, in the State Treasury.
Then a thick veil was drawn over the life of Eleanora di Cavaliere Carlo
de' Panciatichi, and the gates of the convent were closed upon her,
never to be opened for her egress! Her beauty and her talents, and the
gaiety of her manner were matured, cultivated and restrained in harmony
with her melancholy surroundings. Youth gave way to middle age, and
middle age to the crepuscule of life, and the seasons came, and the
seasons went, and one life in that sanctuary seemed fated to go on for
ever. Forgotten and unvisited, Eleanora, the _druda_ of Cosimo I., cast
off and spurned; the _innamorata_ of Piero de' Medici, wronged and
despised; the wife of Carlo de' Panciatichi, divorced and cloistered,
lived on and on, far beyond the scriptural limit of threescore years
and ten--the pathetic victim of a callous world.
In the _Libri di Ricordanze_ of the convent is a notice for the year
1634, which startles the sympathetic reader of the tragedy of Eleanora
degli Albizzi: "Upon 19th March of this year there passed to a better
life the most illustrious Lady, Donna Eleanora degli Albizzi de'
Panciatichi, who had resided in this monastery for fifty-six years, and
had reached the ninetieth year of her age. She lived in the odour of
sanctity with the devotion of a religious, and endowed the monastery
with a goodly bequest." The _Cosa di Cosimo--per il piacere di Cosimo_!
as time-serving, unfatherlike Messer Luigi degli Albizzi called the
immolation of his fair young daughter, had become the Bride of Christ!
And what of unsympathetic, violent Carlo de' Panciatichi? Well, he, too,
got his deserts. The very year after he had put away his wife, he again
made himself liable to execution for murder. One morning a servant of
his, Sebastiano del Valdarno, who had not been paid wages due to him,
ventured to remind his master of the circumstance. Cavaliere Carlo, who
could never tolerate demands for money with equanimity, was enraged by
the man's presumption, and, seizing hold of a heavy pouch full of bronze
_denari_, he flung it at the unlucky fellow, saying--"Go to hell and
take your money with you!"
The impact fractured the man's skull and he died in hospital! Again
Panciatichi was condemned to a heavy fine, with the capital sentence _in
contumacia_, by the _Otto di Guardia e Balia_. He was conveyed to
prison, the old _Stinche_, until he paid the fine. Eleanora, in her
convent, heard of his punishment, and actually rendered him good for
evil, as a tender-hearted and suffering woman would quite naturally do.
She pleaded with the Grand Duke Francesco for his deliverance, and
joined her son, Don Giovanni de' Medici, in her appeal.
Cavaliere Carlo de' Panciatichi was not set free till November 1581,
when he had fully paid all the claims preferred against him by the
family of the man he had slain, which included a provision for a certain
_contadina_. She was a superior domestic servant in the employment of
the Panciatichi family, and a personal attendant upon Eleanora. Madonna
Ginevra, she was called, and she had two little girls. Whether these
children were the Cavaliere's, no one has related, but upon the death of
their mother they, too, found asylum at the convent of Sant Onofrio, and
were tenderly treated by sad and lonesome Madonna Eleanora--a sweet and
pathetic action indeed!
The Cavaliere raised his head once more under the guilty rule of Grand
Duke Francesco's murderer, the unscrupulous Cardinal Ferdinando, and by
him was appointed a Gentleman of Honour and a member of the new Grand
Ducal Council of Two-Hundred. He died long before his doubly-wronged,
unhappy wife, Eleanora, on the 27th February 1620.
* * * * *
With Cammilla de' Martelli came the end of the prosperous reign and the
end of the profligate life of Cosimo de' Medici, last Duke of Florence
and first Grand Duke of Tuscany. She was the youngest of the two
daughters, the only children, of Messer Antonio di Domenico de'
Martelli, and his wife, Madonna Fiammetta, the daughter of Messer
Niccolo de' Soderini, a descendant of that earlier Niccolo, the
self-seeking and unscrupulous adviser of Don Piero de' Medici.
The Martelli traced their origin through two lines of ancestry: to the
Picciandoni of Pisa in the thirteenth century, and to the Stabbielli of
the Val di Sieve in the fourteenth. They appear to have settled in the
Via degli Spadai, and to have "hammered" among the armourers there, so
successfully, that their name was given to the street in lieu of its
more ancient designation.
Messer Domenico, Cammilla's great-grandfather, was one of Savonarola's
keenest opponents, chiefly in the interests of the Medici, and the great
Cosimo counted him among his most trusty friends, but he suffered for
his fidelity by being assassinated in 1531, by one Paolo del Nero.
Another relative of Cammilla died tragically, Lodovico, who was killed
by Giovanni Bandini in a duel at Poggio Baroncelli in 1530--a duel
fought for the hand and heart of the beauteous Marietta de' Ricci, a
relative of that other fateful flirt, Cassandra, who was the cause of
Pietro Buonaventuri's tragic death, and died by the knives of assassins.
The Martelli were associated with many of the pious works of the Medici:
for example, they assisted munificently in the building and endowment of
the great church of San Lorenzo. In some way or other Messer Antonio had
lit on evil days, at all events he appears to have lost the banking
business, which had been mainly operative in the raising of his house,
and had reverted to the less lucrative but still honourable occupation
of his family--the craft of sword-making. He carried on his business in
a house which he rented under the shadow of the Palazzo Pitti.
Both Cammilla and her elder sister Maria were good-looking girls. The
latter, in 1566, married a wealthy shoemaker from Siena, Gaspare
Chinucci, but her husband divorced her; and then Duke Cosimo caused her
father to marry her, in 1572, to an opulent foreign merchant--Messer
Baldassarre Suarez, who had come over from Spain and was a protégé of
the Duchess Eleanora.
Cammilla, born in 1547, possessed all the personal attractiveness which
distinguished her mother, whose sister, Nannina, the wife of Messer
Luigi degli Albizzi, was mother of Eleanora, Duke Cosimo's _druda_.
"Tall and of a good figure, fair complexion, with light hair, and a pair
of dark eyes like two brilliant stars, she was also most graceful in her
carriage and manner, full of intelligence in conversation, and quite
naturally fond of admiration and amours." This is a contemporary
word-picture of the physical and mental charms of one of the most lovely
girls that ever tripped merrily along the Lung' Arno Acciaiuoli--in the
footsteps of Beatrice de' Portinari.
That promenade of Prince Cupid was always thronged by the belles and
beaux of Florentine society. There the young men, and old men too, could
meet and salute their _innamorate_. Duke Cosimo had not observed for
nothing the daily walk of his fascinating young neighbour, he never
overlooked a pretty face and comely figure, and his heart was large
enough to entertain the loves of many women! His experience was very
much like that of Dante Alighieri, who one day saw his Beatrice "in
quite a new and entrancing light."
It was in May, in 1564, when all was gay and fresh in Florence, that
Duke Cosimo chanced upon Cammilla de' Martelli, as he passed on his way
from the Pitti Palace to Castello, to dawdle with the lovely Eleanora
degli Albizzi, her cousin. Something prompted the Duke to accost the
maiden,--her blush and his own tremor revealed delightful possibilities
quite in his way! Very warily he approached Messer Antonio. His idea
was probably to keep Eleanora at the Villa del Castello, and to take
Cammilla away to his favourite residence, the Palace at Pisa.
If Don Francesco and Duchess Giovanna were aggrieved by the intrigue
already going on, it was conceivable that the trouble would be greatly
intensified by a second. Cosimo did not wish their increased displeasure
nor publicity, so, for a while, he kept his hopes and his intentions to
himself. At last, inflamed more and more by the fresh, unsullied beauty
of Cammilla, he broached his proposition to Messer Antonio. Greatly in
need of money, and hoping much from court patronage, the unnatural
father determined to follow the example of his brother-in-law, and
surrender, for a worthy consideration, his child as a "_Cosa di Cosimo
il Duca_."
The cast-off Eleanora was married, as we have read, to Cavaliere Carlo
de' Panciatichi in September 1567, and on 28th May--eight months
after--Cammilla de' Martelli gave birth, at Pisa, to a dear little girl,
the latest child of Duke Cosimo! This was by no means to the mind of
Duke Francesco, and news of the birth quickly reached the ears of the
Pope. His Holiness at once despatched a courier to Duke Cosimo, urging
him to legitimatise the child by his immediate marriage with the mother.
This was not at all what the Duke wanted; he preferred, of course, to be
quite free to love any girl or woman that he might single out.
Nevertheless the pressure was so great that he was compelled to yield;
and, in January 1569, he took Cammilla to be his wedded wife, but not to
share his Ducal title! That was forbidden by the emphatic opposition of
the acting Duke and Duchess, and by the direct intervention of the
Emperor Maximilian.
Messer Antonio de' Martelli was in ecstasies, and his unconcealed
delight gained for him the nickname "_Il Balencio_," "like Whalebone"!
It is said that when his wife's kinsman, Alamanno de' Pazzi, ventured to
congratulate him at his house in the Via Maggio, he found the place
gaily decorated, and musicians playing before the door!
"What is this brave show for, Messer Antonio?" he asked.
"Why, Ser Alamanno, I have married my daughter to the Duke Cosimo.
Rejoice with me to-day. We have now no relations but Emperors and
Princes, what would you!"
Cosimo created his wife's father a Knight of the Order of San Stefano
and endowed him with a good annual income. At the same time he advanced
Madonna Maria di Baldassarre Suarez to the rank of a Gentlewoman of the
Court, and caused unhappy Gaspare Chinucci to be banished out of
Tuscany; some indeed say that he even instigated his assassination!
Messer Suarez was promoted to an honourable place at Court, and his name
was changed to Martelli. Two sons and a daughter blessed his union with
Madonna Maria. Violante, as the girl was christened, grew up, as
beautiful as her aunt Cammilla, with a pair of eyes like hers, and
nothing could restrain the passion of that young libertine, Don Piero
de' Medici, for love of her--he was indeed his father's son!
Nevertheless she was not to be his _innamorata_ alone, for Cardinal
Ferdinando also "came and saw and conquered," and young Violante became
his chief mistress in Florence--the rival in his affections of his
father's fascinating young wife, her aunt Cammilla.
In 1570, Cosimo went in State to Rome to be crowned by the Pope as first
Grand Duke of Tuscany. From his Holiness he obtained a reversion of the
title in perpetuity for his descendants. The Easter of that year he
spent at the Pitti Palace, and then he hurried off to Castello to pass
the rest of his days with his dearly-loved and charming young wife.
Once there, he dismissed almost all the members of his suite, retaining
only two secretaries, a chaplain (!) and two couriers, wishing to lead
the quiet life of a country gentleman. He apportioned to his wife
Cammilla four gentlewomen as maids of honour. Henceforward neither
Cosimo nor Cammilla were seen but rarely in Florence. They spent their
time together either at Castello, at Poggio a Caiano, or in Pisa.
December and May had been mated--the former had his consolations, but
the latter pined quite naturally for young society. Love is cold and
love is captious where age and temperament disagree. Cammilla sighed for
the gaieties, the pleasures, and gallantries of Florence. Love's young
dream had not been hers, she had not chosen her ancient lover. But
admiration for her sprang from a likely though an unexpected quarter,
and her cavalier was not warned off by a jealous husband, as was poor
Eleanora degli Albizzi's.
The Grand Duke Cosimo, to the very last, kept up the appearance of
religion, if not its realities. The fact that a son of his was a member
of the Sacred College, and a possible occupant of the chair of St Peter,
covered a multitude of sins; not that Cardinal Ferdinando was a mirror
of virtue or an example of sanctity.
Ferdinando's relations with Francesco and Bianca were as bad as could
be. His arrogance and extortions rendered his presence at the Florentine
court unwelcome and even dangerous. At Castello and Poggio a Caiano, on
the other hand, he was an honoured guest, and, for lack of lovers, his
young stepmother was not displeased by his attentions. Cosimo kept her
strictly in seclusion, and she had not the courage, or, be it said, the
impudence of her stepdaughter, the Duchess of Bracciano. The loves of
the Cardinal and Cammilla were in secret and unprovocative; indeed, the
Grand Duke encouraged the intrigue, as being "for Cammilla's good."
Here was a pretty state of affairs. One son, Piero, the seducer of his
mistress, Eleanora degli Albizzi, the other, Ferdinando, the lover of
his wife! It would be very difficult, perhaps impossible, to exonerate
Cosimo from the blame of Cammilla's unfaithfulness. If she sinned, she
did so helplessly.
Alas, that she listened not only to the amorous vows of Ferdinando, but
also gave credence to his views concerning the Grand Duke and Grand
Duchess in Florence. She knew, of course, that there was no love lost
between herself and them; and she was quite ready to entertain the evil
insinuations which the late Duchess Giovanna had ventilated with
reference to Bianca.
This cabal was perfectly well known to the Grand Duke Cosimo, but he let
matters take their course; all he cared for was the embraces of his
attractive wife and the flatteries of his hypocritical son. The death of
Duchess Giovanna threw Ferdinando and Cammilla more than ever into one
another's arms. What, and if Francesco and Bianca died without male
heir! Why, on the death of Cosimo, Ferdinando and Cammilla might succeed
to the Grand Ducal throne. This was the temptation which the Cardinal
placed, like a young bud, in Cammilla's bosom. She was but human--very
human; she had been slighted by the non-allowance of rank as Grand
Duchess. Perhaps Destiny had still that distinction in reserve. She
would wait.
The pathos of Cammilla's life deepened during the last four years of
Grand Duke Cosimo's life. He became a constant sufferer with many
infirmities. The strenuous life he had lived, with its exercise of
lustful love and lurid hate, tried to the breaking point his iron
constitution. Gout was his direst torment, a malady productive of
ill-humour at its worst, and poor Cammilla, lonely wife, nurse,
companion, had none to share his impatience.
Her own health gave way under the strain, and her indisposition pointed
to apoplexy and to mental trouble. But deliverance came at last. On 20th
April 1574, Cosimo breathed his last at Poggio a Caiano, in his
fifty-fifth year. By his death-bed there watched only his chastened wife
and his sanctimonious son. Of his other surviving children,
Isabella--once his favourite--had suffered for sixteen years the
misunderstandings and the heartburnings which her heartless
marriage-contract had imposed; she was estranged from him and from
Cammilla, and from the Cardinal. Piero was a wastrel, the exponent of
his father's worst passions--Piero, "_Il Scandalezzatore_" as he was
rightly called. Francesco had borne ten years' embarrassment as
quasi-ruler of the State, subject to ceaseless cautions and
contradictions: he was, in no sensuous or homicidal sense, his father's
son. All three stayed markedly away from Poggio a Caiano.
* * * * *
Almost the first act of the new Sovereign was the enclosure of his
father's young widow in a convent! He placed her first with the
Benedictine nuns of the Vergine dell' Annunziata delle Murate, and then
in the noble sanctuary of Santa Monica, not with her poor cousin
Eleanora degli Albizzi away at Foligno!
This certainly appears to the ordinary reader of romances a cruel and
unjustifiable act, but to the student of diplomatic expediency, it was a
foregone conclusion. The security of Francesco's rule depended entirely
upon the suppression of dynastic intrigues. The person of Ferdinando was
unassailable; as a Prince of the Church he had prerogatives which could
not be removed by any temporal sovereign. All that Francesco could do
was to forbid his presence upon Tuscan territory, and this he did.
It does not appear that the unhappy Cammilla de' Medici was harshly
used; indeed her residence within the convent was made as agreeable as
possible, and she had the privilege of receiving visitors, other than
political. Madonna Costanza de' Pazzi and eight other noble ladies were
attached to her suite, with five Gentlemen of Honour and several
domestics.
Cavaliere Antonio de' Martelli pleaded in vain his right as father of
Cammilla to take her and her child back under the parental roof. The
Grand Duke was immovable in his resolution, he counselled the father to
let the matter rest, and gave him and Madonna Fiammetta free access to
their daughter, but, on no account, was she to visit them.
As in the case of Eleanora degli Albizzi, an inventory of jewellery and
other treasures was made, and whilst Cammilla was permitted to retain
certain articles, such objects as were regarded as the property of the
reigning Grand Duchess were transferred to the _Guardaroba_ of Bianca.
Apparently Francesco determined that no action of his against his
father's widow should be construed into a menace against his Government.
Writing to the Grand Duke, on 7th August 1574, soon after Cammilla's
reception, the Very Reverend Abbess of Santa Monica humbly thanked his
Serene Highness "for the generous treatment of the young widow, and begs
remembrance of his good offices for her and for the convent generally."
Trustees were appointed, under the presidency of Messer Roberto de'
Adimari, the Chancellor of the Monte de' Pieta, for the administration
of the one hundred and four thousand gold florins--the fortune left by
Duke Cosimo to the Lady Cammilla, which produced an annual income of
four thousand eight hundred gold florins a year, equal to about £2000.
Cammilla settled down as best she could to a life of leisured ease--a
lonesome woman, a prisoner under close observation. News of the outside
world she had, and when the report of the horrors of the year 1576
reached her, she was prostrated with grief. Indeed, her time seems to
have been spent with repining, weeping and sickness--a piteous existence
for a young woman of twenty-seven.
At length Cammilla braced herself to bear her disappointments, her
trials, her imprisonment, with fortitude, and, like the good woman she
really was, she set to work to occupy her time, and that of her suite,
in useful and interesting occupations. Gardening and the care of flowers
attracted her, and soon the cloisters of the convent were converted into
bowers of roses and myrtles.
Her ladies and the nuns also, she encouraged in all elegant
handicrafts--silk-embroidery, lace-making, and other stitchery. The
results of their industry procured immediate custom, and the noble
cloths and lustrous silks of Santa Monica, with the Lady Cammilla's
initials attached, became famous far and near. These objects consisted
of pillow-cases, screens, portières, decorative panels, banners,
scarves, cushions, handkerchiefs, bodices and various other details of
feminine attire, with rich vestments for the clergy, and sumptuous
altar-cloths.
The Grand Duchess Bianca, who, with characteristic sweetness and
generosity, had all along sympathised with poor Lady Cammilla, was the
best customer of the convent industries, and, moreover, she frequently
visited the gentle prisoner, and showed her many charming attentions.
For two Medici brides, also, Cammilla superintended the preparation of
trousseaux--her own daughter Virginia, Duke Cosimo's child, and the
Grand Duke's eldest daughter, Maria, who married King Henry IV. of
France.
Another sort of employment found in the Lady Cammilla an earnest and
skilful directress, namely, the manufacture of sweetmeats, preserves,
compôtes, pastries, and every sort of delectable confectionery. Perfumes
and liqueurs--usually the piquant produce of monasteries--were also
cunningly extracted by Cammilla's subtle formulas. These elegant
specialities she gave away to old friends and visitors--enclosed in
delicate little glass and porcelain bottles and jars of her own design.
The fame of the Lady Cammilla's skill and patronage reached foreign
courts, and notable visitors to Florence did not fail to pay their
courtesies to the great lady of the convent. Two of these, the
Archpriest Monsignore Simone Fortuna, confessor of the Duke of Urbino,
and Cavaliere Ercole Cortile, the ambassador of Ferrara, have recorded
their visits and their pleasure at seeing "La Serena Signora" in genial
company and philanthropically employed. The wily priest added, with
sanctimonious admiration for female beauty: "La Martelli is as
fascinating as ever!"
Still, liberty is liberty, and captivity--even when made as attractive
and as unoppressive as possible--is still captivity. The Lady Cammilla
never left the confines of her convent for twelve long years, and not
till 4th February 1586 was she allowed a _congé_. Then a sumptuous
cavalcade, with splendid sedan-chairs, halted at the main portal of
Santa Monica, and out of one stepped the Grand Duchess Bianca, in
gorgeous State robes. She had come to escort in person the Lady
Cammilla, with every mark of respect and honour, to the marriage of her
daughter, Virginia de' Medici!
The young girl was just eighteen, passably old for a sixteenth-century
noble bride! In 1575, she had been assigned as the consort in prospect
of Cavaliere Mario Sforza, General of the army of the Grand Duke
Francesco. The match, however, was broken off, when Cardinal Alessandro
Sforza died, and left an immense fortune, but not to his nephew Mario,
as had been expected; and so Mario proved to be too poor a suitor for
the girl's hand.
Mario, on his side, had cooled much in his ardour for Virginia. Reports
of the Cardinal de' Medici's--Ferdinando's--familiarities, not only with
the mother, but with the daughter also, were rife in Florence and in
Rome. Sufficient grounds there were for him to accept the cancellation
of the proposal with equanimity. The Marchese, for so he had been
created, was not a whit more virtuous than the men of his day, but the
sensuous are always the harshest judges of their kind!
No, Virginia was, after all, married to Don Cesare d'Este, Duke of
Modena. She had by the way, been promised, in 1581, to Francesco Sforza
di Santa Fiora, but he changed his mind and renounced the
world--conventionally of course--to accept the Cardinal's red hat and
privileges from the hands of Pope Gregory XIII. So constantly were
natural human instincts dulled by the contrariety of fashion in those
degenerate days!
Of Virginia's marriage Torquato Tasso, the Grand Duchess Bianca's
enamoured poet-laureate, sang:
"Cio che morte rallenta
Amore restringa!"
Virginia died in 1615--some said she was poisoned by her husband--the
last of a degraded race. _Sic transit gloria Medici!_
The ceremonial of the nuptials was as splendid as a sumptuous Court
could make it, and as became the union of a princess of the House of
Medici with an ambitious foreign Sovereign. But whilst men and women
gossiped delightedly about the charms of the beauteous young bride and
the gallant bearing of the groom, every tongue expressed wonderment at
the gracious, stately figure of the Lady Cammilla. The chorus of popular
applause was hushed, however, when the pathos of her story struck
sorrowful chords in every heart.
Upon the obverse of the medals struck for the Duke Cosimo for their
wedding, twelve years before, the Signora is represented as a
finely-developed woman, with the proud profile of a true daughter of
Florence, a high brow, a shapely nose, full cheeks, and a dimpled chin.
Her attire is rich, she wears costly jewels, and her hair is tastefully
coiffured.
What Cammilla's feelings were, she only knew, and she told them to no
one; she bore herself loftily, and made no one her confidante. After the
solemnity and festivities she betook herself once more--she had no other
choice--to her convent prison, the poorer for the loss of her cherished
child, the richer in the estimation of all good people.
Henceforth, her inclusion among the Religious was to be more rigorous,
and she never expected to be seen again in Florence: dolorous indeed
must have been that parting with the world she loved, but so little
knew. She viewed the coming years with apprehension and hopelessness.
She had not reached the measure of her destiny, but for that,
mercifully, she had not very long to wait, and yet there was to be
another slight rift in the clouds of misery.
From time to time Cammilla had suffered from fainting fits and attacks
of hysteria, but after her separation from Virginia, these increased
greatly in frequency and intensity. Skilful medical treatment was of no
avail, and at length her doctors appealed to the Grand Duke for some
relaxation of her imprisonment. Freedom from restraint and the benefit
of urgently needed change, they knew, would work wonders in the way of
recovery.
Don Francesco was immovable to all such representations; he had over and
over again declined to reverse or modify his decision. His fully
justified fear of the Cardinal's intrigues acted as a negative magnet to
all his best propositions. He and she were bound together, he felt sure,
in schemes for his own undoing, and Bianca's too.
The Lady Cammilla's life became at last intolerable; sickness,
suspicion, and discontent fastened their dire influences upon her. She
neglected useful and ornamental pastimes, became morose and impatient,
and gave way to fits of frenzied desperation. The Abbess, greatly
alarmed, took counsel with her spiritual advisers, who judged that the
unhappy lady was losing her reason, and, perchance, her soul. Her
condition became so critical that in April 1587 the Tuscan ambassador in
Rome applied to the Pope for permission for the chaplain of the convent
to celebrate a Mass for the exorcism of the poor lady!
In October of that year the fell schemes of Cardinal Ferdinando had, at
last, their fruition, and the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess died together
at Poggio a Caiano, victims of his jealousy and hate. He obtained at
last what he had striven for so unscrupulously for twenty years--the
succession to the Tuscan throne.
Be it, however, in justice told, with respect to the Lady Cammilla, for,
when he had spurned the dead body of the Grand Duchess, and
hypocritically sad, had followed the remains of his poisoned brother to
San Lorenzo, he went right off to the convent of Santa Monica, and
acquainted her personally with the fact of delivery from a living tomb.
They had only met very occasionally during the last few years, and she
had changed greatly--perhaps he had, too. Her terrible trials, her
bodily sicknesses, and her mental derangements had made ineffaceable
marks in the erstwhile beauteous girl, and Cammilla de' Medici was no
longer possible as the wife of the renegade Cardinal. Marriage was out
of the question for her; indeed, her very existence was at stake, and
all that Ferdinando could do was to alleviate the sufferings of his
_innamorata_, and to cheer her declining days.
Many years before, Ferdinando had purchased a piece of ground at the
confluence of the Arno and Pesa, and, upon it, he built the Villa
Ambrogiana, which he furnished in lavish style, boasting that "it will
be handy when I come into my own!" This estate, with a sufficient
household, he made over to the Lady Cammilla, for her own free use.
Before, however, she took up her residence, Ferdinando, now, of course,
Grand Duke of Tuscany, placed at her disposal a country villa in the Val
d'Ema, to which the suffering Signora was taken, in the hope that the
fresh air and pleasant outlook would assist the recovery of her health
and spirits.
She improved wonderfully in every way--the fact that she was again her
own mistress and free to come and go at will, fortified her immensely,
and she determined to devote the residue of her life to the interests of
Ferdinando. Called upon, at his succession to the throne, to renounce
his spiritual character--it was a character, indeed, which ill-fitted
him--the new Grand Duke devoted himself to the duties of his high
station. The Lady Cammilla, who had been his confidante in days gone by,
was still retained as counseller and guide. Marriage was the most urgent
necessity of the Grand Duke for the procreation of legitimate heirs.
He was surrounded by heirs-presumptive and aspirants to the throne--Don
Antonio, his brother's adopted son; Don Giovanni, his father's
legitimatised son by Eleanora degli Albizzi; his brother Piero, and any
one of his bastard sons, and several other scions of the house. The Lady
Cammilla entered heartily into all her stepson's ideas, and quickly,
though doubtlessly regretfully, agreed with him that a brilliant foreign
alliance was an absolute necessity.
Together they passed in review the names of all the eligible princesses
in Europe, and at last their choice fell upon Princess Christina, the
young daughter of Charles, Duke of Lorraine, and nephew of Queen
Caterina de' Medici. She was received in Florence with joy, and married
to the Grand Duke in 1589. The Lady Cammilla graced the nuptials with
her presence, laying aside the dark-hued garments of sorrow which she
had assumed and worn so long.
That was the last time Cammilla was seen in public; she retired first to
her villa on the Arno, and then, seeing that the symptoms of illness
were returning, she voluntarily retired once more into what had been her
prison and her home--the convent of Santa Monica, where she breathed her
last on the 30th of May 1590, at the early age of forty-five, to the
unutterable sorrow of the devoted ladies of her suite and her faithful
attendants. In the _Libri de' Morti_ (1577-1591) we read under that
date: "La Signora Cammilla d'il Serenissimo Gran Duca Cosimo de' Medici,
despositata in San Lorenzo." Some say she died imbecile.
Upon the reverse of one medal, which Cosimo had struck in honour of
their nuptials, was cut around the heraldic emblazonment of an oak tree
and a dragon, her legend: "_Uno avulso non deficit alter aureus_." This
may be the epitome of her life's history, and upon it one may moralise
at will; and certainly readers of the "Tragedy of Cammilla de' Martelli"
will admit that a spoilt life is as great a catastrophe as a violent
death.
* * * * *
It requires no great stretch of the imagination to picture the morals
and the manners of society in Tuscany during the last half of the
sixteenth century. The superabundance of private riches and the
enervation of idle leisure destroyed the framework of domestic economy;
"_Di fare il Signore_!"--to play the gentleman--was the current mode.
Everyone strove to surpass his neighbours in luxury and extravagance.
The example of the Court was felt in every grade of life: marital
unfaithfulness, personal spleen, and family feuds divided every
household. The worst of human passions ran riot, and life became a
pandemonium, wherein the sharp poignard, the poison phial, and the
strangling rope, played their part at the dastardly will of their
owners.
Fair Florence was still--as she will ever be--"The City of the Lily";
but the blue and silver emblematic _giglio_--the modestly unfolding
fragrant iris of the unsophisticated countryside, drooped before the
flaming, passionate tiger-lily of the formal garden of debauchery, with
its pungent odour and its secretive, incurled scarlet petals--splashed
with the blacks and yellows of crime and greed!
"Nature ever
Finding discordant fortune, like all seed
Out of its proper climate, thrives but ill:
But were the world content to work,
And work on the foundation Nature lays,
It would not lack of excellence." ...
IL PARADISO, _Canto viii_.
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Fabroni, A., _Vie de Laurent de Medicis_. Paris. 1791.
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Galetti, P. _Poësie di Don Francisco de' Medici e Bianca Cappello_.
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Landucci, L., _Diario Fiorentino_--1400-1526. Florence. 1883.
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INDEX
A
Abbioso, Bishop
Acciaiuoli, Agnolo
" Donato
Adrian VI., Pope
Albizzi, Family of
" Constanza
" Eleanora
" Luigi
" Nannina
Alfonso II., Duke of Ferrara
Ambrogiana, Villa of
Antinori, Bernardino
" Filippo
B
Bandino, Bernardo
Barga, Antonio da
Baroncelli, Villa of
Bentivoglio, Count Ulisse
Boscoli, Pietro P.
Bracciolini, Giacopo
Brivio, Francesco
Buonaventuri, Constanza
" Giovanni, B.
" Pietro
" Zenobio
Buonromeo, Carlo
" Giovanni
C
Cafaggiuolo, Villa of
Cappello, Bartolommeo
Capponi, Bernardo
" Piero
Castello, Villa of
Cavalcanti, Antonio
Cerreto Guidi, Villa of
Cesare, d'Este, Duke of Modena
Charles V., Emperor
Charles VIII., King of France
Cibo, Cardinal
Colonna, Giulia Gonzaga
Contrari, Creole
Corsi, Amerigo
"Cosa di Cosimo"
" di Francesco"
" della Lussuria"
D
Dei, Benedetto
Delle Murate, Convent of
Domenico, Giovanni
E
Ercole II., Duke of Ferrara
F
Florence, _Ammoniti_
" "Il governo d'un solo"
" "Tyrant of"
" hot-bed of crime
" first of modern states
" office of Gonfaloniere
" Giustizia abolished
" "A monster"
" fortress of San Giovanni
" tyrannicide studies
" violent deaths in
" patronage of Cosimo I.
" Cappella degli Spagnuoli
" Accademia della Crusca
" " delle Elevati
" training of children in
" "Cicisbeo"
" "Partiti"
" "The Three Graces"
" "City of Assassins"
Fondi, Castle of
Francis I., King of France
Franzesi, Napoleone
G
Gaci, Alessandro
Gianfigliazzi, Bongiano
Ginori, Caterina
" Francesco
Giovanni da Perugia
Guicciardini, Francesco
Guicciardini, Luigi
Gregory XIII., Pope
H
Henry II., King of France
J
Julius II., Pope
" III, Pope
L
Lando, Michaele, "Ciompi" rising
"La Simonetta"
M
Macchiavelli, Niccolo
Madrigals, Francesco de' Medici's
Maffei, Frate Antonio
Malatesti, Family of
" Jacopo
" Lamberto
" Leonida
" Malatesta
Martelli, Family of
" Antonio
" Baccio, Admiral
" Cammilla (_see_ Medici)
" Domenico
" Maria
" Violante
Maximilian, Emperor
Medici, Alamanno
" Alessandro, First Duke of Florence
" Alfonsina d'Orsini
" Antonio, supposititious son of Bianca Cappello
" Ardingo
" Averardo I.
" " II.
" " III., "Bicci"
" Bianca Cappello-Buonaventuri
" Bianca, daughter of Piero "il Gottoso"
" Bonagiunto
" Cammilla de' Martelli
" Caterina, Queen of France
" Chiarissimo I.
" " II.
" " III.
" Clarice d'Orsini
" Clarice, wife of Filippo negli Strozzi
" Contessina (de' Bardi)
" Cosimo, "Il Padre della Patria"
" Cosimo I., First Grand Duke of Tuscany
" Cristina of Lorraine
" Eleonora de' Toledo
" Eleanora de' Garzia
" Ferdinando, son of Cosimo I., Cardinal
" Filippo or Lippo
" Filippo, son of Grand Duke Francesco
" Francesco, Second Grand Duke of Tuscany
" Garzia, son of Cosimo I.
" Gianbuono
" Giovanna of Austria
" Giovanni, First Tragedy
" " son of Averardo III.
" " son of Cosimo "Il Padre della Patria" (_ see_ Chart)
" " "Il Popolano"
" " son of "Il Magnifico"
" " "delle Bande Nere"
" " son of Cosimo I., Cardinal
" " son of Eleonora degli Albizzi
" " Second "Grand" Medici
" " Pope Leo X.
" Giuliano, "Il Pensieroso"
" " son of "Il Magnifico," Duke of Nemours
" " brother of Lorenzino
" Giulio, Pope Clement VII.
" Ippolito, Cardinal
" Isabella Romola, daughter of Cosimo I.
" "La Bia"
" Laudomia, daughter of Pierfrancesco II.
" Lorenzo, son of Giovanni, "Bicci"
" " "Il Magnifico"
" " Duke of Urbino
" " "Il Terribile"
" Luigia,, daughter of "Il Magnifico"
" Lucrezia, de' Tornabuoni
" " daughter of "Il Magnifico"
" " daughter of Cosimo I.
" Maddalena, daughter of "Il Magnifico"
" Maddalena, daughter of Pierfrancesco II.
" Margaret of Austria
" Maria Lucrezia, daughter of Cosimo I.
" Maria Lucrezia, Queen of France
" Palace of Via Larga
" Palace of Pitti
" Pierfrancesco II.
" Piero, "Il Gottoso"
" " son of "Il Magnifico"
" " son of Cosimo I.
" Salvestro I.
" " First "Grand" Medici
" Tommaso, Court Chamberlain
" Virginia, daughter of Cosimo I.
Montemurlo, battle of
Montesicco, Condottiere G.B. da
Mugello, valley of
N
Neroni, Giovanni
Nori, Francesco
O
Orsini, Family of
" Alfonsina (_see_ Medici)
" Clarice (_see_ Medici)
" Paolo Giordano, Duke of Bracciano
" Rinaldo, Archbishop
" Roberto
" Troilo
Orte Oricellari
P
Pandolfini, Agnolo
Panciatichi, Carlo
Passerini, Cardinal Silvio de'
Paul II., Pope
" III., Pope
" IV., Pope
Pazzi, Family of
" Andrea
" Antonio I.
" " II.
" " III.
" Constanza
" Francesco
" Giacopo
" Giovanni
" Guglielmo
" Piero
" Renato
" Wronging of the
" "Ordinamenti di Giustizia" and the
Pellegrina, daughter of Bianca Cappello
Perugino, Giovanni
Petrucci, Cesare de'
Philip, King of Spain
Pitti, Gianozzo
Pius IV., Pope
Platonic Academy
Poggio a Caiano, Villa of
Poliziano, Agnolo
Portinari, Beatrice
Poviano, Frate Stefano
Prato, sack of
Pratolino, Villa of
Pucci, Giovanni
R
Renata, Duchess of Ferrara
Riari, Antonio
" Caterina
" Girolamo, Count
" Piero, Cardinal
Ricci, Cassandra
Riccio, Pierfrancesco
Ridolfi, Antonio
" Piero
" Rosso
Rome, sack of
S
Salviati, Family of
" Francesco, Archbishop
" Giacomo
" Giacopo
" Giacopo di Giacopo
" Maria
" Pietro
Sansoni, Raffaele, Cardinal
Santa Monica, Convent of
San Onofrio, Convent of
Savonarola, Frate G.
Sforza, Almeni, Cosimo I.'s secretary
" Caterina
" Galeazzo Maria, Duke of Milan
Sixtus IV., Pope
Sixtus VI., Pope
Soderini, Family of
" Dianora (de' Tornabuoni)
" Francesco
" Maria
" Niccolo
" Piero
" Tommaso
Strozzi, Alessandra (de' Machingi)
" Filippo
" Roberto
Stufa, Agnolo della
" Luigi
" Sismondo
T
Tana, Villa della
Tasso, Torquato
"The Golden Rose"
Torello, Lelio
Tornabuoni, Giovanni de'
" Lorenzo de'
" Lucrezia (_see_ Medici)
" Dianora (_see_ Soderini)
Tovallaccino, Michaele
Tyrants, families of
"Tyrant of Tyrants"
U
Urbino, Federigo, Duke of
V
Varchi, Benedetto
Vespucci, Marco
End of Project Gutenberg's The Tragedies of the Medici, by Edgcumbe Staley