Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence

Alessandro spent his early childhood in Rome, where he received a humanist education by Valeriano, under the supervision of Pope Leo X and Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici. [10] During those years, a number of unexpected deaths occurred in the Medici family’s senior line: Giuliano, Duke of Nemours (1516); Lorenzo II, Duke of Urbino (1519); and eventually Pope Leo X (1521). This prompted Cardinal Giulio (then Gran Maestro of Florence, later Pope Clement VII), to relocate the remaining Medici heirs to Poggio a Caiano, near Florence: Alessandro; his half-sister Catherine, (later Queen Consort of France); and his cousin Ippolito, (later Vice-Chancellor of the Catholic Church). [11] In 1522, Cardinal Giulio purchased for Alessandro the title Duke of Penne from Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.[12] [13]

When Cardinal Giulio became Pope Clement VII in 1523, he left leadership of Florence to Alessandro and Ippolito, under the regency of papal representative Cardinal Silvio Passerini. Unfortunately, Alessandro and Ippolito were “alike in one respect only, their mutual hatred of each other.” [14] They openly feuded throughout their short lives. [15] Additionally, "the papal representatives sent to oversee the [boys] were extremely unpopular with the anti-Medici faction [of Florence] as well as, again, elements within the family such as Clarice Strozzi, daughter of Piero di Lorenzo ("the Unfortunate"), who railed against Alessandro as being unworthy of the Medici family name and against his papal guardians as well... The status of Alessandro as Gran Maestro of Florence was largely nominal but wider events taking place in Italy would soon see him raised to a higher status, but not before enduring quite an ordeal." [16]

During the Sack of Rome in 1527, a faction of Florentines overthrew the Medici government and installed a theocratic, Savonarola-influenced Republic. [17] [18] Both Alessandro and Ippolito de' Medici were advised to leave the city, along with Cardinal Passerini. Many of the Medicis’ main supporters fled Florence; however, eight-year-old Catherine de' Medici was left behind.[19] Alessandro lived in exile for the next three years. [20] Florentine artist Michelangelo, then occupied in creating a funerary chapel for the Medici, initially took charge of building fortifications around Florence to support the Republic. He later fled the city, fearing retribution. In the 1530s, Michelangelo reconciled with Clement, but he never returned to work in the city under the leadership of either Alessandro or his successor, Cosimo I.[21]

Portrait of Alessandro de’ Medici, by Giorgio Vasari (1534).

In 1530, after a nearly ten month siege of Florence supported by Spanish troops, Alessandro was named its head of state.[1] Pope Clement VII chose him for the position over Ippolito, who was made a cardinal. [22] Alessandro arrived in Florence to begin his rule on 5 July 1531. Nine months later he was made its hereditary Duke by Charles, as Tuscany lay outside the Papal States. This ended the Florentine Republic and started over 200 years of Medici monarchy. [23][24]

The Florentine Constitution of 1532 consolidated Duke Alessandro’s power. [25] While Clement lived, Alessandro ruled "with the advice of elected councils, trying to calm the nerves of the defeated republicans"; however, as his reign progressed, he began to exhibit authoritarian tendencies. [26] In 1534, he ordered construction of Florence’s immense Fortezza da Basso, “to secure the Medici’s control of the city following their recent return after the Siege of Florence, and to provide lodging for a massive contingent of troops.” [27]

Duke Alessandro’s government drew both praise and criticism. To his credit, Alessandro’s “common sense and his feeling for justice won his subjects’ affection”; and he “enjoyed some status as the champion of the poor and the helpless, as ballads and novelle record.” [28] [29] He was also a patron of the arts, commissioning notable works by Giorgio Vasari, Jacopo Pontormo, Benvenuto Cellini, and Antonio da Sangallo the Younger. [30] [31] Conversely, Florence’s vocal exile community judged his rule as harsh, depraved, and incompetent, an assessment debated by historians. [32] In 1535, the exiles enlisted Cardinal Ippolito to meet with Emperor Charles V, to protest Alessandro’s government; however, the former died en route. Rumors spread that Cardinal Ippolito was poisoned on Alessandro's orders. [33] After the exiles voiced their complaints to Charles, Florentine diplomat Francesco Guicciardini responded of Alessandro, “his Excellency’s virtue, his fame, the opinion of him held throughout the city, of his prudence, of his virtuous habits, are a sufficient reply". [34] Emperor Charles dismissed the exiles’ complaints.

In 1536, Emperor Charles kept a promise to Pope Clement by marrying his daughter, Margaret of Austria, to Duke Alessandro. [35] For his own inclinations, Duke Alessandro seems to have remained faithful to one mistress, Taddea Malaspina, who bore his only children: Giulio de' Medici (c. 1533/37 – 1600), who had illegitimate issue, and Giulia de' Medici.[36]