Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/820

788 MEDICI younger branch of the Medici. Notwithstanding lus extreme youth, he had already achieved the title of the best captain in Italy. He always fought with immense dash and daring, arid was devotedly loved and obeyed by his soldiery. He was the only leader who opposed a determined resistance to the imperial forces. He was seriously wounded at Pavia when fighting on the French side. On his recovery he joined the army of the League, and was much enraged by finding that the duke of Urbino, commander of the Venetian and papal forces, would never decide on attacking. When the imperial troops were struggling through the marshes of Mantua, surrounded on every side, and without stores or ammuni tion, Giovanni could not resign himself to inactivity like his colleagues in command. He was ignorant that the imperialists had just received supplies and artillery from the duke of Ferrara, and therefore daringly attacked them with a small body of men without taking any precautions for defence. One of the first shots fired by the enemy injured him so fatally that he died a few days after. He was married to Maria Salviati, by whom he had one son, Cosimo (1519-1574), born, as we shall see, to lofty fortunes, for he became the first grand-duke of Tuscany, and indeed, the founder of the grand-duchy and the new dynasty. Meanwhile the imperial army pursued its march upon Rome, captured the Eternal City after a few hours combat, and cruelly sacked it during many days (1527). Thanks to his perpetual shuffling and excessive avarice, the pope found himself utterly forsaken, and, being unable to defend the city, was obliged to seek refuge in the castle of St Angelo, whence he only effected his escape after some months. He then signed a treaty of alliance with the emperor (1529), who sent an army to besiege Florence and restore the Medici, whom the people had expelled in 1527 on the re-establishment of the republic. After an heroic defence, the city was forced to surrender (1530); and, although it was expressly stipulated that the ancient liberties of Florence should be respected, every one foresaw that the conditions would be violated. In fact, pope and emperor immediately began to dispute as to which should be the new lord of the city. Clement VII. had inherited the traditional family dislike for the younger branch of his kin, and so the choice lay between the two bastards Ippolito and Alessandro. The former being a cardinal, the latter was chosen. Alessandro, who already bore the title of duke of Citta diPenna, came to Florence in 1531, and by imperial patent was nominated head of the republic. According to the terms of this patent, the former liberty enjoyed under the Medicean rule was to remain intact. But no previous ruler of the city had enjoyed hereditary power confirmed by imperial patent, and such power was incom patible with the existence of a republic. Moreover, Clement VII. showed dissatisfaction with the uncertainty of the power conferred upon his kinsman, and finally succeeded in obtaining additional privileges. On the 4th of April 1532 a parliament was convoked for the last time in Florence, and, as usual, approved every measure pro posed for acceptance. Accordingly a new council was formed of two hundred citizens elected for life, forty-eight of which number were to constitute a senate. Alessandro, - as duke of the republic, filled the post of gonfalonier, and carried on the government with the assistance of three senators, changed every three months, who took the place of the suppressed signory. The duke s chief advisers, and the contrivers of all these arrangements, were Baccio Valori, Francesco Vettori, and above all Francesco Guicciardini, men, especially the two latter, of lofty political gifts and extensive influence. The mind and character of Duke Alessandro were as yet comparatively unknown. At first he seemed very anxious to win the favour of the people, and disposed to rule with justice and prudence. But soon encountering difficulties that he was unable to overcome, he began to neglect the business of the state, treated his new office as affording the means for increased indulgence in pleasure and vice, and acted as if the sole function of government consisted in- lulling the people by festivities and corrupting it by the dissolute life of which he set the example. The question of the moment was the transformation of the old re publican regime into a princedom ; as an unavoidable result of this change it followed that Florence was no- longer to be the ruling city to whose inhabitants alone belonged the monopoly of political office. When the leading Florentine families realized, not only that the re public was destroyed, but that they were reduced to equality with those whom they had hitherto regarded as their inferiors and subjects, their rage was indescribable, and hardly a day passed without the departure of influential citizens who were resolved to achieve the overthrow ot their new ruler. They found a leader in Cardin;il Ippolito Cardinal dei Medici, who was then in Rome, embittered by the Ippolito, preference given to Alessandro, and anxious to become his successor with the least possible delay. Under the pressure of terror the duke at once became a tyrant. He garrisoned the different cities, and began the erection iu Florence of the Fortezza da Basse, built chiefly at the ex pense of Filippo Strozzi, who afterwards met his deaib within its walls. In 1534 Clement VIF. died, and the election fell on Paul I II., from whom Cardinal Ippolito hoped to obtain assistance for his designs. Accordingly the principal Florentine exiles were despatched on a mission to the emperor Charles V. with complaints of Alessandro s tyranny and his shameless violation of the terms upon which the city hati surrendered. Cardinal Ippolito also represented his owi> willingness to carry on the government of Florence in a more equitable manner, and promised the emperor a large sum of money. Reply being delayed by the emperor * absence, he became so impatient that he set out, accon> panied by several exiles, to meet Charles in Tunis, but 01? the 10th of August 1535 died suddenly by the way, at Itri, poisoned by order of Alessandro. Such at least was the general belief, and it was confirmed by the same fate be falling other enemies of the duke about the same time-. On the emperor s return from Africa, the exiles presented themselves to him in Naples, and the venerable patriot Jacopo Nardi pleaded their cause. Duke Alessandro, being cited to appear, came to Naples accompanied by Francesco Guicciardini, who by speaking in his defence rendered himself odious to all friends of liberty, and irretrievably tarnished his illustrious name. The cardinal: being dead, it was hard to find a successor to Alessandro. On this account, and perhaps to some extent through the emperor s personal liking for the duke, the latter rose higher than before in the imperial favour, married Margaret of Austria, the natural daughter of Charles, and returned to Florence with increased power. And now Alessandro indulged unchecked in the lowest excesses of tyranny, and although so recently a bridegroom gave way to increased libertinism, His whole time was passed in vicious haunts and in scandalous adventures. In order to conceal the obscurity of his birth, he left his mother to starve, and it was even asserted that he finally got rid of her by poison. His constant associate in this disgraceful routine was Loren- his distant kinsman Lorenzo, generally known as Lorenzino zino dei dei Medici. Of the younger branch of the Medici, the Medici - latter was second cousin of the Cosimo already mentioned as the son of Giovanni delle Bande Nere. He had much culture and literary talent, but led an irregular life,

sometimes acting like a madman and sometimes like a