Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany

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Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (14 August 1642 – 31 October 1723) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1670 to 1723.

[edit] Biography

Born in Florence, he was the son of Grand Duke Ferdinando II and Vittoria della Rovere. His father's court botanist, Paolo Boccone, also served under Cosimo.

On June 20, 1661, he married Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, a daughter of Gaston, Duke of Orléans and cousin of the French King Louis XIV, in Florence. However, they separated in 1675. They had the following children:

Ferdinando (August 9, 1663 – October 31, 1713)
Anna Maria Luisa (August 11, 1667 – February 18, 1743), who married (1691) Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine (1658–1716).
Gian Gastone (May 24, 1671 – July 9, 1737), who succeeded his father as the last Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1723.

One of the first consequences of Ferdinando II's death was the outbreak of a domestic conflict between Vittoria della Rovere and her daughter-in-law Marguerite-Louise of Orleans. As long as the old grand duke was alive, the conjugal quarrels between Cosimo and Marguerite-Louise – bitter and chronic though they were – remained within tolerable limits. With her demise the fragile equilibrium was shattered. Vittoria was largely to blame in precipitating events: freshly widowed, she aspired in an active role in the affairs of the State. The influence she wielded over her son provoked Marguerite-Louise, who in turn asked Cosimo III for a role in government. Gone were the days when the Medici women lived quietly in the shadows, guaranteeing their husbands a serene familial backdrop, a refuge from the storm of public life. The new grand duke denied his wife’s request. As a consequence, she asked for a separation and the permission to return to France: the marriage had fallen completely to pieces. Probably upon his mother advice, Cosimo agreed to the separation: in 1674 Marguerite-Louise returned to Paris, taking up lodging in the Benedictine monastery of Montmartre. This event would have a negative impact on the Tuscan Grand Duchy, not for the loss of Marguerite-Louise, bat rather for the decisive role assumed from that point on by Vittoria, among those most responsible for the downfall of the Medici house. Both of Cosimo’s brothers having died (Mattias in 1667 and Leopoldo in 1675), no one with good sense remained capable of positively influencing him. What’s more, Vittoria convinced her son to dismiss some of Ferdinando II's old ministers in favor of others with ecclesiastical background. In a few years the Grand Duchy became an object of derision for Italian and European sovereigns alike. The citizens were subjected to various moral regulations, some of which decidedly ridiculous. The “Ordinance on Low Windows”, for example declared that “Since permitting young men to enter one’s house to court the young girls, and allowing them to banter in the doorway or at the window, are enormous incentives to abduction, abortion and infanticide, it is hereby prohibited to allow young men inside, or to allow them to court, with or without permission, in the doorway or at the low windows”. Popular festivals were censured while religious ones grew in number and importance: all thing considered, a climate hearkening back to the times of Savonarola. Moreover, Cosimo III imposed higher taxes to maintain the extravagant excesses of the court. He then appointed himself as Minister of Justice, inflicting exemplary punishment that, in his judgment, would install in his people the fear of God.

[edit] Reference

Cesati, Franco (2005). “The twillight of the dynasty”, Monica Fintoni, Andrea Paoletti: The Medici: Story of a European Dynasty. La Mandragora s.r.l., 125-127.