Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Francesco I de' Medici
Francesco by Bronzino
Grand Duke of Tuscany
Reign	21 April 1574 – 17 October 1587
Predecessor	Cosimo I
Successor	Ferdinando I
Born	(1541-03-25)25 March 1541 Florence
Died	19 October 1587(1587-10-19) (aged 46) Medici Villa in Poggio a Caiano, Tuscany
Burial	Medici Chapel
Spouse	Joanna of Austria Bianca Cappello
Issue among others...	Eleanor, Duchess of Mantua and Montferrat Anna de' Medici Maria, Queen of France Philip, Grand Prince of Tuscany
House	Medici
Father	Cosimo I
Mother	Eleanor of Toledo
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Francesco I (25 March 1541 – 19 October 1587) was the second Grand Duke of Tuscany, ruling from 1574 until his death in 1587. He was the second grand duke of the house of Medici.

Biography

Francesco I of Tuscany as a young boy; painting by Bronzino

Born in Florence, he was the son of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleanor of Toledo, and served as regent for his father starting in 1564.

Marriage to Joanna of Austria

On 18 December 1565, he married Joanna of Austria, youngest daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anne of Bohemia and Hungary, after among others Princess Elizabeth of Sweden had been considered. By all reports, it was not a happy marriage. Joanna was homesick for her native Austria, and Francesco was neither charming nor faithful. Joanna died at the age of thirty one in 1578.

Bianca Cappello

Soon after the Grand Duchess Joanna had died, Francesco went on to marry his Venetian mistress, Bianca Cappello, after aptly disposing of her husband, a Florentine bureaucrat. Because of the quick remarriage and similar occurrences among the Medici (Francesco's younger brother Pietro had reportedly killed his wife), rumours spread that Francesco and Bianca had conspired to poison Joanna. Francesco reportedly built and decorated Villa di Pratolino for Bianca. She was, however, not always popular among Florentines. They had no legitimate children, but Bianca had borne him a son, Antonio (29 August 1576 – 2 May 1621), in his first wife's lifetime, and following the death of Francesco's legitimate son Philip de' Medici, Antonio was proclaimed heir. Francesco also adopted Bianca's daughter by her first marriage, Pellegrina (1564- ?).

Francesco as a young man attributed to Alesandro Allori

Like his father, Francesco was often despotic, but while Cosimo had known how to maintain Florentine independence, Francesco acted more like a vassal of the Habsburgs of Austria and Spain. He continued the heavy taxation of his subjects to pay large sums to the empire.

He had an amateur's interest in manufacturing and sciences. He founded porcelain and stoneware manufacture, but these did not thrive until after his death. He continued his father's patronage of the arts, supporting artists and building the Medici Theater as well as founding the Accademia della Crusca. He was also passionately interested in chemistry and alchemy and spent many hours in his private laboratory/curio collection, the Studiolo in the Palazzo Vecchio, which held his collections of natural item and stones and allowed him to dabble in amateur chemistry and alchemical schemes.

Francesco and Bianca died on 19 and 20 October both at the Medici Villa in Poggio a Caiano. Although the original death certificates mention malaria, it has been widely speculated that the couple were poisoned, possibly by Francesco's brother, Ferdinando. While some early forensic research supported the latter theory,^[1] forensic evidence from a study in 2010 found the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which causes malaria, in the skeletal remains of Francesco I,^[2] strongly bolstering the infection theory and the credibility of the official documents.^[3] Investigation of Francesco's facial hair found among his remains detected only low levels of arsenic, ruling out chronic exposure to arsenic. However, Bianca's remains, in the form of some of her internal organs, were located in some broken terra-cotta jars buried under the crypt in the Church of Santa Maria a Bonistallo, near Francesco's villa. Testing showed proof that supports the theory of arsenic poisoning. The same findings were detected in organs from Francesco. It is believed that Francesco and Bianca were given small doses of arsenic for several days until it killed them, but the doses were probably too small and given over a too short period of time to be detected in Francesco's facial hair. In this way their symptoms, such as fever, stomach-cramps and vomiting, could easily be misinterpreted as some kind of infection, and disguise poisoning. Francesco was succeeded by his younger brother, Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

In 1857, all members of the Medici family were exhumed and reburied in the place where they still lie today. The painter, Giuseppe Moricci attended the ceremony and depicted Francesco with a facial droop, a right claw hand appearance, the right shoulder internally rotated, the right calf muscle wasted and a right clubfoot confirmed by orthopaedic footwear within the coffin.^[4] These are the features of a right sided stroke possibly within the internal capsule. The presence of the orthopaedic footwear suggests that this stroke happened significantly before his death. During life, in his official portraits, the Grand Duke was always depicted as being in perfect physical condition. The cause of his stroke is not known but malaria is known to cause this condition

There is a famous portrait of Francesco as a child by Bronzino, which hangs in the Uffizi gallery in Florence. Francesco's marriage to Bianca and the couple's death was exploited by Thomas Middleton for his tragedy Women Beware Women, published in 1658.

Children

Francesco and Johanna had seven children:

1. Eleonora (1 March 1566 – 9 September 1611), who married Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (1562–1612).
2. Romola (20 November 1568 – 2 December 1568)
3. Anna (31 December 1569 – 19 February 1584)
4. Isabella (30 September 1571 – 8 August 1572)
5. Lucrezia (7 November 1572 – 14 August 1574)
6. Marie (1575–1642), who became Queen of France by her marriage to Henri IV in 1600.
7. Filippo (20 May 1577 – 29 March 1582)

Ancestry

In fiction

• Francesco de' Medici is a secondary character in John Webster's 1612 play The White Devil

References

Further reading

• Hibbert, Christopher (1979). The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici. Penguin Books. pp. 269–281. 

External links

• "The Medici Archive Project", from the Medici Archive Project
• "The Medici Archive Project Bio Page"
• "Toledo-de' Medici, Leonor de (Eleonora)", from The Medici Archive Project
• "Osorio Pimentel, María", from The Medici Archive Project
• Cawley, Charles, "Ancestors of Leonora Alvarez de Toledo", Medieval Lands database, Foundation for Medieval Genealogy , from Medieval Lands Project