himself like a vassal at Austria’s feet. He reaped his reward by
obtaining from Maximilian II. the title of grand-duke, for which
Cosimo had never been able to win the imperial sanction, but
he forfeited all independence. Towards Philip II. he showed
even greater submissiveness, supplying him with large sums of
money wrung from his overtaxed people. He held entirely
aloof from France, in order not to awake the suspicions of his
protectors. He traded on his own account, thus creating a
monopoly that was ruinous to the country. He raised the tax
upon corn to so high a rate that few continued to find any profit
in growing it, and thus the Maremme, already partly devastated
during the war with Siena, were converted into a desert. Even
industry declined under this system of government; and,
although Francesco founded porcelain manufactories and pietra
dura works, they did not rise to any prosperity until after his
death. His love of science and letters was the only Medicean
virtue that he possessed. He had an absolute passion for
chemistry, and passed much of his time in his laboratory. Sometimes
indeed he gave audience to his secretaries of state standing
before a furnace, bellows in hand. He took some useful measures
to promote the rise of a new city at Leghorn, which at that time
had only a natural and ill-sheltered harbour. The improvement
of Leghorn had been first projected by Cosimo I., and was
carried on by all the succeeding Medici. Francesco was a slave
to his passions, and was led by them to scandalous excesses and
deeds of bloodshed. His example and neglect of the affairs of
the state soon caused a vast increase of crime even among the
people, and, during the first eighteen months of his reign, there
occurred no fewer than one hundred and sixty-eight murders.
In default of public events, the historians of this period enlarge upon private incidents, generally of a scandalous or sanguinary kind. In 1575 Orazio Pucci, wishing to avenge his father, whom Cosimo had hanged, determined to get up a conspiracy, but, soon recognizing how firmly the Medicean rule had taken root in the country, desisted from the attempt. But the grand-duke, on hearing of the already abandoned plot, immediately caused Pucci to be hanged from the same window of the Palazzo Vecchio, and even from the same iron stanchion, from which his father before him had hung. His companions, who had fled to France and England, were pursued and murdered by the ducal emissaries. Their possessions were confiscated, and the “Polverina” law applied, so that the conspirators’ heirs were reduced to penury, and the grand-duke gained more than 300,000 ducats.
Next year Isabella dei Medici, Francesco’s sister, was strangled in her nuptial bed by her husband, Paolo Giordano Orsini, whom she had betrayed. Piero dei Medici, Francesco’s brother, murdered his wife Eleonora of Toledo from the same motive. Still louder scandal was caused by the duke’s own conduct. He was already a married man, when, passing one day through the Piazza of St Mark in Florence, he saw an exceedingly beautiful woman at the window of a mean dwelling, and at once conceived a passion for her. She was the famous Bianca Cappello, a Venetian of noble birth, who had eloped with a young Florentine named Pietro Buonaventuri, to whom she was married at the time that she attracted the duke’s gaze. He made her acquaintance, and, in order to see her frequently, nominated her husband to a post at court. Upon this, Buonaventuri behaved with so much insolence, even to the nobility, that one evening he was found murdered in the street. Thus the grand-duke, who was thought to have sanctioned the crime, was able to indulge his passion unchecked. On the death of the grand-duchess in 1578 he was privately united to Bianca, and afterwards married her publicly. But she had no children, and this served to poison her happiness, since the next in succession was her bitter enemy, the cardinal Ferdinand. The latter came to Florence in 1587, and was ostentatiously welcomed by Bianca, who was most anxious to conciliate him. On the 18th of October of the same year the grand-duke died at his villa of Poggio a Caiano, of a fever caught on a shooting excursion in the Maremme, and the next day Bianca also expired, having ruined her health by drugs taken to cure her sterility. But rumour asserted that she had prepared a poisoned tart for the cardinal, and that, when he suspiciously insisted on the grand-duke tasting it first, Bianca desperately swallowed a slice and followed her husband to the tomb.
Such was the life of Francesco dei Medici, and all that can be said in his praise is that he gave liberal encouragement to a few artists, including de Giovanni Bologna (q.v.). He was the founder of the Uffizi gallery, of the Medici theatre, and the villa of Pratolino; and during his reign the Della Cruscan academy was instituted.
Ferdinand I. was thirty-eight years of age when, in 1587, he succeeded his brother on the throne. A cardinal from the age of fourteen, he had never taken holy orders. He showed much tact and experience in the management of ecclesiastical affairs. He was the founder of the Villa Medici at Rome, and the purchaser of many priceless works ofFerdinand I. art, such as the Niobe group and many other statues afterwards transported by him to Florence. After his accession he retained the cardinal’s purple until the time of his marriage. He was in all respects his brother’s opposite. Affable in his manners and generous with his purse, he chose a crest typical of the proposed mildness of his rule—a swarm of bees with the motto Majestate tantum. He instantly pardoned all who had opposed him, and left his kinsmen at liberty to choose their own place of residence. Occasionally, for political reasons, he committed acts unworthy of his character; but he re-established the administration of justice, and sedulously attended to the business of the state and the welfare of his subjects. Accordingly Tuscany revived under his rule and regained the independence and political dignity that his brother had sacrificed to love of ease and personal indulgence. He favoured commerce, and effectually ensured the prosperity of Leghorn, by an edict enjoining toleration towards Jews and heretics, which led to the settlement of many foreigners in that city. He also improved the harbour and facilitated communication with Pisa by means of the Naviglio, a canal into which a portion of the water of the Arno was turned. He nevertheless retained the reprehensible custom of trading on his own account, keeping banks in many cities of Europe. He successfully accomplished the draining of the Val di Chiana, cultivated the plains of Pisa, Fucecchio and Val di Nievole, and executed other works of public utility at Siena and Pisa. But his best energies were devoted to the foreign policy by which he sought to emancipate himself from subjection to Spain. On the assassination (1589) of Henry III. of France Ferdinand supported the claims of the king of Navarre, undeterred by the opposition of Spain and the Catholic League, who were dismayed by the prospect of a Huguenot succeeding to the throne of France. He lent money to Henry IV., and strongly urged his conversion to Catholicism; he helped to persuade the pope to accept Henry’s abjuration, and pursued this policy with marvellous persistence until his efforts were crowned with success. Henry IV. showed faint gratitude for the benefits conferred upon him, and paid no attention to the expostulations of the grand-duke, who then began to slacken his relations with France, and showed that he could guard his independence by other alliances. He gave liberal assistance to Philip III. for the campaign in Algiers, and to the emperor for the war with the Turks. Hence he was compelled to burden his subjects with enormous taxes, forgetting that while guaranteeing the independence of Tuscany by his loans to foreign powers he was increasingly sapping the strength of future generations. He at last succeeded in obtaining the formal investiture of Siena, which Spain had always considered a fief of her own.
During this grand-duke’s reign the Tuscan navy was notably increased, and did itself much honour on the Mediterranean. The war-galleys of the knights of St Stephen were despatched to the coast of Barbary to attack Bona, the headquarters of the corsairs, and they captured the town with much dash and bravery. In the following year (1608) the same galleys achieved their most brilliant victory in the archipelago over the stronger fleet of the Turks, by taking nine of their vessels, seven hundred prisoners, and jewels of the value of 2,000,000 ducats.
