1564, Cosmo resigned a portion of his authority to his son Francesco-Maria, who succeeded as grand-duke; went to live in retirement; and married in 1570 a lady of no fortune, named Camilla Martelli. The character of Cosmo is mainly that of a successful ruler. He was diligent, maintained order, kept Tuscany, at length united under his sceptre, independent of foreigners, and was a splendid protector of art and letters, like all the greatest men of his family. On the other hand, he strangled the liberty he was pledged to protect, governed by an unprecedented development of the spy system, and seems never to have allowed moral considerations to interfere where his personal or political interests were concerned.
Medici, Cosmo III. de', third grand-duke of Tuscany, born 14th August, 1642, succeeded his father Ferdinand II., 24th May, 1670; died in Florence, 31st October, 1723. His ill-assorted marriage with Marguerite Louise d'Orléans, and fruitless attempts to have the Medicean race kept up by marriages as his own progeny died out, furnished some of the chief events of his long reign. In 1718 the succession, next to the surviving son Giovanni Gastone, was settled upon the Infant of Spain. Cosmo was enormously rich, and prodigal of money for devotional purposes; otherwise the reverse of generous. He is represented as narrowminded, bigoted, and grinding, or as pious and a good sovereign, according to the varying views of his biographers.
Medici, Giovanni de', born in 1360 of a Florentine family which can be authentically traced back to 1201; died on 20th February, 1428; is remembered chiefly as the father of Cosmo, the "Pater Patriæ," but was greatly distinguished among his fellow-citizens for his own virtues. Immensely rich by means of commerce, and lacking literary cultivation, he was free from ambition, and never sought honours. His affability, moderation, and liberality, however, made him so great a popular favourite that, when his family was banished towards the year 1400, it was deemed needful to except Giovanni, through fear of a revolt. He became a member of the signoria in 1402, 1408, and 1417 s uccessively; a member of the Council of Ten for war purposes in 1414; and gonfalonier of justice, the highest office in the Florentine executive, in 1421 and other years. His counsels were pacific, and his lavish alms procured him the glorious name of Father of the Poor. By his wife Piccarda he left two sons, Cosmo and Lorenzo. The former was the progenitor of the branch of the family which took the lead up to the death of Duke Alessandro in 1537. This branch then terminated, and the younger branch, tracing up to Lorenzo, and which had hitherto remained in comparative privacy, came into power in the person of Cosmo, the first grand-duke, and his descendants.
Medici, Giovanni Gastone de', Grand-duke of Tuscany, the last male of the Medicean race, born in Florence 24th May, 1671; succeeded his father, Cosmo III., 31st October, 1723; died in Florence 9th July, 1737. On the 2nd of July, 1697, Giovanni Gastone married Anne Mary Frances of Saxe-Lauenburg, an ugly and unmanageable woman, whose fatal society changed her husband from a studious and promising youth into an indolent debauchee of low tastes and shattered health. Upon his accession he showed some qualities of a strong-headed and well-intentioned sovereign, getting rid of his father's much-protected monks and spies, and administering milder and more accurate justice. He refused to receive or treat with his wife, who remained in Bohemia. He relapsed, however, into indolence, and a shameful traffic in offices ensued. As he had no direct heir, the great question of his reign was naturally as to the succession. He adhered outwardly to the treaty of 25th July, 1731, fixing the succession upon the Infant Don Carlos; though it is said that his own recorded desire was to restore to Florence the independence which she had intended to secure to herself, when the Medicean rule was settled. Eventually the succession passed to François de Lorraine, husband of Maria Theresa. The gleams of sense, humour, and goodness of purpose, which chequered the uselessness of Giovanni Gastone as a ruler, seem to have attached the people to him; the last man of the Medicis died not unlamented. The race was finally extinguished on 18th February, 1743, by the death of Giovanni Gastone's sister, the princess palatine.—W. M. R.
Medici, Lorenzo de', surnamed the Magnificent, was born on the 1st of January, 1448. He was the son of Pietro and grandson of Cosmo de' Medici, who, in consequence of their high position in Florence as merchants of princely wealth, had successively held the reins of state, and had been accepted as chiefs of the republic. Great pains were bestowed on the education of Lorenzo. His tutors were some of the most learned men of the day, while Politian and Pico de la Mirandola were his fellow-students, and continued his faithful friends to the end of his life. His father dying in 1469, a junto of five persons, of whom Thomas Soderini was the principal, invited Lorenzo and his brother Julian to occupy the seat of supreme power. Soderini, indeed, had been the real ruler of Florence during the time of Pietro, whose physical sufferings had long incapacitated him for the transaction of important business. Unwilling to abandon a secured power to the chance of a popular election, he assembled a meeting of the most influential citizens of Florence, and proposed the two young Medici as heads of the state (principe dello stato), on the ground, so familiar to the supporters of hereditary monarchy, that it would be easier to maintain a power consolidated by time, than to found a new one. The young men were elected, and the hereditary principle seemed to be confirmed. The republican austerity of the Florentines had, indeed, become greatly relaxed by the refining influence of commercial prosperity. To behold the generous, accomplished Medici engaged in the most intellectual pursuits, surrounded by the most learned men of the age, accumulating treasures of art, and cultivating the elegancies of life in the highest perfection, was a source of joy and triumph to the majority of the people of Florence. The general taste for pomp and magnificence was often carried to a dangerous extreme; and the extravagant expenditure consequent on the visit of Galeazzo Sforza to Florence, is said to have demoralized the inhabitants. For seven or eight years Lorenzo lived in the peaceful enjoyment of his authority. He studied Plato, he wrote poetry, he filled his gardens with the exquisite remains of ancient art, and loved to walk there talking philosophy with his chosen friends. To disturb an existence so serene was unmannerly, and political liberty seemed forgotten in Florence. The ancient elective offices were virtually suppressed, a permanent council was established and was obedient to the will of Lorenzo, who came to be treated as a sovereign prince. Two seditious movements in the republic had been sternly repressed soon after Lorenzo's election—the one at Prato, where, in 1470, A. Nardi, a member of the old oligarchy of Florence, endeavoured to seize the citadel; and the other at Volterra in 1472. The Volterrans desired to shake off their dependent alliance with Florence; but they were defeated, their city given up to pillage, and deposed from the rank of an ally to that of a subject city. One of the sins for which Lorenzo on his deathbed sought absolution, was the sacking of the city of Volterra. Spite of his rigour to enemies and his noble generosity to friends, Lorenzo was doomed to feel the extreme force of personal animosity from both public and private foes. The Pazzi family in Florence was as distinguished in commerce as that of the Medici, and more ancient and numerous. They could not brook the pre-eminence of Lorenzo, who on his side missed no opportunity of diminishing their influence in the state. Francesco Pazzi in disgust left his native city for Rome, where he became the banker of Pope Sixtus IV. This pontiff, who has disgraced himself in history by his unscrupulous nepotism, hated Lorenzo for his opposition to Jerome Riario, a favourite nephew of the pope. A plot was concocted for the destruction of the two Medici, and the restoration of the free republic of Florence. The pope, Ferdinand king of Naples, Francesco Salviati archbishop of Pisa, and the Pazzi family, were the principal parties to this conspiracy, which, formed in 1477, was not ripe for execution till April, 1478. Lorenzo and his brother were set upon by the conspirators, while attending mass in the church. Julian unhappily received a fatal stab; but Lorenzo with a slight wound escaped. He immediately took ample vengeance on the Pazzi family and the archbishop; but the mightier conspirators, Sixtus IV. and Ferdinand, remained in the field, and caused the Florentines no little distress. Towards the end of 1479 Lorenzo, after telling the council that he was ready to sacrifice his life if it would benefit the republic, set out for Naples and succeeded in persuading Ferdinand to make peace with Florence, and a treaty was signed on the 6th March, 1480. The capture of Otranto by the Turks about the same time, induced the pope likewise to come to terms. In 1484 Sixtus IV. died and was succeeded by Innocent VIII., a devoted friend to Lorenzo, whose son John (afterwards Leo X.) he nominated cardinal at the early age of thirteen. The fall of Siena, and the death of Jerome Riario, lord of Imola, served
