Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Cosimo I de' Medici (June 12, 1519, Florence http://www.worldroots.com/cgi-bin/gasteldb?@I15897@ – April 21, 1574, Castello) was the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, ruling from 1537 to 1574, during the waning days of the Renaissance.

Marriage and family

In 1539, he married Eleonora di Toledo (1519–1562), the daughter of Don Pedro Alvarez de Toledo, the Spanish viceroy of Naples. Her married name was Leonor de Toledo-de' Medici. Her face is still familiar to many because of her solemn and distant portraits by Agnolo Bronzino. The most famous of them, with her son Giovanni, hangs in the Uffizi Gallery. She provided the Medici with the Pitti Palace and eight sons to ensure male succession and three daughters to connect the Medici with noble and ruling houses in Italy. She was a patron of the new Jesuit order, and her private chapel in the Palazzo della Signoria was decorated by Bronzino, who had originally arrived in Florence to provide festive decor for her wedding. She died, with her sons Giovanni and Garzia, in 1562, when she was only forty; all three of them were struck down by malaria while traveling to Pisa.

Related Topics:
1539 - Eleonora di Toledo - 1519 - 1562 - Viceroy - Naples - Agnolo Bronzino - Giovanni - Uffizi Gallery - Pitti Palace - Jesuit - Palazzo della Signoria - Bronzino - Malaria - Pisa

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Cosimo's children http://www.medici.org/general/PhotoEssay.pdf were:

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• Bia (1537 – 1542) (illegitimate)
• Maria (April 3, 1540 – November 19, 1557)
• Francesco (March 25, 1541 – October 19, 1587)
• Isabella (August 31, 1542 – July 16, 1576), who was murdered by her husband Paolo Giordano Orsini because of her infidelity
• Giovanni (September 28, 1543 – November 1562), bishop of Pisa and cardinal
• Lucrezia (June 7, 1545 – April 21, 1561), wife (1560) of Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara and Modena
• Pietro (Pedricco) (August 10, 1546 – June 10, 1547)
• Garzia (July 5, 1547 – December 12, 1562)
• Antonio (1548 – 1548)
• Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (July 30, 1549 – February 17, 1609)
• Anna (1553 – 1553)
• Pietro (June 3, 1554 – April 25, 1604), who murdered his wife because of her infidelity
• (Unnamed daughter, died before being baptised) (1566 – 1566)
• Giovanni (1567 – 1621) (illegitimate, presumably by Camilla Martelli)
• Virginia (May 29, 1568 – January 15, 1615) (illegitimate, by Camilla Martelli http://worldroots.com/cgi-bin/gasteldb?@I16109@), wife of Cesare d'Este, Duke of Modena

In 1570, he married a second time to Camilla Martelli (died 1574).

Related Topics:
1570 - 1574

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