Eleonora di Toledo

Eleonora di Toledo (1522-1562) is credited with being the first modern style first lady, or consort, as we understand the terms today. She achieved this through the high profile role she created for herself in her adopted country. Eleonora di Toledo was a member of the Spanish Aragón family, the daughter of the Viceroy of Naples, Don Pedro Alvarez de Toledo. She became the wife of Cosimo I de' Medici, the ruler of Tuscany, whom she married in 1539.

The woman

Contemporary accounts of Eleonora belie the stern formal appearance of her many portraits. In her private capacity she loved to gamble, and she was a devoted traveller, moving endlessly from one of her palazzi to another. Her sense of humour may have been well developed, as there are reports of her while 8 months pregnant laughing at a Turk actor in an entertainment, who was seemingly involuntarily stripped, then exposed an artificially huge penis.

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She employed continually 10 gold and silver weavers to work on her apparel. She may have needed the fine clothes to disguise her failing appearance, as 21st century forensic examinations of her body have revealed a huge calcium deficiency, which must have caused her enormous amounts of ill health, and she had bad teeth.

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