The Medici Family | History, Power, Members & Facts

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The Medici Family (Founded in 1230 – Dissolved in 1743) were a powerful and influential family of the Renaissance in Florence, Founded by Giambuono de’ Medici.

Whose members included four popes: Leo X,  Pius IV, Clement VII, and Leo XI; two queens of France:  Marie de Medici and Catherine de Medici; and numerous Florentine leaders, members of the royal houses of France and England, who stood out as patrons, sponsoring artists and scientists of their time.

The Medici acquired their wealth in the textile trade, which was operated by the Guild Arte Della Lana. On this basis, they founded a modern banking system and dominated the European financial world of the early modern period – also through their relationships with the papacy.

The House of Medici
Coat of Arms of The House of Medici

Facts About Medici Family

  • Founded: 1230; 791 years ago
  • Founder: Giambuono de’ Medici
  • Place of Origin: Mugello, Tuscia (present-day Tuscany)
  • Country:
    Republic of Florence
    Grand Duchy of Tuscany
    Papal States
    Duchy of Urbino
  • Members:
    Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici
    Cosimo de’ Medici
    Lorenzo de’ Medici
    Pope Leo X
    Pope Clement VII
    Pope Leo XI
    Catherine de’ Medici
    Cosimo I de’ Medici
    Marie de’ Medici
  • Religion: Roman Catholicism
  • Motto: (“Make haste slowly”)
  • Final Ruler: Gian Gastone de’ Medici
  • Final Head: Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici
  • Dissolved: 1743

History of the Medici

The Medici family had up to ten bank branches: in Avignon, Venice, Rome, Naples, Milan, Pisa, Geneva, Lyon, Bruges, and London. In 1378, Salvestro de’ Medici proposed a reform widening the suffrage within the Republic, attracting the sympathy of the population for his family.

The elder branch descends from Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici and Lorenzo de’ Medici, his son, and ended with the murder of Alexander ” the Moor ” in 1537. Power then passed down to the younger branch of Laurent Old, then represented by Cosimo I Medici who came to power in 1537.

The branches form a clan of 32 families joining the  14th century to secretly enter the levers of power by posing as supporters of the people against the florentine oligarchy made up of wealthy trading families (Albizzi family, Alberti, Strozzi) at the head of the 7 Major Arts.

The male direct line of descent died out in 1737 (see genealogy below), but two younger branches remain, the Medici di Ottajano and the Medici Tornaquinci. The history of the House of Medici is certainly rich and complex, but its results must be qualified.

Art and Architecture

In the arts, the Medici were a dynasty adept at patronage and collecting; Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, the dowager voter of the Palatinate of the Rhine, last survivor of the house, bequeathed her collection to the city of Florence, on the condition that the treasures remain in the city, which transformed it into a “glory of the World ”, bringing together more than 50 museums.

In architecture, the Medici are responsible for several notable buildings in Florence, including the Uffizi Gallery, the Pitti Palace, the Boboli Gardens, the Belvedere, and the Medici Palace.

  • The Basilica di San Lorenzo with the Medici chapels, including the New Sacristy with the funerary figures of Michelangelo
  • The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the largest church of its time, with which Cosimo de ‘Medici commissioned Brunelleschi and which could be completed in 1436,
  • The Palazzo Medici Riccardi , begun in 1444, built by Michelozzo ,
  • The Palazzo Pitti , which Eleonora de Toledo, Cosimo’s wife, acquired from Buonaccorso Pitti in 1550 ,
  • The Uffizi, which Giorgio Vasari built on behalf of Cosimo I in 1560,
  • The Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, founded in 1563 as Accademia e Compagnia dell’Arte del Disegno (which now preserves the original of Michelangelo’s “David”),
  • The Boboli Gardens behind the Pitti Palace,
  • The Belvedere,
  • The Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana.

Grand Dukes of Tuscany

The pro-French policy of Clement VII, which caused the sack of Rome by the Germans, led to the expulsion of the Medici from Florence in 1527. Then the pope who fled from Rome made an alliance with Charles V and with his help returned Florence to Alessandro. After a ten-month siege, Florence surrendered to German troops in 1530.

Alessandro Medici, married to Margarita, the bastard daughter of Charles V, received from him hereditary monarchical power in Florence with the title of duke. Duke Alessandro Medici caused widespread discontent with his debauchery. After unsuccessful complaints against him to Charles V, the disaffected organized a conspiracy.

Alessandro was killed by his relative, Lorenzino, in 1537. The assassin was forced to flee and was killed in Venice in 1548.

The Decline of Florence

The reign of Cosimo II de’ Medici, with his fantastic plans for conquest in the East and complete submission to Spain, marked the beginning of the decline of Florence. Only the patronage of enlightenment (Cosimo II encouraged Galileo, who in his honor named the four largest satellites of Jupiter discovered by him the Medicean stars or Medicean moons) remained unchanged both with him and with his son, successor, Ferdinando II (1621-1670).

For the first seven years, the reign was actually headed by the grandmother and mother of Ferdinando, the Austrian princess Maria Magdalena. At this time, Tuscany has reached almost complete wildness. Ferdinando worked diligently to improve the country’s position but to no avail.

Enlightened and magnanimous, but loose and weak-willed, he married Vittoria Della Rovere in 1638, but the first-born, son and daughter, died in infancy, and only in 1642 the long-awaited heir to Cosimo III was born.

Of the many Ferdinando brothers, Matteo, who took part in the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), and the last celebrity from the Medici house, Cardinal Leopoldo, who defended Galilei along with Ferdinando, are especially famous.

Cosimo III (1670-1723), distinguished by special hypocrisy and pedantry, and also completely dependent on the Catholic clergy, could not stop the decline of Florence. The dynastic marriage that he entered into in 1661 with Marguerite Louise of Orleans, niece of the French king Louis XIV, brought him a lot of grief: married against her will, an ambitious and depraved wife quickly hated both himself and his country, refusing even to learn Italian.

Returning eventually to France, she pledged to live in a monastery but instead spent the rest of her days in court amusements. At the sons of Cosimo III of, different, like their grandfather Fernando, a tendency to homosexuality, there was no offspring, so he forced his brother, Cardinal Francesco, lay priesthood and marry. However, this marriage remained fruitless.

The heir to Cosimo, the son of Gian Gastone de’ Medici (1723-1737), sickly and aged until the time, took almost no part in the government, leaving all the financial affairs of the duchy at the mercy of his dishonest favorite attendant, Giuliano Dami.

He became the last member of the family in a straight male line, and with the death of his sister, Anne Maria, which followed in 1743, the Medici line was finally cut short. Of the secondary branches of Medici families so far Florence preserved in Palazzo Medici-Tornaquinci, awnings Castellina and Naples – Dukes Ottaiano and Dukes Sarlo.

Medici Family Members

The older Medici

  • Salvestro de’ Medici (1331–1388), led the attack against the revolt of the Ciompi and was exiled from Florence in 1382 as dictator
  • Giovanni di Bicci de ‘Medici (1360–1429), Florentine merchant and banker
  • Cosimo de ‘Medici, il Vecchio, the old man (1389–1464)
  • Piero di Cosimo de ‘Medici, il Gottoso, the gouty (1416–1469)
  • Lorenzo de’ Medici, the Magnificent (1449–1492)
  • Giuliano de’ Medici (1453–1478)
  • Piero di Lorenzo de ‘Medici, Piero the unfortunate (1472–1503)
  • Giovanni de ‘Medici (1475–1521), from 1513 Pope Leo X.
  • Giuliano di Lorenzo de ‘Medici (1479–1516), Duke of Nemours
  • Giulio de ‘Medici (1478–1534), from 1523 Pope Clement VII.
  • Lorenzo di Piero de ‘Medici (1492-1519), Duke of Urbino
  • Alessandro de ‘Medici (1510-1537), Duke of Florence
  • Caterina de ‘Medici (1519–1589), Queen of France

Grand Dukes of Tuscany

  • Cosimo I (1519–1574)
  • Francesco I (1541–1587)
  • Ferdinando I (1549-1609), Brother of Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, son of Cosimo I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
  • Maria de ‘Medici (1575–1642), Queen of France
  • Cosimo II. (1590-1621)
  • Caterina de ‘Medici (1593–1629) (1593–1629), Duchess of Mantua
  • Claudia de ‘Medici (1604–1648), Archduchess of Austria, and Duchess of Tyrol
  • Ferdinando II (1610-1670), Eldest son of Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
  • Cosimo III. (1642–1723), Eldest son of Ferdinando II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.
  • Anna Maria Luisa de ‘Medici (1667–1743), Grand Duchess of Tuscany, last of the Medici, 1691–1716 Electress of the Palatinate and Duchess of the Palatinate-Neuburg, residing in Düsseldorf
  • Gian Gastone (1671-1737), Second son of Cosimo III de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Medici Family Tree

medici family tree
britannica.com

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