Renaissance history
Iam so conditioned when I pick up a new book about Italy that I expect it to be a historical novel about Ancient Rome. That period seems to fascinate historians and historical novelists. This reviewer finds it no more than somewhat interesting.
Hence, The Black Prince Of Florence by British historian Catherine Fletcher was a pleasant surprise. Her speciality is the Renaissance. The time of the legions had long passed. This was the time of the arts. When Da Vinci and Titian, Michelangelo and Cellini rubbed shoulders.
Not to mention Machiavelli instructing those in power how to behave. England had its Tudors, Italy its Medicis. All had slaves, brought in by wars and traders from the East.
Slaves served every purpose in the fields and in shops, in the homes and in beds. Numerous illegitimate infants were foaled. Sired by the nobility, what were they to do with them? A not uncommon solution was to set the mothers free, then raise the children as their own.
Several rose to high rank. Made good marriages. But there was also jealousy. The author singles out the spawn of a duke and a Moorish maid. Alessandro’s skin colour was light brown (not black). Daddy was part of the Medici clan. Medici Pope Leo X took the lad under his wing.
Still a youth, Alessandro was elevated to prince of Florence. Rival families wouldn’t stand for it. He found security behind 300 bodyguards. Not short of mistresses, a marriage was needed.
Margaret of Parma (later Margaret of Austria) fitted the bill, if rather young at 13 (illegitimate). A match with the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor would have been a political match, had she not miscarried.
At 25, Alessandro’s time was up. Assassins got to him. Which they justified by accusing him of having been a tyrant.
The book has two sections of glossy period pictures, a bibliography and an index. Fletcher has an easy style. If you are curious about the Medicis and their effect on European history, you can’t do better.