Rise of the Medicis
The family that funded much of the Renaissance
The Medici family of Florence were the wealthiest in Europe, rising from humble roots to become grand dukes, queens and even popes. Their rise was as fascinating as it was meteoric, but there were many bumps in the road.
They are synonymous with Florence, with the earliest recorded members of the family already resident there. In the medieval period Florence was a mercantile centre, becoming a leading centre of banking and credit by the early 13th century. Florentine bankers lent money to kings and princes across Europe and, by at least 1300, members of the Medici family had entered the banking trade. Initially small scale, their wealth increased over the course of the 14th century.
The first significant member of the family was Giovanni di Bicci de Medici, who was born in 1360. He spent his early adulthood as a banker in Rome, managing deposits made by the Catholic Church. In 1397 he had established himself enough to move back to Florence, where he registered a new bank with the Banker’s Guild. This is usually considered to be the founding of the famous Medici Bank.
Giovanni’s bank grew steadily. By the end of the century there were branches in Florence, Rome and Naples, with a fourth branch, in Venice, opened a few years later. The Medici Bank, which was founded “to deal in exchange and in merchandise with the help of God and good fortune”, was a merchant bank, heavily involved in the purchase and sale of luxury goods, as well as in money lending. Branch managers across Europe would be instructed to purchase luxury goods, such as tapestries or horses, which could be sold in Italy or elsewhere for a profit. They also accepted deposits from clients, on which interest was paid.
Money lending, often to high-ranking churchmen and princes, was more risky, but lucrative. Giovanni was an excellent networker, identifying and befriending those likely to become prominent in the church. This was the case with Baldassare Cosse, who secured a cardinalcy in 1402 after paying the pope 10,000 florins loaned to him from the Medici Bank.
As a former pirate, he was an unlikely
“The Medici family are synonymous with Florence, with the earliest recorded members of the family already resident there”
churchman. However, Giovanni’s bet on Cosse paid off in 1409 when he was elected as pope, taking the name John XXIII. Even John’s removal as pontiff in 1415 failed to dent the fortunes of his bankers. When Giovanni died in 1429 he was one of Florence’s most prominent citizens, with his bank reporting profits of more than 186,000 florins in the 15 years between 1420 and 1435, His son, Cosimo di Giovanni de Medici, was even more ambitious, opening branches across Europe, including as far afield as London.
Cosimo was a shrewd businessman, keeping a close eye on his branches from Florence. He was not, however, involved in the day-to-day business of his bank as his father had been, instead focusing on politics and the arts. He was enormously wealthy, building a new home in Florence, the Palazzo Medici. This palace, although reasonably modest in size so as not to attract too much attention, was grandly furnished. Donatello, who was patronized by Cosimo, created his bronze statue of David to stand in the courtyard of Cosimo’s palace, as well as other works. The artist, Filippo Lippi also painted some of his greatest works within the building’s rough-hewn stone walls.
Cosimo intended his construction projects to be his legacy, once telling a friend that “before 50 years have passed, we shall be expelled, but my buildings will remain”. As well as his own homes, he also adorned Florence with the artworks he commissioned, including patronizing Fra Angelico, whose colourful murals still adorn the walls of the monasteries of San Domenico di Fiesole and San Marco. He was a learned man, possessing a library of over 70 books, something that was remarkable for the time.
Although interested in the arts, it was politics that increasingly took up most of Cosimo’s time. Florence was a republic, with its government, or Signoria, formed by drawing lots from the names of its most prominent citizens every two months. Even before his father’s death, Cosimo had begun to use his considerable financial clout to gain influence within Florence. This was resented by many of the more established families, with Cosimo arrested, tried for treason and exiled in October
1433. He had already anticipated this, having transferred much of his wealth out of Florence before his arrest. Biding his time in Venice, Cosimo remained abreast of Florentine affairs, returning home with a private army of 3,000 soldiers the following year. From then on he personally selected the names included in the draw for the Signoria, placing the control of the government firmly in his hands.
As the ruler of Florence in all but name, Cosimo continued to use his wealth and influence to build his own prestige and that of his city. In 1439 he secured a considerable triumph in persuading Pope Eugenius IV to move the Council of Ferrara to Florence, incentivizing the pope with promises of substantial loans. This council, which saw the arrival of the pope, the patriarch of Constantinople and the Byzantine emperor in Florence, was the most important church event in recent years, with its aim to bring about a union between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Although it failed to achieve this aim, it was a huge financial success
“Cosimo was a shrewd businessman, keeping a close eye on his branches from Florence”
for the Medicis, with the Roman branch of their bank making double its usual profit in that year. More importantly for Cosimo it dramatically increased Florence’s reputation on the international stage, and that of the Medici family.
Cosimo was still the effective ruler of Florence at his death in 1464, with the Signoria bestowing the posthumous title ‘Father of the Nation’ upon him.
Upon his death, control of the Medici
Bank passed to his son, Piero, who also became the de facto ruler of Florence. He was considerably more cautious and less financially gifted than his father and grandfather. The family fortunes dipped significantly under Piero, who held assets worth only half as much as his father in 1469. He did not, in any event, long survive his father, dying at the end of that year and leaving the Medici Bank in the control of his 20-year-old son, Lorenzo.
Lorenzo, who was nicknamed ‘The Magnificent’, had been raised to consider himself an aristocrat. In order to compete with the princes of Europe, he was prepared to spend on a lavish scale, with his patronage of artists, such as Michelangelo, particularly important. He was educated and cultured, but no businessman, failing to keep watch over the branches of his bank. Lorenzo also took much more from the bank to fund his extravagant lifestyle than he put in, while he propped up his branches with public funds from Florence. As branches of the Medici Bank began to close across Europe, even the Rome branch was facing financial ruin in the 1490s. Lorenzo, however, just kept spending.
Lorenzo was determined to increase the influence and status of the Medici on an international stage, writing to Pope Sixtus IV in 1472 of “the long-standing desire to have a cardinal in our family”. Cardinals were princes of the church, with Lorenzo anxious to finally achieve aristocratic status for his family. At first, matters seemed hopeful, but when Lorenzo refused a loan to the pope of 40,000 ducats, the Medici were removed as papal bankers. To his dismay, his rivals, the Pazzi family, were appointed in their place.
To make matters worse, the pope continued to support the Pazzi family, giving his tacit approval when they and some of the pope’s own nephews conspired to rid Florence of the Medici. On the morning of 26 April 1478 Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano were at mass in Florence’s Duomo. As the Host was raised, they were surprised by the arrival of Francesco de Pazzi, who frantically stabbed Giuliano, while two priests attacked Lorenzo. Although badly wounded, Lorenzo survived the attack, but his brother was less fortunate. The pope very firmly sided with the Pazzi, excommunicating Lorenzo when he took revenge on the leading conspirators and placing Florence under an interdict. Lorenzo and the Medici were relieved when Sixtus died in August 1484.
The new pope, Innocent VIII, proved a friend to the Medici, betrothing his son to Lorenzo’s daughter in exchange for a substantial dowry. More significantly, he also agreed to make Lorenzo’s second son, the 14-year-old Giovanni de Medici,
“Cosimo continued to use his wealth and influence to build his own prestige and that of his city”
a cardinal on 9 March 1489. Lorenzo paid a heavy fee for this honour, but it was a significant moment for the family. Giovanni was the highest-ranking Medici there had been so far.
Lorenzo’s triumph in securing a cardinal’s hat for his son further increased his ambitions. Unlike his father and grandfather, who had always presented themselves as ‘first among equals’ in Florence, his own style of government made his pre-eminent position much more obvious. Only Lorenzo was exempt from a law banning weapons in the city, while he maintained a substantial private bodyguard, for example.
Like his father, Lorenzo suffered from considerable ill health, dying on 8 April 1492 at the age of only 43. Although some in Florence lamented his death, a large proportion of the citizens celebrated, hoping that it would mark an end to
Medici dominance.
It was certainly a difficult year for the Medici in 1492, with Lorenzo’s 20-year-old son, Piero, who was both incompetent and unlucky, struggling to maintain the family’s position. In spite of increasing unpopularity, Piero insisted on maintaining a pro-naples policy, something which placed him at odds with Charles VIII of France, who himself claimed the Italian kingdom. He mishandled his approach to Charles, at first refusing to give his troops safe conduct through Florentine territory and then being forced to negotiate, surrendering
Pisa to the French king. Within days, he had been deposed as ruler of Florence, with the citizens rising under cries of “The People! Liberty!” The Signoria then exiled Piero, his brother, Cardinal Giovanni, and other members of the family.
In the Medici’s absence, Florence came under the authority of the theocratic government of the radical preacher Girolamo Savonarola, whose austere government saw the burning of artworks and books in the city. In spite of Savonarola’s growing unpopularity, Piero de’ Medici was unable to secure popular support when he arrived outside the city with an army of 2,000 troops in 1497, being once again forced to withdraw. Even Savonarola’s own fall from power, which saw him hanged and then burned at the stake in 1498, did not see any clamour for the Medici family’s return. Piero continued to plot, from exile, but bad luck overcame him once more. On 27 December 1503 he fell into a river and drowned.
By 1503, the Medici had been exiled from Florence for nearly a decade, while their bank, which had founded their
wealth, was in ruins. It must have seemed as though they had reached their lowest ebb, with Piero’s sons still being young children with little prospect of ruling. The family did, however, have a trump card in Cardinal Giuliano, who had maintained his position in the church. Through his relationship with Pope Julius II, he was able to engineer a return to prominence for the family, with the Pope himself writing to the city in July 1512 to insist on the return of the Medici – and its abandonment of its French allegiance. Although the city at first demurred, when Cardinal Giovanni and his younger brother Guiliano arrived at the gates of the city on 14 September, accompanied by an army, they were forced to admit them. Entering Florence in triumph, the Medici once again took control of the city’s governance.
Although the return of the Medici was not universally celebrated, there was little that the citizens could do, with Cardinal Giovanni becoming Pope Leo X the “With imperial support, the Medici took an army to besiege their city” following year, something that crowned the family’s remarkable achievement. Pope Leo, too, continued to view Florence as his home, making a ceremonial entry in 1515, where he was welcomed by firework displays, gun salutes and triumphal arches.
As was so often the case, however, the family’s triumph was short-lived. The Medici secured a second pope when, in 1523, Leo’s cousin Giulio de Medici was elected as Pope Clement VII. However, this brought them into conflict with the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, who sacked Rome in 1527 and placed Clement under house arrest. When news of this reached Florence, the citizens rose, shouting anti-medici slogans and burning effigies of the Medici pope in bonfires. Once again, the Medici were forced into exile.
Clement was finally able to return to Rome in October 1528, where he attempted to shore up Medici power in the church with the appointment of his 18-year-old kinsman, Ippolito de Medici, as a cardinal. He also came to terms with the Emperor Charles V, promising to crown him as
Holy Roman Emperor and to betroth another kinsman, Alessandro de Medici, to Charles’s illegitimate daughter.
With imperial support, the Medici took an army to besiege their city. Florence, which had reinstated republican government, refused to yield for nearly a year, with hunger so desperate that mice were sold in the marketplace as food. When plague broke out, the citizens had had enough, rising to demand the return of the Medici to end their hunger.
Once again, the Medici had returned to Florence, although they found the city devastated by the lengthy siege. In 1531 their rule was formalised, with the Emperor Charles V issuing a decree to declare Alessandro de Medici as Governor of the Republic of Florence and Head of the Government in Perpetuity. Although this title, which was not the dukedom Alessandro had desired, maintained a pretence of republicanism, in reality it appointed Alessandro as the city’s prince.
It was still not enough for Alessandro, who in 1532 secured the title of Duke of the Republic’ from his kinsman,
Pope Clement VII. In spite of this, Alessandro was far from secure, building a fortress, the Fortezza de Basso, with a view to defending himself against his own citizens. He was also still only nominally the head of the family, with Pope Clement arranging the prestigious marriage of his 14-year-old niece, Catherine de Medici, to the second son of Francis I of France in 1533. Catherine de Medici would become the first Medici to sit on a throne when, in 1547, she became queen of France. She would later be followed, over 50 years later, by a second Medici queen of France.
Alessandro was deeply unpopular in Florence and unlamented following his assassination in 1537. With his death, his dukedom was inherited by a distant cousin, Cosimo I, who was a descendant
of Giovanni di Bicci de Medici, founder of the Medici Bank.
Cosimo I, who was only 17-years-old, surprisingly received widespread support from the ordinary people of Florence, who had largely become used to Medici rule. He was secretive and suspicious by nature, as well as being a capable ruler, immediately taking on the reigns of government in the city.
The Florence that Cosimo I inherited was a city that was almost bankrupt and beset by factions and conspiracy. Concerned at his duchy’s continuing dependence on the Holy Roman
Emperor, he was determined to secure its independence, finally negotiating in 1543 to pay the emperor 200,000 florins in exchange for the return of the fortresses at Pisa and Livorno and the withdrawal of imperial troops from Florence. He continued to have close diplomatic links to the Imperial royal family for the remainder of his life, while also providing support for his cousin, Catherine de’ Medici, who was regent of France after the death of her husband, King Henry II.
Cosimo I was a man of relatively plain tastes, preferring to live simply behind the walls of his palaces. However, he very carefully constructed a magnificent public image, taking care to patronise the arts as his predecessors had done. This included his construction of the vast Uffizi Palace, which was intended to serve as an administrative office block, while he also founded the scholarly Academia Fiorentina in 1542. He also spent lavishly on the Palazzo Pitti, which became his main residence outside of the city. Given the fate of his predecessor, he was understandably anxious about assassination, having a covered walkway, known as the Vasari Corridor, constructed to run from the Palazzo Vecchio, his city residence, through the Uffizi, over the Ponte Vecchio bridge and on to the Palazzo Pitti. Safe inside his walkway, he could move through the city unseen.
Just like his predecessors, Cosimo I was particularly interested in Vatican politics, with his son, Giovanni, becoming a cardinal in 1560. When Giovanni passed away only two years later, the pope created his brother, Ferdinando, a cardinal in his place.
It was this close relationship with
Rome that led to the family’s greatest achievement, when Pope Pius V created Cosimo Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1569. The appointment was made ostensibly because “the duke has always been a defender of the holy Catholic Church and a great supporter of justice”, but in reality it was in recognition of the fact that Cosimo was now as much a sovereign as the other princes of Europe.
With the creation of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, all pretence that Florence remained a republic was abandoned. Cosimo I’s coronation as grand duke, by the pope himself in the Sistine Chapel on 5 March 1570, was the height of the Medici family’s power and ambition. They had reached the assent of their bumpy rise. From then onwards there was nowhere else for them to go but downwards.
“With the creation of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, all pretence that Florence remained a republic was abandoned”