Download Medici family The bourgeois Medici family rose to prominence

Medici family
The bourgeois Medici family rose to prominence during the Renaissance and became a political and economic
powerhouse. The Medici ruled Florence from 1434 to 1737, and many members of the family married into other powerful
European families. The result of those unions included the reign of Medici women on the thrones of France, Spain, and
England; the marriage of a Medici to the sister of the Holy Roman emperor; and the election of three Medici popes.
This powerful family that enjoyed such prominence in later years emerged from fairly humble roots in 12th-century Italy.
The growing influence and strength of the family paralleled the manifold changes that transformed Italy and the rest of
Europe in the centuries following the Middle Ages. Like the majority of their countrymen, the Medici began as farmers. In
the 14th century, they moved to the urban center of Florence, and over the next few centuries, they became the
predominant commercial and political family in the city-state of Florence, as well as one of the most influential families in
all of Renaissance Europe.
The middle class had grown in power and influence as the medieval practice of serfdom disappeared. Economically, the
High Middle Ages that directly preceded the Renaissance were marked by stagnation and decline. Yet by the 15th
century, that trend began to reverse itself. Among the most important aspects of this economic rejuvenation was the
growth of the merchant banking class, which included the Medici.
The first Medici family member of consequence was Salvestro, who was a leader in the famous Florentine lower-class
revolt of the ciompi (wool carders) in 1378. In the aftermath of the uprising, Salvestro rose to a position of power in
Florence, but his heavy-handed ways resulted in his subsequent banishment from the city. As a result, the Medici family's
prestige suffered, and it remained damaged until the early 15th century. It was then that Giovanni de Bicci de' Medici
successfully led the family back to prominence.
In addition to restoring the family to power, Giovanni is credited with laying the foundation of the family's tremendous
wealth. He made vast sums of money in banking and in the collection of rents for the city of Florence. While he
established close ties with the masses—a gesture that would distinguish the Medici—Giovanni also became the first in a
long line of Medici to patronize the arts.
A time of profound social and cultural revival, the European Renaissance began in about the 14th century and reached its
climax in the 16th century. Among the most striking transformations took place in the realm of art, and nowhere was that
artistic revival as dramatic or influential as in Italy. Renaissance art thrived through a system of patronage in which
wealthy benefactors subsidized artists' work by funding academies and individual artists. The Medici were the most
generous and influential patrons of the day. Giovanni, for example, funded Filippo Brunelleschi's renovation of the
Basilica of San Lorenzo.
Yet perhaps Giovanni's most important accomplishment was solidifying the political position of the Medici family. He
successfully challenged the long-standing tradition of aristocratic political and social hegemony, and it was under his
leadership that the Medici became the richest dynasty in Italy. In contrast to most other powerful European families of the
time, the Medici were not part of the aristocracy. They became a powerful family not through birth rights but through their
many ventures in business and politics. The success of the Medici reflected a significant change in European society:
inheritance was no longer the sole determinant of one's fate.
Giovanni's two sons, Cosimo and Lorenzo, became the patriarchs of the two, often competing, branches of the Medici
family. While the younger son, Lorenzo, became the patriarch of the Popolani branch of the family, it was the elder son,
Cosimo, born in 1389, who headed the more powerful Cafaggiolo line of the family. Cosimo became the most successful
of all the Medici progeny. Under his guidance, the family's bank emerged as one of the most successful in the country—it
ultimately acquired virtually every bank in Florence—and he solidified the Medici family's business holdings and
consolidated its political power.
The family's business interests were far ranging. The Medici were involved in the lucrative silk and wool industries, and
they traded in spices and other coveted goods from the Near East. Moreover, they conducted business throughout
Europe, from the Italian cities of Venice and Rome to French principalities and beyond. They were often the primary
lenders to powerful princes and popes. Cosimo used the family's tremendous wealth to launch a political career. In so
doing, he strengthened Florentine autonomy as well. A shrewd politician, Cosimo created an alliance with his Milanese
and Neapolitan neighbors to halt the encroachment of the Papal States into Florentine territory.
The family's burgeoning political power did not go unchallenged, however. In 1434, rivals drove Cosimo from Florence,
and he remained in exile for the next year. On his return to Florence, Cosimo resumed his control of the city. Along with
his political pursuits, he continued the family tradition of patronage. He supported such artistic luminaries as Donatello
and Pico della Mirandola.
By the second half of the 15th century, Cosimo's grandson had assumed power. From 1469 to 1492, Lorenzo de' Medici,
or "Lorenzo the Magnificent," led Florence, and he was perhaps the only Medici to equal the social and political import of
Cosimo. Yet like his grandfather, Lorenzo had political opponents. One challenge to Lorenzo came in the form of the
reformist Dominican friar Savonarola, who charged him with corrupting the Florentine state. Furthermore, in 1478,
members of the rival Pazzi family, in a deal with Pope Sixtus IV and his nephew Geralmo Riario, plotted to emasculate
the Medici family and to enlarge the territory held by the Papal States. They planned to kill off Lorenzo and his brother
Giuliano and thus to eliminate Medici power in Florence. However, the plot backfired. Giuliano was murdered, but
Lorenzo escaped virtually unharmed, and Medici loyalists captured and killed the plotters.
Like his ancestors, Lorenzo was famous for his generous patronage of the arts. His benefaction made possible the
creation of some of the greatest works of art ever produced. Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Sandro Botticelli were
only a few of the artists whose genius Lorenzo cultivated.
Lorenzo died in 1492, and although none of his descendants achieved anything near his stature, his son Giovanni was
elected Pope Leo X in 1513. Leo's tenure as pope was plagued by the challenge of the Protestant Reformation, but he
distinguished himself by continuing his father's patronage of the arts. A decade later, Giovanni's cousin, Giulio, became
Pope Clement VII. He also faced challenges, including the break of the English church from the Roman Catholic Church.
Subsequently, another Medici pope, Leo XI, reigned briefly in 1605.
The Medici line also produced a number of powerful women, among them Catherine de Médicis. Born in 1519, Catherine
was related through her mother to the French royal family. She married the future French king Henry II at the tender age
of 14 and became queen of France in 1547. For the next decade she was essentially powerless, but by the end of the
1550s, she assumed a position of power. During the latter years of her life, she was mainly occupied with the
reconciliation of tensions between the Catholic Church and the Protestant Huguenots. Catherine is often blamed for
exacerbating the religious tensions she sought to alleviate.
Gian-Gastone de' Medici was the last of the House of Medici. His life was largely dissatisfying, and for years he led a
semi-reclusive existence. Although he married, he had no male child, and his death in July 1737 marked the end of the
Medici dynasty. The legacy of the Medici, however, is phenomenal: their commercial achievements helped to transform
Renaissance Italy, and their contributions to the political evolution of Florence were great. Yet perhaps their most
enduring legacy lies in the countless works of art and architecture created by the geniuses they supported.
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