Isabella de 'Medici

Portrait of Isabella de 'Medici by Alessandro Allori

Isabella de 'Medici, painted by Alessandro Allori, Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Isabella Romola de 'Medici (born August 31, 1542 in Florence , † July 16, 1576 in Cerreto Guidi ) was the third of eleven children and the second oldest daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici , the first Grand Duke of Tuscany , and his first Wife of Eleonora Álvarez de Toledo y Osorio .

Early years and marriage

The lively, beautiful and idiosyncratic princess received intensive training in the Latin language and music, which she was to prepare for her future role as the wife of a noble husband. At the age of 11 she was betrothed to Paolo Giordano Orsini by the marriage contract signed on July 11, 1553 in Rome . The husband was part of the extended family Orsini , their possessions in the north and east of the central area of the Papal States had, namely in the Papal provinces Patrimonio and Sabina , now the region Lazio belong. The twelve-year-old fiancé was a member of the Bracciano line , which among others still owned Cerveteri , Anguillara , Trevignano , Cantalupo and Vicovaro . As a feudal lord, Paolo Giordano had succeeded his late father Girolamo as early as 1545. On January 28, 1556, the wedding was celebrated in Florence in small groups, because the groom had to fight in the army of Pope Paul IV against the Spanish troops of the Kingdom of Naples, which were led by the famous general Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba (de Tormes), were commanded.

After the war, which was unfortunate for the Pope, the spouses went to Florence to live in the Palazzo Medici . Two court pieces of music were even composed in her honor. In order to raise the rank of the bridegroom in this third marriage between members of the Orsini and Medici families, the new Pope Pius IV elevated the area of ​​Bracciano and the associated parishes to the duchy and Paolo Giordano to the first duke in 1560. In the capital of his own domain he had the mighty castle expanded.

Representation and married life

After her sisters Maria and Lucrezia and her mother Eleonora died between 1559 and 1562, Isabella was given the role of first lady in the later Grand Duchy of Tuscany through her father Cosimo, who she then performed at official occasions such as ambassadorial receptions. Her older brother Francesco had agreed to this arrangement. In 1565, Isabella welcomed her brother's new wife, Johanna von Österreich , daughter of Emperor Ferdinand I, in this role . A friendly relationship developed between the women. When Cosimo I was crowned Grand Duke by Pope Pius V in Rome on February 18, 1570 , Isabella accompanied him and took part in this ceremony according to her rank.

In connection with Francesco's marriage, the father had assigned his daughter and her husband the Villa Poggio Imperiale as a residence near Florence in 1565 , which was newly furnished for this purpose. In Florence, on the other hand, Isabella gave refuge to people who had fallen out with the Pope, including his own nephew. After several miscarriages, she gave birth to her daughter Francesca Eleonora (called Nora) in March 1571. She later married Alessandro Sforza , first Duke of Segni , and died on December 17, 1634. In September 1572, Isabella gave birth to her only son Virginio , who was Marchese of Anguillara when he was born and later became the second Duke of Bracciano. He died on September 9, 1615.

Her role in state life earned Isabella the admiration of the learned world in Florence. Works of poetry and music were dedicated to her, and she herself became involved as a sponsor of artists, including a composer of madrigals . Her admirers compared her to Minerva and St. Catherine of Alexandria . Isabella has only recorded one activity as an artist, namely as the creator of a composition for lute .

Death and legend

A short time later, rumor has arisen about Isabella's death on July 16, 1576, that she was strangled by her husband himself. Unprinted manuscripts and literary works spread this story across Europe. Robert Merle was inspired in 1991 by the legend of Isabella de 'Medici and Paolo Giordano Orsini to write his historical novel "The Idol" . A play about it was staged in London in 1611, and Alexandre Dumas published a crime story in Paris in 1851. Two motives fed the rumor, namely the alleged love affair between Isabella and her extended relative Troilo Orsini from the family line of Monterotondo and her husband's actual affair with Vittoria Accoramboni , the daughter of a patrician from the Umbrian town of Gubbio and a Roman nobleman. Troilo, who worked as ambassador for Tuscany and France, was murdered on December 1, 1577 in Paris. On the other hand, Paolo Giordano is said to have committed his alleged act with the approval of Isabella's brother Francesco , the second Grand Duke.

The correspondence between Isabella and Paolo Giordano, on the other hand, shows their trusting relationship and, above all, testifies to a long illness from which she died. Uninitiated and political opponents of the Medici are to be seen as the inventors of the legend, which was nourished by a later event in Rome: Here, on April 10, 1585, Paolo Giordano married his lover Vittoria after he had her first husband, Francesco Mignucci Peretti get murdered. Since this marriage did not take place until nine years after Isabella's death, it cannot have any direct connection with him. On April 24 of the same year, 1585, Sixtus V , the uncle of the murdered man, was elected as the new Pope. Paolo Giordano and Vittoria then fled to Venetian territory, pursued by the pope's revenge. The Duke was murdered in Salò on Lake Garda on November 13, 1585, and Vittoria in Padua on December 22, by Ludovico Orsini, a close relative of Troilos, who was therefore executed in Venice . However, these later events had nothing to do with Isabella's death. Its natural cause was addressed in 1781 in a work on the history of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

literature

• Fabrizio Winspeare: Isabella Orsini e la corte medicea del suo tempo , Florence 1961.
• Gabrielle Langdon: Medici Women: Portraits of Power, Love, and Betrayal in the Court of Duke Cosimo I , University of Toronto Press, 2006 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
• Caroline P. Murphy: Murder of a Medici Princess Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-19-531439-7 .
• Elisabetta Mori: La malattia e la morte di Isabella Medici Orsini , in: Roma moderna e contemporanea 13, 2005, pp. 77-97.
• This: Medici, Isabella de ' , in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani 73, 2009.
• This: L'onore perduto di Isabella de 'Medici , Milan 2011. ISBN 978-88-11-74119-0 .
• This: Isabella de 'Medici Orsini, Duchess of Bracciano (1542-1576) , in: Alfried Wieczorek - Gaelle Rosendahl - Donatella Lippi (ed.): The Medici. People, power and passion , Mannheim / Regensburg 2013, p. 303 f. ISBN 978-3-7954-2634-7 .

Web links

Isabella de 'Medici - Portrait of the First Lady of Florence.