Lucrezia di Lorenzo de 'Medici

Lucrezia di Lorenzo de 'Medici , (born August 4, 1470 in Florence ; † November 15, 1553 ) was the eldest daughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449–1492), lord of the city of Florence, and his wife Clarice Orsini (1453–1488 ) and was married to Jacopo Salviati (1461–1533), a Florentine banker, on September 10, 1486 . She was the sister of Piero the Unfortunate (1472–1503), who ruled Florence from 1492 to 1494, of Giovanni de 'Medici (1475–1521), the later Pope Leo X. and of Giuliano de' Medici (1479–1516 ), later Duke of Nemours.

Life

In 1474, the nephew of Pope Sixtus IV (1414–1484), Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, who later became Pope Julius II (1443–1513), asked Lorenzo the Magnificent, whose then four-year-old daughter Lucrezia with his brother Giovanni della Rovere (1457–1501) to marry. Furthermore, the cardinal expected the handover of the cities of Sansepolcro and Città di Castello as a dowry for Lucrezia . Sansepolcro, however, legally belonged to the Papal States and was given to Florence in 1441 as pledge for the Pope's debts. Niccolò Vitelli, the city lords of Città di Castello who were enemies with the Medici, intended to be driven out of his dominion by the Cardinal della Rovere with the help of the Florentines.

Lorenzo did not intend to leave his beloved daughter to the house della Rovere and decided not to marry Lucrezia to his brother Giovanni due to the questionable policy of the Pope nepot . Giuliano della Rovere then invaded Umbria in June 1474 at the head of a papal army. He carried out a cruel criminal judgment against the rebels in Todi and Spoleto and tried a little later to conquer Città di Castello. Lorenzo therefore decided to support his previous enemy Vitelli and, with the help of Milanese and Neapolitan troops, drove out the papal army. Sixtus IV then withdrew from Lorenzo and Giuliano de 'Medici (1453–1478) the lucrative office of papal depositary and commissioned the condottiere Federico da Montefeltro (1422–1482) with the conquest of Città di Castello. Federico da Montefeltro conquered this city, his daughter Giovanna married a little later Giovanni della Rovere, who received a dominion consisting of the areas Senigallia and Mondavia. From this point on, Lorenzo de 'Medici had to resist the implacable policies of the Pope, the sad climax of which was the Pazzi conspiracy in 1478. Florence therefore consolidated its alliances with Milan and Naples, the latter was manifested when the Neapolitan King Ferrante (1423-1494) took over a sponsorship for Lucrezia .

Despite this difficult political situation, Lucrezia and her siblings had a sheltered and happy childhood. Lorenzo the Magnificent took care of a good education for his children. Her teachers included the humanist Angelo Poliziano (1454–1494), who taught both Lorenzo's sons and his daughters to read and write and who taught them literature, poetry and philosophy. Lucrezia Tornabuoni (1425–1482), Lorenzo's mother, taught her granddaughters basic knowledge of bookkeeping, accounting and running a household. The girls also learned practical skills such as sewing.

After the suppression of the Pazzi conspiracy, Lorenzo de 'Medici feared further conspiracies from parts of the oligarchy . He recognized the political necessity to bind potential domestic political opponents to his family and therefore decided to marry his eldest daughter Lucrezia to Jacopo, the son of Giovanni Salviati, who died young. Jacopo and his guardian Averardo Salviati have so far proven to be loyal supporters of the Medici, but their relative Cardinal Francesco Salviati , the former Archbishop of Pisa, was one of the initiators of the Pazzi conspiracy and this led to the social ostracism of the Salviati family. The marriage of Lucrezia and Jacopo was intended to contribute to the reconciliation of their families. On September 13, 1481, both families announced their children's engagement in the cathedral, where Lorenzo's brother Giuliano had been murdered in 1478. Since Lucrezia was only eleven years old, the wedding date was postponed to 1486 and her dowry was fixed at 2000 Fiorini.

On September 10, 1486, the wedding between Lucrezia and Jacopo Salviati took place in Florence. After her marriage, Lucrezia often lived in her father's house, to whom she maintained her close relationship, especially after the death of her mother († 1488), whom she assisted in 1492 when she was dying and whom she venerated all her life. Lucrezia's spouse Jacopo Salviati rose to become an influential banker and politician in Florence in the 1490s. He served from 1499 to 1518 as one of the priors of the Signoria and in 1514 held the highest office of Gonfaloniere de Giustizia. Lucrezia respected her husband and devoted her life to raising and educating her ten children. In addition, the eldest daughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent saw her task in ensuring the cohesion of her siblings who had been in exile since 1494. She also tried to reconcile the quarreling members of the younger and older lines of the Medici.

In 1509 the Salviatis took the eleven-year-old orphaned son of Giovanni il Popolano (1467–1498) and Caterina Sforza (1463–1509), Giovanni de 'Medici, in their home. Lucrezia managed to positively influence the headstrong Giovanni (1498–1526), ​​who later became the last great condottiere of the Italian Renaissance Giovanni dalle Bande Nere . Giovanni was particularly fond of Maria, the daughter of the Salviatis, who was almost the same age. Lucrezia therefore initiated the engagement in 1515 and the marriage of her daughter to Giovanni in 1516. She expected that this marriage would establish a political connection between the members of the younger and older Medici line and that the economic relations of the Salviati banking house with the wealthy younger Medici would be strengthened. Maria and Giovanni became the parents of Cosimo , who later became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany , in 1519 .

In 1513 Lucrezia's brother Giovanni was elected Pope. Leo X now saw his most important task in reestablishing the rule of the Medici in Florence and in materially favoring his sisters Lucrezia, Maddalena and Contessina and their families. Lucrezia lived most of the time in Rome during her brother's pontificate (1513–1521) and caused Leo X to appoint her eldest son Giovanni on July 1, 1517, cardinal.

In 1530, Lucrezia and Jacopo Salviati left Florence for political reasons. Lucrezia lived withdrawn after the death of her husband († 1533) and died very old on November 15, 1553. She had survived her husband, eight of her ten children and one great-grandchild, as well as all of her four grandchildren and ten of her sixteen great-grandchildren. She was no longer influenced by the politics of her grandson Cosimo I.

Descendants

Lucrezia's marriage to Jacopo Salviati (September 15, 1461 - September 6, 1533) resulted in the following eleven children:

• Giovanni Salviati (born March 24, 1490 in Florence, † October 28, 1553 in Ravenna) was appointed cardinal by Pope Leo X on July 1, 1517.
• Lorenzo Salviati (born July 8, 1492 in Florence, † July 16, 1539 in Ferrara); Senator and patron, married to Constanza Conti, their son was Cardinal Antonmaria Salviati .
• Caterina Salviati, married to Filippo Nerli.
• Piero Salviati, patrician, married to Caterina Pallavicini.
• Elena Salviati (* around 1495 in Florence; † 1552 in Genoa) was her first marriage to the Marchese Pallavicino Pallavicini and her second marriage to Jacopo d 'Appiano (* 1480; † December 20, 1545), Lord of Piombino (1510 to 1545), married.
• Battista Salviati (1498-1524) was married to Constanza de 'Bardi.
• Maria Salviati (born July 17, 1499 in Florence, † December 12, 1543 in Villa di Castello near Florence) was married to Giovanni dalle Bande Nere (1498–1526) and is the mother of the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo I (1519 -1574).
• Luisa Salviati; Wife of Sigismondo de Luna e Peralta, Count of Caltabellotta, Duke of Bibbiana.
• Francesca Salviati was first married to Piero Gualterotti and from 1533 in second marriage to Ottaviano de 'Medici (* July 14, 1484; † May 28, 1546) and is the mother of the future Pope Leo XI. (1535-1605).
• Bernardo Salviati (* 1508 in Florence, † May 6, 1568 in Rome) was appointed cardinal by Pope Pius IV on February 26, 1561 ; he had a natural daughter.
• Alamanno Salviati (1510-1571); Patrician, married to Constanza Serristori.

literature

• Ingeborg Walter : The Magnificent - Lorenzo de 'Medici and his time. Piper Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-492-24204-9 .
• James Cleugh: The Medici - Power and Splendor of a European Family. Licensed edition for Bechtermünz Verlag by Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 1996, ISBN 3-86047-155-4 .
• Franco Cesati: The Medici - The History of a European Dynasty. La Mandragora, 1999, ISBN 88-85957-39-0 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. Salviati, Giovanni. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website ), accessed April 5, 2020. and Salviati, OS Io.Hier., Bernardo. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website ), accessed April 5, 2020.