The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de' Medici
June 27, 2016
Rather than submit to the established account of Alessandro de’ Medici’s life, Fletcher (The Divorce of Henry VIII), associate professor in history and heritage at Swansea University (U.K.), persuasively argues that he suffered assassination twice: “first with a sword, then with a pen.” De’ Medici gained notoriety for being the brutal biracial illegitimate Duke of Florence and an unlikely heir to the dwindling Medici family of bankers and rulers. But in this revelatory work, Fletcher rescues him from the well-known caricature his opponents manufactured while revealing his strengths and weaknesses as an often populist Medici prince. De’ Medici left limited primary documents, but Fletcher distills an extensive array of both sympathetic and antagonistic contemporary sources into clear explanations that give context and a more balanced look at a city-state on tenterhooks and a man struggling to maintain order. To her considerable credit, Fletcher navigates dense central European politics and competing Medici claims with ease, allowing readers to focus on de’ Medici’s life within the context of the financially and politically unstable city. Throughout this compelling narrative, de’ Medici’s unlikely story and extraordinary life finally feel revealed as Fletcher gives him a welcome new complex legacy.
June 15, 2016
An exploration of the life of a lesser-known Medici: Alessandro (1510-1537).Fletcher (History and Heritage/Swansea Univ.; Diplomacy in Renaissance Rome: The Rise of the Resident Ambassador, 2015, etc.) displays an excellent comprehension of the Medici family and Renaissance political maneuvering. The connections between ruling and royal families, intermarriages, feuds, and assassinations can boggle the mind, but she carefully separates friends from enemies (often, one became the other). Alessandro's appointment as Duke of Florence was thanks in great part to his uncle Pope Clement VII and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Alessandro and his cousin Ippolito were both illegitimate, but Alessandro was always referred to as "Moor," and Ippolito was favored. Alessandro's mother was a dark-skinned maid, and while he was also dark-skinned, in 16th-century Italy, few knew of his ethnicity, and racism was not as pronounced as now. Pope Leo X, also an uncle, favored his nephews, educating them and slating Ippolito to take over power in Florence. For unknown reasons--although Ippolito's expulsion from Rome for vandalism might play a part--Leo switched his support to Alessandro, creating an enemy of Ippolito. Alessandro was especially gifted in the stately arts and ensured the power of his family for longer than would have been possible without him. His peacemaking at the Treaty of Barcelona guaranteed the Medici's power in Florence, and he also secured the marriage of Catherine de' Medici to the French king. Alessandro may have been tyrannical and savage, but then again, maybe not. The author mostly leaves readers to sort it out, carefully noting his subject's politics and accomplishments during his short six-year reign.Medici fans will expand their awareness of the family's broad reach, and Renaissance students will discover Machiavelli's models for The Prince.
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