Culture | Alessandro de’ Medici

A dark duke

The Black Prince of Florence. By Catherine Fletcher. Bodley Head; 308 pages; £20. To be published in America by Oxford University Press in September; $29.95.

THE short life and violent death of Alessandro de’ Medici, duke of Florence, is like the plot of a Verdi opera. Alessandro, who had a keen sexual appetite, lusted after a married woman in Florence. While her husband was away on business, his trusted cousin Lorenzino promised him an assignation with her. Lorenzino, meanwhile, hired a villain, Scoronconcolo, who, on being asked to kill an anonymous victim, said: “That I’ll do, even if he’s the duke himself.” So it was. Alessandro, napping in his rooms while waiting, was woken not by a caress, but by a sword in his stomach. Scoronconcolo then cut his throat.

On his death in 1537, Alessandro was in his mid-20s. It was his misfortune, says Catherine Fletcher in her gripping narrative, to be assassinated “first with a sword, then with a pen” by historians.

Her operatic plot, which builds gradually, is broken off for details of the ducal lifestyle: silk, satin and taffeta for the horses, plentiful staff (26 men to look after the hawks and dogs), and the cuisine (165lb of veal, 14 capons and 24 chickens eaten daily). But this is a political drama based on the restoration of the fortunes of the Medici family, which had ruled Florence for much of the 15th century. Different branches of the family had produced only two sons, Alessandro and Ippolito; both were illegitimate. Alessandro’s mother was a servant who may have been a Moorish slave. Their lives were organised by Clement VII, a Medici pope. The cousins, friendly as children, grew to hate each other. Ippolito, the older and more opportunistic, desperately wanted to be duke.

The crucial year in this complicated plot is 1529, which Ms Fletcher describes in detail without losing momentum. Clement VII, who was waging war with Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor (and king of Spain), fell ill. To protect the family’s power base, he made Ippolito, then 18, a cardinal, which was a serious obstruction in his path to the dukedom.

Clement survived his illness and made peace with Charles. Part of the settlement was that the families should be united by Alessandro’s marriage to the emperor’s daughter Margaret. The armies of the alliance were ordered to retake Florence from its populist Republican government so that Alessandro could become duke.

Outraged, Ippolito tried to seize the title, trying first a coup, then diplomacy. He failed. In 1532 Alessandro became duke, inheriting the palace, bride-to-be, advisers, artists and a mistress. Feeling insecure—with good reason—he almost certainly had Ippolito poisoned in 1535, and he may have had his own mother murdered too. There is no shortage of damning material here, but Ms Fletcher remains stubbornly fair to the oft-maligned Alessandro.

The principal relic of Alessandro’s brief reign is the Fortezza da Basso, built into Florence’s 14th-century walls. He married the 13-year-old Margaret, who was 14 when she miscarried. She was widowed shortly afterward. Ms Fletcher can find no motive for the murder of Alessandro by Lorenzino, who was himself assassinated in 1548. But it is impossible to finish this medieval melodrama without thinking that it would make a riveting series for an enterprising TV producer.

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline "A dark duke"

Trump’s triumph: America’s tragedy

From the May 7th 2016 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

Could your marriage survive a shipwreck?

“Maurice and Maralyn”, a new book about a couple stranded almost four months at sea, makes you wonder

What lies behind Beyoncé’s country turn?

The star singer has always been a canny interpreter of musical trends


Museums are becoming more expensive

Will it kill off future patronage and attendance?