13. April marks the anniversary of the birthday of Catherine de ‘ Medici to the 500. Time. Your family produced Queens and popes and drew hundreds of years the fortunes of Western Europe – with unscrupulous methods.
There is a lot being reported about the clan, based in the German cities of parallel societies and all parts of the city to control. A really new phenomenon, and one that is not, as a glance at the history books shows. The de Medicis were an Italian family and steered the development of the Renaissance. The political dynasty has produced Queens and popes and multiplied over more than 300 years, its influence and wealth through intrigues, bloody and ruthless.
13. April is the birthday of Catherine of Medicis, will mark the 500. Time. Their historical role is controversial, some see her as the instigator of the murder of thousands of Huguenots in the St. Bartholomew’s day, others think, on the contrary, they have promoted the reconciliation of Catholics and Protestants.
Florence was in the Renaissance, the center of Power. From here, drew the Medici your transactions and intrigue.
Versöhnerin or instigator?
At the age of 14 years she had been with the son of the king of France married. As they prevailed years later as a proxy for their initial ten-year-old son as Regent, broke out a civil war. The night of St. Bartholomew referred to a Pogrom of the Huguenots, the French Protestants in August 1572. The occasion was the goods of Catherine de ‘ Medici supposedly for reconciliation of the faiths scheduled wedding between a Catholic raised daughter Margaret of Valois and the Protestant Henry of Navarre, arrived the high-ranking leaders of the Huguenots. The busyness of the Medici is a historical template for the clan essence.
- Kick-off: Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici and his dynasty, the origin of its prosperity. The Florentine merchant to be saddled on money lenders before joining the Bank of his uncle, whose branch in Rome, he later bought. 1397, he finally founded his own Bank, the rapid rise of the Medici supported. Quickly Giovanni spread his contacts, and was a banker of John XXIII., a so-called “anti-Pope” by many authorities due to a religious schism, instead of the canonically elected Pope, as such, recognized.
- Impact: The Medici dynasty stretched their nets in politics, Finance and Religion. They were merchants, and went to the city Council of the city state of Florence, were Grand Dukes. In 1513, ascended with Leo X. the first Medici was followed by the Holy see, ten years later, him and his Cousin, as Clement VII to the papacy. Clientelism has always been the cornerstone of a successful clan.
- Money: The Medici Bank demanded usurious interest rates and was, until the end of the 15. Century, over one hundred years, the greatest financial power in Europe. She was Wegbegründerin of the private banking business as we know it today, and what is referred to in the present as “system relevant”.
- Enemies: As in the current clan being there was in early modern Europe, powerful enemies, such as the family of the Borgias. Who was the Medici family in the way that has been turned off, either do this the easy way, by bribery, or by family reunification through marriage, or with harsher means. Here the Medici assassinations and poison were mixers squeamish. In 1512 they chose even a coup, to protect your in the meantime, the dwindling influence. Police protection for Apostates, and there were, by the way, the Medici also built up a secret police.
The richest citizens of Florence: Cosimo de ‘ Medici built the Empire of his father, Giovanni
- Corporeality: The Renaissance is historically not as prudish beating the age, and as a result lived members of the powerful Medici family, not just ascetic: mistresses, lovers and orgies through her family history, until the era of the Baroque: Gian Gastone, the last Grand Duke of Tuscany of the family de Medici, is said, on the day of the funeral of his wife having an Orgy with a boytoy celebrated to have.
- Art: their wealth allowed the Medici as patrons of artists such as Botticelli and da Vinci to promote. Anna Maria Luisa, daughter of the Grand Duke Cosimo III., sister of Gian Gastone, and until her death in 1743, the last living member of the Medici family, is indebted to Florence today, its importance for the visual arts. You protected the paintings, sculptures and natural history collections, and continued, that all the art treasures of the Medici loved ones after their death, remained in the city.
- Enjoyment: Catherine de ‘ Medici, our current jubilarian, has previously tended to be hearty French cuisine influenced. The after her wedding of her to France, brought Italian cooks, awoke the sense of fine ingredients. In addition, Catherine made the snuff presentable.
- The end: How all the empires also had to the of the Medici family sometime in the fall. Risky money transactions and geopolitical influences – including the Work of the Ottomans in Italy – to the family. And since the last big Gian Duke Gastone – shacking up with the boy toy – no offspring left behind, ended the Era of the Medici with the death of his sister Anna Maria Luisa.