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season five

Episode 69: A Deadly Scandal

The reign of Grand Duke Francesco was inflicted with multiple scandals, but none were worse than the fates of the Grand Duke’s own sister and sister-in-law.

A portrait of Isabella de’ Medici by Alessandro Allori (c. 1550). Source: The Uffizi Gallery.
A portrait of a woman, likely Leonora di Toledo, by Alessandro Allori (date unknown). Source: Historical Art Museum, Vienna.
Francesco de’ Medici, by Alessandro Allori (early 1580s). Source: Private collection
An engraving depicting Pietro de’ Medici by Adrien Helweigh (1691). Source: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
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season five

Episode 68: The Ghetto

Cosimo’s legacy was to give Florence stability and prosperity it had not known in about half a century, but there is a much darker side to that legacy too.

An artist’s view of the Jewish ghetto of Florence, by Telemaco Signorini (1882). Source: The National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art (Rome).
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season five

Episode 67: Making of the Medici Legend

Besides being a political reformer, Cosimo was also a master at using art and literature to glorify not only himself, but his ancestors.

The Apotheosis of Cosimo de’ Medici (1563-1565) by Giorgio Vasari. Source: Palazzo Vecchio.
An allegorical depiction of Cosimo I planning the conquest of Siena with Silence and the other virtues by Giorgio Vasari (1563-1565). Source: Palazzo Vecchio.
Perseus with the Head of Medusa (1545-1554) by Benvenuto Cellini. Source: Piazza della Signoria, DS (Wikimedia)
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season five

Episode 66: The Conquest of Tuscany (Mostly)

Although kept on a leash by the Emperor Charles V, Cosimo I completes Florence’s consolidation of the rest of Tuscany…except for one hold-out.

A painting by Giorgio Vasari depicting the Siege of Siena (c. 1560). Source: Palazzo Vecchio.

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season five

Episode 65: Building a State

Now secure in his reign, Cosimo sets about building something like a modern state. But was he a reformer, a tyrant, or something in-between?

The Uffizi, built during the reign of Duke Cosimo I. Source: Arek N.

A portrait of Eleanor of Toledo by Agnolo Bronzino, which was based on an earlier, now lost portrait and painted on the occasion of her death in 1562. Source: Palazzo Pitti.

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season five

Episode 64: The Medici Phoenix

In the wake of Alessandro de’ Medici’s assassination, the Medici family’s country cousin Cosimo becomes the new duke. Right away, he has to fight for his throne and prove that he is no pawn.

A portrait of Cosimo I as a young man (ca. 1545) by Angelo Bronzino. Source: Art Gallery of New South Wales.
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season four

Episode 63: Anticlimax

The Wars of Religion reaches its crescendo with a three-way struggle, and Catherine watches as her most beloved child makes a horrific and bloody mistake that would prove too much for her to bear.

Henri III inspects the corpse of Henri, Duke of Guise, in this early 19th century painting by Charles Durupt (date unknown). The painting lies where the murder of the Duke of Guise took place. Source: Chateau de Blois.
The grave monument of Catherine de’ Medici at Saint-Denis. Source: CDT93.

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season four

Episode 62: Misery and Worry

Henri tries to get comfortable as king surrounded by his minions and scholars while Catherine’s problem son, François d’Alençon, helps cause the Wars of Religion to break out again.

A portrait by Nicholas Hilliard of François, Duke of Alençon and Anjou (circa 1577).
An anonymously written satirical Flemish print, “Queen Elizabeth Feeds the Dutch Cow” (c. 1586). Queen Elizabeth feeds the cow representing the Netherlands, William of Orange holds it by the horns, Philip II causes it to bleed while trying to ride it, and the Spanish governor of the Netherlands, the Duke of Alba, milks it. Meanwhile François d’Alençon tries to hold it by the tail as it defecates on him.

Support the podcast on ⁠Patreon⁠. You can also drop some change in the tip jar and see my other work ⁠here.⁠

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season four

Episode 61: The Favorite

With an atrocity between them, Catherine de’ Medici’s relationship with her son King Charles IX falls apart. She can take pride in her favorite son Henri’s election as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, although unfortunately her beloved child decides he hates his new job.

“Golden Liberty”, a painting imagining the election of Henri de Valois in 1573 as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania by Jan Matejko (1889). Source: Royal Castle of Warsaw.
A contemporaneous portrait of King Henri III of France, wearing a Polish hat, by Étienne Dumonstier (c. 1583). Source: National Museum-Poznań.
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season four

Episode 60: Massacre

Catherine de’ Medici and King Charles IX lash out against perceived enemies only to release a horror beyond their control, one that will stain Catherine’s image forever.

François Dubois’ painting, The Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre (exact year unknown) is one of the earliest surviving depictions of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre of August 1572. It is possible but unknown if Dubois, who was a Huguenot himself, was an eyewitness, but he may have based elements of the painting on first-hand accounts. Source: Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland.