PIETRO (born in 1471), who succeeded his father Lorenzo in 1492, possessed neither capacity nor prudence; and in the troubles Which the am bition of her princes and the undue use of the temporal power of the popes brought upon Italy. by plunging her into civil and foreign war, he Rhowed himself treacherous and vacillating, alike to friends and foes. When Charles V111. of France, in 1494, marched into Italy in order to achieve the conquest of Naples, Pietro, in Tropes of conciliating the powerful invader, has tened to meet the troops on their entrance into the of Florence, and surrendered to Charles the fortresses of Leghorn and Pisa, which constituted the keys of the Republic. The magistrates and people, incensed at his perfidy. drove him from Florence, and formally deposed the family of Medici from all participation in power. Pietro lost his life in the battle of the Garigliano in 1503 while fighting in the French ranks. In 1512 the Medici were reinstated in Florence, and the elevation of Giovanni de' Medici to the Papal chair. under the title of Leo X. (1513-21), completed the restoration of the fam ily to their former splendor. Tht• accession of Giulio de' Medici, to the pontificate as Clement VI I. (1523-34), the marriage of Catharine, the granddaughter of Pietro, to Henry 11. of France in 1533, and the military power of the cadet branch (descended from a younger brother of the 'Father of his ('ountry') widened the role which the Aledivi were enabled to play.
Expelled front Florence in 1527, they were re instated, and this time permanently, in 1530, by the combined forces of the Emperor Charles V. and Pope Clement VII. The Florentines were toreed to accept as their ruler a worthless prince, Alessandro de' Medici, a natural son of Lorenzo 11. (the father of Catharine), who in 1532 was invested with the ducal dignity. On his death assassination without direct heirs. in 1537. Cosimo 1., the descendant of a collateral branch, was raised to the ducal chair. Cosimo. known as the Great, possessed the astuteness of character. the love of elegance, and taste for literature that had dis tinguished his great ancestors; but none of their frank and generous spirit. He founded the
academies of painting and of fine arts, made collections of paintings and statuary, published magnificent editions of his own WOIkS and those of others. and encouraged trade, for the protection of which he instituted the ecclesiastical Order of Saint Stephen. TL' was implacable in his enmity, and (lid not scruple to extirpate utterly the race of the Strozzi (q.v.), the hereditary foes of his house. His acquisition of Siena gained for him in 1569 the title of Grand Duke of Tuscany from Pius V. lle died in 1574, leaving enormous wealth and regal power to his descendants. who, through out the next half century, maintained the literary and artistic. fame of their family. In the seven teenth century the race rapidly de,gene•ated. and after several of its representatives had suffered themselves to be made the tools of Spanish and Austrian the dynasty of the Medici became extinct with Giovanni Gaston., who died in 1737. In accordance with the stipulation of the Peace of Vienna, the Grand Duchy of Tus cany passed to the (louse of Lorraine. The name of the Medici family was kept alive by a hon.e which pretended to have emanated from it in tho thirteenth century, and which acquired the Prin cipality of Ottaiano toward the end of the six teenth century. To this house belonged Luigi dr' Medici (1760-1830), Duke of Sarto. known as the Chevalier de' Medici. He was a minister of Ferdinand 1.., and Francis L of the Two Sieilies, and died while visiting, Madrid in 1830. Consult: Fabroni. Vita Magni CORIlii Medirei (Pisa, 1788-89) ; Armengaml. "Cosme des Modicis et sa correspondance in6dite," in the ron'ipleS vcadas de Paradt'inie des sciences morales it philosophigues ( Paris, 1876) ; Mona' del grant/neat() fli Toscana (Florence, 1871) ; Vern:ts, llistuire de Flur( Oct. thpais ilmninalion des dleiliris jusgri•ii elliat de lit republique ( Pari;, 1888-90) : Itose..oe, The Life of Lorenzo de' .11t (Bei ( London. 1781) , ed. by NV. Ilazlitt (Lundmr. 1890) ; rteninout, Lorenzo dr' (2d ed., Leipzig, 1883) : Huseue, Life and l'ontrileale of Leo J. (5th ed., London, 1846).
Sec C.V111ARINE HE' "1\1E1110; 1Enici TUSCANY.