Paper Example on the Medici Family

Introduction

The Medici genealogy, which is also referred as House of Medici, was an Italian household, governed France and eventually Tuscany, in the 1434 to 1737 era, excluding two brief intervals from between 1494 to 1512 and 1527 to 1530 (Cuozzo, 2015). This family began by attaining political power and wealth in Florence by succeeding in their works of banking and commerce. In early 1434, through the growth to the power of Cosimo de Medici who was also known as Cosimo, the elder, the household support of humanities and arts changed France into the structure of the rebirth, an artistic peak resembled merely by that of early Greece. The Medici also had four popes namely; Pius IV, Clement VII, Leon XI and Leo X, whose genes have been transited into the majority of Europe’s royal kinsfolk. Besides, the last Medici leader referred as Gian Gastone, passed on without having a male successor in 1737, terminating the genealogy line after a period of three eras besides commencing the extended European empire of the Hapsburg- Lorraine kinfolk. This paper depicts the Medici’s family lineage, portraying some of their major achievements to Florence and the entire Europe.

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The Founding of the Medici Empire

This family originated in the Agricultural Mugello area of Tuscany. The name Medici refers to doctors. This dynasty started when Giovanni de Medici (1360-1429) left to establish the Medici Bank in 1397, which would result in Europe’s most respected and largest bank. After the application of his skills in banking, he also ventured into other platforms of commerce including selling spices, fruits and silk. At his death, the Medici’s were regarded as the richest kinsfolk in entire Europe. Since the family was regarded as the pope’s bankers, the family rapidly gained political authority. In early 1434, Giovanni’s son, Cosimo de Medici became the first to rule in the Medici’s lineage to rule Florence (1389-1464). Along with his richness, Cosimo also depended on the business relations that the Medici bank offered for the extension of the effect he had.

History and Origin

According to research by various scholars, the Medici lineage is said to have originated from Mugello lowland and settled in France in early 1200. Basically, ancient roots of the kinfolk are hard to trail due to the ennoblement of Medici lineage by creating stories and legends (Cuozzo, 2015).Medico di Potrone was the founder of the lineage, who existed in the year 1000 and was a professional doctor. As frequently occurred, the Medici vacated to Florence in quest of prosperity, where they were registered in the council of apothecaries and doctors. Basically, the historical journals report having departed and resided at the old bazaar in a region that was adjacent to Piazza Della Repubblica where they certainly interacted with the underworld. Giambuono is reflected as the historical initiator of the family. By the climax of the thirteen eras, Gano and Scolaio, who were members of the family were also partly included in the Guelph party, a similar family as Dante Alighieri. Additionally, Gonfaloniere di Giustizia, of Medici lineage formed an administration which is also called Signoria, which consisted of intellectuals, significant burghers and nobles. He was also the oligarchic institute that governed the Florentine state.

Giovanni Di Bicci

Initially, associates of Medici lineage stood ass the heroes of Florentine life earlier their reign agreed into account. Giovanni di Bicci was the leading family associate who formed a dense system of traders nearby his family and himself between 1360 and 1429. Currently, the Medici family is stated to become one of the wealthy kinfolks of investors, and Giovanni stood as the substantial Florentines in the initial fifteenth era. Since the Medici family had adequate capital, they had the ability to venture into other areas of commerce, including trading spices, fruit and silk. Besides, their long-lasting increase in financial power resulted in new chances in civic administration. The two sons of Giovanni, Cosimo (1389- 1464), who attained the name of ‘the elder’s, and Lorenzo (1394-1440), initiated the renowned lineage of the Medici kinfolk. Besides receiving humanistic education, he established a close association with the arts. Giovanni is regarded as a leader since he rose to recognition by using commerce as a substitute for marriage and war. He braced the homecoming of the papacy where he was later rewarded for being a private banker of the papacy.

Cosimo, the Elder

Having Cosimo the leader in Medici family, Medici eventually turned into the investment banker of the Vatican and consequently became renown in entire Europe. Prestige and wealth were the directives of this kinfolk, while Cosimo was renowned not only for his expertise as an entrepreneur but also for his artistic and benefaction flavor. Alongside the triumph of the Medici was as well as rising antagonism from further Florentine factions and lineage. Various clans sided with the Medici which included Bardi, Tornabuoni, Cavalcanti and Salviati. They also had opponents who included Corsi, Guicciardini and Albizi. In the current society, the above family names are embodied by the names of roads in Florence. According to these power rivalry, several of the Medici members were exposed to expatriate, but later, Lorenzo and his brother Cosimo resumed to Florence. Additionally, Cosimo il Vecchio took part in building the great riches of the kinfolk; nevertheless, his prominence is similarly connected to his understanding.

He is considered as a pronounced man without his awareness since he founded and built a palace which is located in Via Larga as his residence home but wanted it to resemble as a household of a merchant. Besides that, he developed Florence with his artistic works and also funded to churches in addition to libraries. After he perished in 1464, the residents of Florence offered him the respect that is deserved for a ruler and was later named as Pater Patriae. Additionally, the Medici reputation later stretched past the boundaries of Florence, and several family members were chosen as Pope including Clement VII and Leo X. Cosimo never had an authorized political position. Still, he led the town behind the scenes. His main agenda was on retaining a balance of control between the city nations of Italy. This kept the art and trade thriving in Florence. Basically, Cosimo sponsored several artists who included Ucello, Ghiberti, Fra Angelico, Donatello, Brunelleschi and Alberti. He also established the Laurentian library, Platonic Academy among other libraries in Florence. Being an elder, he was a stout advocator for the humanist association and assisted in its flourish in the entire Florence.

Cosimo established deep gratitude for standard knowledge and epitomes, attached through attention in human’s existence on earth. He was more of a personal philosopher than a belief in exercise. In 1433, the authoritative Albizzi kinfolk was involved in coordinating his custody and decisive exile from Florence, unfairly condemning Cosimo of supporting a conflict beside the immediate metropolitan of Lucca. He was there for punished to live for a decade in the north Italian township referred as Padua. Cosimo dispensed with his deportation by constructing his effort in a different place, though keeping communication with allies and friends in France. After Cosimo was shifted to Venice, he appointed his acquaintance and designer Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi (1396-1472) to construct a reading room for the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore. Later, he moved the head office of Medici’s Bank from Florence to Venice. An activity that helped the dual drive of permitting him to employ an uninterrupted power over his lending system in banishment, though apparently triggering economic immobility in country for lack of commerce previously incited by Medici relations. The financial implications of this act might have taken part in fading Florentine dissatisfaction with its partisan governance, but whether or not this was the event, Cosimo’s technique functioned.

Lorenzo the Magnificent

He was a poet, who embraced the effort of the rebirth masters like Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo which were commissioned by the Medici to comprehend their kinfolk’s graves in Florence. After Lorenzo’s early demise at the age of 43 years, his firstborn son Piero superseded him but later enraged the public by receiving a hostile peace agreement with France. After serving for two years as a leader, Lorenzo was exerted out of the town in 1494 and passed away in exile. Piero’s younger brother, Giovanni who was the acting cardinal at that time and the forthcoming Pope Leo X, who was of the Medici lineage was able to come back to Florence in 1512. Additionally, Lorenzo regained authority in Florence, and Catherine his daughter (1519-1589) would be the queen of Florence after espousing King Henry II and her three sons would lead France as well.

Conclusion

At Lorenzo’s period, the Medici overpowered the antagonism of the religious Savonarola and the prominent Pazzi Plot (1478), through which he was injured, while Guiliano his brother died. Rising interior antagonism enforced the Medici to vacate France immediately when Lorenzo, Magnificent passed away. The new State, conversely, continued for a few years, and the Medici family returned. After these occurrences, an era of trouble trailed for the Medici. Equally, they often became further into European dealings and were banished severally. It is also evident that Lorenzo continued pouring money into artistic works, but unfortunately, the Medici’s wealth had declined substantially since Cosimo.