1.
Florence
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Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants, Florence was a centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, from 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Historic Centre of Florence attracts 13 million tourists each year and it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982. The city is noted for its culture, Renaissance art and architecture, the city also contains numerous museums and art galleries, such as the Uffizi Gallery and the Palazzo Pitti, and still exerts an influence in the fields of art, culture and politics. Due to Florences artistic and architectural heritage, it has been ranked by Forbes as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in 2008, the city had the 17th highest average income in Italy. Florence originated as a Roman city, and later, after a period as a flourishing trading and banking medieval commune. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was politically, economically, and culturally one of the most important cities in Europe, the language spoken in the city during the 14th century was, and still is, accepted as the Italian language. Starting from the late Middle Ages, Florentine money—in the form of the gold florin—financed the development of all over Europe, from Britain to Bruges, to Lyon. Florentine bankers financed the English kings during the Hundred Years War and they similarly financed the papacy, including the construction of their provisional capital of Avignon and, after their return to Rome, the reconstruction and Renaissance embellishment of Rome. Florence was home to the Medici, one of European historys most important noble families, Lorenzo de Medici was considered a political and cultural mastermind of Italy in the late 15th century. Two members of the family were popes in the early 16th century, Leo X, catherine de Medici married king Henry II of France and, after his death in 1559, reigned as regent in France. Marie de Medici married Henry IV of France and gave birth to the future king Louis XIII, the Medici reigned as Grand Dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de Medici in 1569 and ending with the death of Gian Gastone de Medici in 1737. The Etruscans initially formed in 200 BC the small settlement of Fiesole and it was built in the style of an army camp with the main streets, the cardo and the decumanus, intersecting at the present Piazza della Repubblica. Situated along the Via Cassia, the route between Rome and the north, and within the fertile valley of the Arno, the settlement quickly became an important commercial centre. Peace returned under Lombard rule in the 6th century, Florence was conquered by Charlemagne in 774 and became part of the Duchy of Tuscany, with Lucca as capital. The population began to again and commerce prospered
Florence
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A collage of Florence showing the Galleria degli Uffizi (top left), followed by the Palazzo Pitti, a sunset view of the city and the Fountain of Neptune in the Piazza della Signoria
Florence
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A wooden model of Florence as it would have probably looked during Roman times, showing the ancient amphitheatre
Florence
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The façade of the Cathedral
Florence
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Leonardo da Vinci statue outside the Uffizi Gallery.
2.
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
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The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was a central Italian monarchy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1859, replacing the Duchy of Florence. The grand duchys capital was Florence, Tuscany was nominally a state of the Holy Roman Empire until the Treaty of Campo Formio in 1797. Initially, Tuscany was ruled by the House of Medici until the extinction of its branch in 1737. The Medicis only advancement in the days of their existence was their elevation to royalty, by the Holy Roman Emperor. Francis Stephen of Lorraine, a descendant of the Medici, succeeded the family. Tuscany was governed by a viceroy, Marc de Beauvau-Craon, for his entire rule and his descendants ruled, and resided in, the grand duchy until 1859, barring one interruption, when Napoleon Bonaparte gave Tuscany to the House of Bourbon-Parma. Following the collapse of the Napoleonic system in 1814, the duchy was restored. The United Provinces of Central Italy, a client state of the Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont, Tuscany was formally annexed to Sardinia in 1860, following a landslide referendum, in which 95% of voters approved. In 1569, Cosimo de Medici had ruled the Duchy of Florence for 32 years, during his reign, Florence purchased the island of Elba from the Republic of Genoa, conquered Siena and developed a well-equipped and powerful naval base on Elba. Cosimo also banned the clergy from holding positions and promulgated laws of freedom of religion. Cosimo also was a supporter of Pope Pius V, who in the light of Florences expansion in August 1569 declared Cosimo Grand Duke of Tuscany. The international reaction to Cosimos elevation was bleak, Queen Catherine of France, though herself a Medici, viewed Cosimo with the utmost disdain. Rumours circulated at the Viennese court that had Cosimo as a candidate for King of England, Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor and King Philip II of Spain reacting quite angrily, as Florence was an Imperial fief and declared Pius Vs actions invalid. However, Maximilian eventually confirmed the elevation with an Imperial diploma in 1576, during the Holy League of 1571, Cosimo fought against the Ottoman Empire, siding with the Holy Roman Empire. The Holy League inflicted a defeat against the Ottomans at the Battle of Lepanto. Cosimos reign was one of the most militaristic Tuscany had ever seen, Cosimo experienced several personal tragedies during the later years of his reign. His wife, Eleanor of Toledo, died in 1562, along with four of his due to a plague epidemic in Florence. These deaths were to him greatly, which, along with illness
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
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Cosimo I de' Medici
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
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Grand Duchy of Tuscany
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The Grand Duke Ferdinando I.
Grand Duchy of Tuscany
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Maria Maddalena, Cosimo II and Ferdinando II, painting after Justus Sustermans
3.
Modena
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Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. One of Ferraris cars, the 360 Modena, was named after the town itself, the University of Modena, founded in 1175 and expanded by Francesco II dEste in 1686, has traditional strengths in economics, medicine and law and is the second oldest athenaeum in Italy. Italian military officers are trained at the Military Academy of Modena, the Biblioteca Estense houses historical volumes and 3,000 manuscripts. The Cathedral of Modena, the Torre della Ghirlandina and Piazza Grande are a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997, Modena is also known in culinary circles for its production of balsamic vinegar. Modena lies on the Pianura Padana, and is bounded by the two rivers Secchia and Panaro, both affluents of the Po River and their presence is symbolized by the Two Rivers Fountain in the citys center, by Giuseppe Graziosi. The city is connected to the Panaro by the Naviglio channel, the Apennines begin some 10 kilometres from the city, to the south. The commune is divided into four circoscrizioni and these are, Centro storico Crocetta Buon Pastore San Faustino Modena has a humid subtropical climate, with an average annual precipitation of 809 millimetres. Summers are warm and winters are chilly and wetter, with the possibility of snowfall and this climate is described by the Köppen climate classification as Cfa. From 1945 to 1992, Modena had a consecutive series of Communist mayors. From the 1990s, the city has been governed by center-left coalitions, at the April 2006 elections, the city of Modena gave about 50% of its votes to the Democratic Party. The legislative body of the municipality is the City Council which is composed by 35 members elected every five years, Modenas executive body is the City Committee composed by 9 assessors, the deputy-mayor and the mayor. The current mayor of Modena is Giancarlo Muzzarelli, member of the Democratic Party of Italy, the territory around Modena was inhabited by the Villanovans in the Iron Age, and later by Ligurian tribes, Etruscans, and the Gaulish Boii. Livy described it as a fortified citadel where Roman magistrates took shelter, the outcome of the siege is not known, but the city was most likely abandoned after Hannibals arrival. Mutina was refounded as a Roman colony in 183 BC, to be used as a base by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. In the 1st century BC Mutina was besieged twice, the first siege was by Pompey in 78 BC, when Mutina was defended by Marcus Junius Brutus. The city eventually surrendered out of hunger, and Brutus fled, in the civil war following Caesars assassination, the city was besieged again, this time by Mark Antony, in 44 BC, and defended by Decimus Junius Brutus. Octavian relieved the city with the help of the Senate, cicero called it Mutina splendidissima in his Philippics. It is said that Mutina was never sacked by Attila, for a dense fog hid it, as of December 2008, Italian researchers have discovered the pottery center where the oil lamps that lit the ancient Roman empire were made
Modena
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Top left:Modena Cathedral and Ghirladinn Tower, Top right:Modena City Hall, Bottom left:Stoa of Portici del Collegio in Emilia Street, Bottom right:View of Modena Ducal Palace and San Domenico Cathedral from Dante Square
Modena
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Modena Cathedral (left) and City Hall (right)
Modena
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A view of Piazza Grande
Modena
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Façade of the Cathedral
4.
Duchy of Modena
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It was ruled from 1814 by the noble House of Este, of Austria-Este. In 1452 Emperor Frederick III offered the duchy to Borso dEste, whose family had ruled the city of Modena, Borso in 1450 had also succeeded his brother as margrave in the adjacent Papal Duchy of Ferrara, where he received the ducal title in 1471. The Este lands on the border of the Holy Roman Empire with the Papal States formed a stabilizing buffer state in the interest of both. In the War of the League of Cambrai from 1508, troops from Modena fought in Papal service against the Republic of Venice, upon the death of Duke Alfonso II in 1597, the ducal line became extinct. The Este lands were bequested to Alfonsos cousin Cesare dEste, however, Cesare could retain Modena and Reggio as Imperial fiefs. In the 1628 War of the Mantuan Succession, the dukes of Modena sided with Habsburg Spain and in received the town of Correggio from the hands of Emperor Ferdinand II. During the War of the Spanish Succession, Duke Rinaldo was ousted by French troops under Louis Joseph de Bourbon, in 1711 the small Duchy of Mirandola was absorbed by the Este. His successor Francesco III backed France in the 1740 War of the Austrian Succession, and was expelled by Habsburg forces, in 1796 Modena was again occupied by a French army under Napoleon Bonaparte, who deposed Duke Ercole III and created the Cispadane Republic out of his territory. By the 1801 Treaty of Lunéville, the last Este Duke was compensated with the Breisgau region of the former Further Austrian territories in southwestern Germany, and died in 1803. Following his death, the title was inherited by his son-in-law, the Habsburg-Lorraine archduke Ferdinand of Austria. Soon after, he inherited the territories of Massa and Carrara from his mother, in the course of the Italian unification period in the 1830s-60s, the Austria-Este dukes were briefly ousted in the revolutions of 1831 and 1848, but soon returned. During the Second Italian War of Independence following the Battle of Magenta, the last Duke Francis V was again forced to flee, this time permanently
Duchy of Modena
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Ducal Palace of Modena
Duchy of Modena
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5.
Cesare d'Este, Duke of Modena
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Cesare dEste was Duke of Modena and Reggio from 1597 until his death. Born in Ferrara, Cesare was the son of Alfonso dEste, Marquis of Montecchio, fourth son of Alfonso I dEste, when the latter died without heirs in the October 1597, Cesare inherited the duchy. The capital was moved to Modena, which he entered on January 30,1598. On January 30,1586 he married Virginia de Medici, daughter of Cosimo I de Medici and he was succeeded by his son, Alfonso
Cesare d'Este, Duke of Modena
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Cesare d'Este by Cesare Aretusi
6.
Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Cosimo I de Medici was the second Duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first Grand Duke of Tuscany. Cosimo was born in Florence, on 12 June 1519, the son of the famous condottiere Giovanni dalle Bande Nere from Forlì and he was the grandson of Caterina Sforza, the Countess of Forlì and Lady of Imola. Cosimo came to power at 17, when the 26-year-old Duke, Alessandro de Medici, was assassinated in 1537, Cosimo was from a different branch of the family, and so far had lived in Mugello, and was almost unknown in Florence. However, many of the men in the city favoured him. Several hoped to rule through him, thereby enriching themselves at the states expense, however, as Benedetto Varchi famously put it The innkeepers reckoning was different from the gluttons. Cosimo proved strong-willed, astute and ambitious, and soon rejected the clause he had signed, when the Florentine exiles heard of the death of Alessandro, they marshalled their forces with support from France and from disgruntled neighbors of Florence. During this time, Cosimo had a daughter, Bia. Toward the end of July 1537, the exiles marched into Tuscany under the leadership of Bernardo Salviati and Piero Strozzi. When Cosimo heard of their approach, he sent his best troops under Alessandro Vitelli to engage the enemy, which they did at Montemurlo, after defeating the exiles army, Vitelli stormed the fortress, where Strozzi and a few of his companions had retreated to safety. It fell after only a few hours, and Cosimo celebrated his first victory, the prominent prisoners were subsequently beheaded on the Piazza or in the Bargello. Filippo Strozzis body was found with a sword next to it and a note quoting Virgil. In June 1537 Cosimo had sent Bernardo Antonio de Medici to Charles V to gain his recognition as head of the Florentine state and that recognition came in June 1537, in exchange for help against France in the course of the Italian Wars. With this move Cosimo firmly restored the power of the Medici, the help granted to Charles V allowed him to free Tuscany from the Imperial garrisons, and to increase as much as possible its independence from the overwhelming Spanish influence in Italy. With the support of the Emperor, he defeated the Sienese at the Battle of Marciano, despite the inhabitants desperate resistance, on 17 April 1555, after a 15-month siege, the city fell, its population diminished from forty thousand to eight thousand. In 1559 Montalcino, the last redoubt of Sienese independence, was annexed to Cosimos territories, in 1569, Pope Pius V elevated him to the rank of Grand Duke of Tuscany. In the last 10 years of his reign, struck by the death of two of his sons by malaria, Cosimo gave up the rule to his son and successor Francesco I de Medici. He retreated to live in his villa, Villa di Castello, Cosimo was an authoritarian ruler and secured his position by employing a guard of Swiss mercenaries. In 1548 he managed to have his relative Lorenzino, the last Medici claimant to Florence, Cosimo also was an active builder of military structures, in an attempt to save his state from the frequent passage of foreign armies
Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Cosimo I de' Medici in Armour By Agnolo Bronzino.
Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Cosimo I de Medici, c, 19 years of age (Jacopo Pontormo, c. 1538)
Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Portrait bust from the workshop of Benvenuto Cellini, ca. 1550
Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Eleonora of Toledo, Duchess of Florence, who purchased the Palazzo Pitti in 1549 for the Medici family.
7.
Giovanni dalle Bande Nere
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Lodovico de Medici, also known as Giovanni dalle Bande Nere was an Italian condottiero. Giovanni was born in the Northern Italian town of Forlì to Giovanni de Medici and Caterina Sforza, from an early age, he demonstrated great interest and ability in physical activity, especially the martial arts of the age, horse riding, sword-fighting, etc. He had a son, Cosimo, who went on to become the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Giovanni became a condottiero, or mercenary captain, in the employ of Pope Leo X and on March 5,1516 led the war against Francesco Maria I della Rovere. He thenceforth formed a company of his own, mounted on horses and specializing in fast but devastating skirmishing tactics. In 1520 he defeated several rebel barons in the Marche, as a symbol of mourning for the death of Pope Leo X, Giovanni added black stripes to his insignia, whence comes his nickname, Giovanni dalle Bande Nere. In August 1523 he was hired by the Imperial army, and in January 1524 he defeated the French, in the same year another Medici, Giulio di Giuliano, became Pope, and took the name of Clement VII. The new Pope paid all of Giovannis debt, but in exchange ordered him to switch to the French side of the ongoing conflict. He did not take part in the battle of Pavia, but was severely wounded in a skirmish. In 1526, the War of the League of Cognac broke out, the Leagues captain general, Francesco Maria I della Rovere, abandoned Milan in the face of the overwhelming superiority of the Imperial army led by Georg von Frundsberg. Giovanni was able to defeat the Landsknechts rearguard, at the confluence of the Mincio with the Po River, on the evening of November 25 he was hit by a shot from a falconet in a battle near Governolo. He was taken to Aloisio Gonzagas palace, marquis of Castel Goffredo, in Mantua, where the surgeon Abramo, to perform the operation Abramo asked for 10 men to hold down the stricken condottiero. Despite the surgery Giovanni de Medici died five days later, supposedly of septicemia, on 30 November 1526. Giovannis body was exhumed in 2012 along with that of his wife to preserve the remains, which were damaged in the 1966 flood of the Arno river, preliminary investigation revealed that his leg was amputated below the knee. No damage was found to the thigh, where the shot supposedly hit, the tibia and fibula, the bones of the lower leg, were found sawed off from the amputation. There was no damage to the femur and it is now thought that de Medici may have died of gangrene. Giovannis premature death metaphorically signaled the end of the age of the condottieri and he is therefore known as the last of the great Italian condottieri. A cruiser of the Regia Marina was named after Giovanni delle Bande Nere in 1930
Giovanni dalle Bande Nere
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Portrait of Giovanni by Gian Paolo Pace.
Giovanni dalle Bande Nere
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Statue at the Uffizi.
8.
Maria Salviati
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Maria Salviati was an Italian noblewoman, the daughter of Lucrezia di Lorenzo de Medici and Jacopo Salviati. She married Giovanni dalle Bande Nere and was the mother of Cosimo I de Medici and her husband died 30 November 1526, leaving her a widow at the age of 27. Salviati never remarried, after her husbands death she adopted the somber garb of a novice, Maria Salviati was born in Florence. She descended from two of Florences most powerful banking families, the Salviati on her fathers side, and the Medici on her mothers, salviatis maternal grandfather was Lorenzo il Magnifico, a well-known politician and grandson to Cosimo de Medici the Elder. When her cousin, Alessandro de Medici was assassinated in 1537 and she played a key role in getting her son, Cosimo I de Medici, elected. Salviatis descendants became crowned figureheads of Europe over the succeeding generations and her grandson Francesco I de Medici married Johanna of Austria, they were the parents of Eleonora de Medici, who married Vincenzo I Gonzaga and was the mother of Francesco IV Gonzaga. Francesco and Johannas other daughter was Marie de Medici, who married Henry IV of France and was the mother of Louis XIII of France, Louis was the father of Louis XIV of France, Henrietta Maria was the mother of Charles II of England and James II of England. Maria set up residence at Villa di Castello in northern Florence and her son Cosimo had an illegitimate daughter called Bia de Medici. Maria described her granddaughter as a happy and talkative little girl. Cosimo married Eleonora di Toledo in 1539 and it was rumoured that Eleonora refused to tolerate Bias presence in the palace after their marriage so Cosimo sent Bia off to live with Maria. Other sources say that Eleonora brought Bia up very lovingly, Bia shared a nursery with Giulia de Medici an illegitimate daughter of Alessandro de Medici, Duke of Florence, the pair being close in age. Maria knew who Bias mother was but she would never tell Bia or anyone else the name of the woman. Both Bia and her cousin Giulia contracted a virulent fever, Giulia recovered from the illness but Bia only worsened, Maria and Cosimo were said to be very sad by her loss. Maria died one year after Bia on 29 December 1543, the Medici Women, Gender and Power in Renaissance Florence. Ancestors of Cosimo I de Medici Cosimo I de Medici Bia de Medici
Maria Salviati
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Maria Salviati portrait by Pontormo, c. 1543. Oil on panel; 87 x 71 cm. Florence, Uffizi Gallery
Maria Salviati
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Son: Cosimo I de' Medici Grand Duke of Tuscany
Maria Salviati
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Grandson: Francesco I de' Medici Grand duke of Tuscany
9.
Lorenzo de' Medici
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Lorenzo de Medici was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, who was one of the most powerful and enthusiastic patrons of the Renaissance. Also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent by contemporary Florentines, he was a magnate, diplomat, politician and patron of scholars and he is well known for his contribution to the art world by sponsoring artists such as Botticelli and Michelangelo. His life coincided with the phase of Italian Renaissance and his death coincided with the end of the Golden Age of Florence. The fragile peace that he helped maintain among the various Italian states collapsed with his death and he is buried in the Medici Chapel in Florence. Lorenzos grandfather, Cosimo de Medici, was the first member of the Medici family to combine running the Medici Bank with leading the Republic of Florence, Cosimo was one of the wealthiest men in Europe and spent a very large portion of his fortune in government and philanthropy. He was a patron of the arts and funded public works, Lorenzos mother, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, was a writer of sonnets and a friend to poets and philosophers of the Medici Academy. She became her sons advisor after the deaths of his father, with his brother Giuliano, he participated in jousting, hawking, hunting, and horse breeding for the Palio, a horse race in Siena. His own horse was named Morello di Vento, Piero sent Lorenzo on many important diplomatic missions when he was still a youth, which included trips to Rome to meet the pope and other important religious and political figures. Lorenzo was described as plain of appearance and was of average height, having a broad frame and short legs, a swarthy skin, squashed nose, short-sighted eyes. Giuliano, on the hand, was regarded as handsome, he was used as a model by Botticelli in his painting of Mars. Lorenzo, groomed for power, assumed a role in the state upon the death of his father in 1469. Lorenzo, like his grandfather, father, and son, ruled Florence indirectly through surrogates in the city councils, threats, payoffs, although Florence flourished under Lorenzos rule, he effectively reigned as a despot, and people had little political freedom. Rival Florentine families inevitably harboured resentments over the Medicis dominance, the most notable of the rival families was the Pazzi, who nearly brought Lorenzos reign to an end right after it began. Alum had been discovered by local citizens of Volterra, who turned to Florence to get backing to exploit this important natural resource. When they realized the value of the mine, the people of Volterra wanted its revenues for their municipal funds rather than having it enter the pockets of their Florentine backers. Thus began an insurrection and secession from Florence, which involved putting to death several opposing citizens, Lorenzo sent mercenaries to suppress the revolt by force, and the mercenaries ultimately sacked the city. Lorenzo hurried to Volterra to make amends, but the incident would remain a dark stain on his record, Giuliano was killed, brutally stabbed to death, but Lorenzo escaped with only a minor wound to the shoulder, having been defended by the poet Politian. That success enabled Lorenzo to secure constitutional changes within the Florentine Republics government, Lorenzo maintained good relations with Sultan Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire, as the Florentine maritime trade with the Ottomans was a major source of wealth for the Medici
Lorenzo de' Medici
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Portrait by Agnolo Bronzino
Lorenzo de' Medici
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Madonna of the Magnificat shows Lucrezia as the Madonna, surrounded by her children with Lorenzo holding a pot of ink.
Lorenzo de' Medici
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The Adoration of the Magi includes several generations of the family and their retainers. Sixteen-year-old Lorenzo is to the left, with his horse, prior for his departure on a diplomatic mission to Milan.
Lorenzo de' Medici
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Bust of Lorenzo de' Medici by Verrocchio (1480).
10.
Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Francesco I was the second Grand Duke of Tuscany, ruling from 1574 until his death in 1587. He was the grand duke of the house of Medici. Born in Florence, he was the son of Cosimo I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleanor of Toledo, by all reports, it was not a happy marriage. Joanna was homesick for her native Austria, and Francesco was neither charming nor faithful, Joanna died at the age of thirty one in 1578. Soon after the Grand Duchess Joanna had died, Francesco went on to marry his Venetian mistress, Bianca Cappello, after disposing of her husband. Because of the quick remarriage and similar occurrences among the Medici, rumours spread that Francesco, Francesco reportedly built and decorated Villa di Pratolino for Bianca. She was, however, not always popular among Florentines, Francesco also adopted Biancas daughter by her first marriage, Pellegrina. Like his father, Francesco was often despotic, but while Cosimo had known how to maintain Florentine independence, Francesco acted more like a vassal of the Habsburgs of Austria and he continued the heavy taxation of his subjects to pay large sums to the empire. He had an amateurs interest in manufacturing and sciences and he founded porcelain and stoneware manufacture, but these did not thrive until after his death. He continued his fathers patronage of the arts, supporting artists, Francesco and Bianca died on 19 and 20 October both at the Medici Villa in Poggio a Caiano. Although the original death certificates mention malaria, it has been speculated that the couple was poisoned, possibly by Francescos brother. Investigations of Francescos facial hair that were found among his remains have detected low levels of arsenic, testing showed proof that support the theory of arsenic-poisoning. The same findings were detected in organs from Francesco and it is believed that Francesco and Bianca were given small doses of arsenic for several days until it killed them. But the doses were too small and given over a too short period of time to be detected in Francescos facial hair. In this way their symptoms, such as fever, stomach-cramps and vomiting, easily could be misinterpreted as some kind of infection, Francesco was succeeded by his younger brother, Ferdinando I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1857, all members of the Medici family were exhumed and reburied in the place where they still lie today and these are the features of a right sided stroke possibly within the internal capsule. The presence of the orthopaedic footwear suggests that this stroke happened significantly before his death, during life, in his official portraits, the Grand Duke was always depicted as being in perfect physical condition. The cause of his stroke is not known but malaria is known to cause this condition There is a portrait of Francesco as a child by Bronzino
Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Francesco by Bronzino
Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Francesco I of Tuscany as a young boy; painting by Bronzino
Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Francesco as a young man attributed to Alesandro Allori
11.
House of Sforza
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Sforza was a ruling family of Renaissance Italy, based in Milan. They acquired the Duchy of Milan from the previously ruling Visconti family in the mid-15th century, rising from rural nobility, the Sforzas became condottieri and used this military position to become rulers in Milan. The family governed by force, ruse, and power politics, under their rule the city-state flourished and expanded. Muzio Attendolo, called Sforza, founded the dynasty, a condottiero from Romagna, he served the Angevin kings of Naples and became the most successful dynast of the condottieri. His son Francesco I Sforza ruled Milan, having acquired the title of Duke of Milan after the extinction of the Visconti family in 1447, the family also held the seigniory of Pesaro, starting from Muzio Attendolos second son, Alessandro. The Sforza held Pesaro until 1519, with the death of Galeazzo, muzios third son, Bosio, founded the branch of Santa Fiora, who held the title of count of Cotignola, the Sforza ruled the small county of Santa Fiora in southern Tuscany until 1624. Members of this family held important ecclesiastical and political position in the Papal States. The Sforza became allied with the Borgia family through the marriage between Lucrezia Borgia and Giovanni. This alliance failed as the Borgia annulled the marriage once the Sforzas were no longer needed, in 1499, in the course of the Italian Wars, the army of Louis XII of France took Milan from Ludovico Sforza. After Imperial German troops drove out the French, Maximilian Sforza, son of Ludovico, became Duke of Milan until the French returned under Francis I of France, thomas Harriss character Hannibal Lecter is a descendant of the House of Sforza. In the anime, manga and book series Trinity Blood, one of the Cardinals, Caterina Sforza appears as a non-playable character in the video game Assassins Creed 2 and its sequel, Assassins Creed, Brotherhood. The Sforza figure prominently in the Showtime series on the Borgia family, the house is mentioned in a song about the Borgia Family in the British edutainment TV show Horrible Histories. List of rulers of Milan Gradara House of Visconti Italian Wars Pesaro
House of Sforza
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A miniature of Muzio Attendolo, fifteenth century
House of Sforza
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House of Sforza
House of Sforza
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Map of Italy in 1494. Insert shows the Duchy of Milan ruled by the Visconti family and inherited by the Sforzas.
House of Sforza
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12.
Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Ferdinando I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1587 to 1609, having succeeded his older brother Francesco I. Ferdinando was the son of Cosimo I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleanor of Toledo, the daughter of Don Pedro Alvarez de Toledo. He was made a Cardinal in 1562 at the age of 14 but was never ordained into the priesthood, at Rome, he proved an able administrator. He founded the Villa Medici in Rome and acquired works of art. When his brother Francesco I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany died in 1587, in many ways, Ferdinando was the opposite of his brother who preceded him. Approachable and generous, he set out to rule mildly and he re-established the justice system and was genuinely concerned about the welfare of his subjects. During his reign, Tuscany revived and regained the independence his brother had given up, Ferdinando fostered commerce and gained great wealth through the Medici banks, which were established in all the major cities of Europe. He enacted an edict of tolerance for Jews and heretics, and he established the Medici Oriental Press, which published numerous books in the Arabic script. He improved the harbor Cosimo I had built and diverted part of the flow of the Arno River into a canal called the Naviglio, which aided commerce between Florence and Pisa. He fostered an irrigation project in the Val di Chiana, which allowed the flatlands around Pisa and Fucecchio, for the first two years of his reign, he retained his position as Cardinal. In 1589 he married Christina of Lorraine, the couple had a large reception at the Medici Villa in Poggio a Caiano. Christinas dowry was considerably large, it included 600,000 crowns in cash as well as jewellery with a value of 50,000 crowns. Also, the rights of the duchy of Urbino were transferred to Christina after the death of Queen Catherine and his foreign policy attempted to free Tuscany from Spanish domination. After the assassination of Henry III of France in 1589, he supported Henry IV of France in his struggles against the Catholic League, Ferdinando lent Henry money and encouraged him to convert to Catholicism, which he eventually did. Ferdinando also used his influence with the Pope to get him to accept Henrys conversion, Henry showed no appreciation for these favors, and Ferdinando let the relationship cool, maintaining his cherished independence. He supported Philip III of Spain in his campaign in Algeria and Rudolf II, for these undertakings, he found it necessary to raise taxes on his subjects. He finally obtained the investiture of Siena, which his father had conquered. Ferdinando also strengthened the Tuscan fleet, and it saw victories against pirates on the Barbary coast in 1607 and he also dreamed of a small African empire, and then considered the possibility of a colony in Brasil
Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Ferdinando I
Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Ferdinando I de' Medici as Cardinal (1562 to 1589).
Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Evangelium Sanctum Domini Nostri Jesu Christi in Arabic, 1590, with Arabic types of Robert Granjon, Typographia Medicea, Rome.
Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
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Pietro Tacca 's Monumento dei Quattro Mori (Monument of the Four Moors) in Leghorn, showing Ferdinando holding baton of a field marshal standing victorious above chained Moorish captives. (1623)
13.
Bianca Cappello
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Bianca Cappello was an Italian noblewoman who was the mistress, and afterward the second wife, of Francesco I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Her husband officially made her his consort and she was born in Venice, in 1548, the daughter of Bartolomeo Cappello and Pellegrina Morosini, a member of one of the richest and noblest Venetian families, and was noted for her great beauty. At the age of fifteen she fell in love with Pietro Bonaventuri, a young Florentine clerk in the firm of Salviati, and on 28 November 1563 escaped with him to Florence, in 1564 she had a daughter named Virginia, or, according to other sources, Pellegrina. The Venetian government made every effort to have Bianca arrested and brought back but the Grand Duke Cosimo I intervened in her favour, although already married to Joanna of Austria, Francesco seduced Bianca and gave her jewels, money and other presents. Bonaventuri, Biancas husband, was given employment and consoled himself with other ladies until, in 1572. It is possible that Bianca and Francesco were involved, on the death of Cosimo in 1574 Francesco succeeded to the grand duchy, he now installed Bianca in a palace close to his own and outraged his wife by flaunting his mistress before her. At this point, Francesco had no son to inherit the duchy, a child by Bianca, though illegitimate, would be a potential heir. In 1576 she duly gave birth to Don Antonio de Medici, in 1578 Joanna died, a few months later Francesco secretly married Bianca, and on 10 June 1579, the marriage was publicly announced, and Antonio acknowledged as the Dukes son. Two days later, on the 12 June, Bianca was crowned the Grand Duchess of Tuscany at the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Biancas position, however, was still not secure. The heir remained the young Grand Prince Philip, her own son by Francesco, though acknowledged, remained illegitimate, in 1582, however, Grand Prince Philip died. Francesco immediately began working on securing the succession for his son, Antonio, having him legitimated and declared heir apparent. In October 1587, at the Villa Medici in Poggio a Caiano, Francesco and Bianca died on 19 and 20 October, possibly poisoned, or as some historians believe, from malarial fever. As Bianca wasnt a member of the Medici family, Cardinal Ferdinand didnt allow her body to be buried in the Medici family tombs. Instead, Bianca was buried in a grave under the church of St. Lorenzo. The biography of Bianca Cappello was used by Thomas Middleton for his tragedy Women Beware Women. James Chater, Bianca Cappello and Music, in Renaissance Studies in Honor of Craig Hugh Smyth, vol. i, 569–79 Samuele Romanin, Lezioni di storia Veneta, thurston, H. T. Colby, F. M. eds. article name needed
Bianca Cappello
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Cappello by Alessandro Allori
Bianca Cappello
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Portrait by Alessandro Allori
Bianca Cappello
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Palazzo di Bianca Cappello in Florence.
14.
Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara
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Alfonso dEste was Duke of Ferrara during the time of the War of the League of Cambrai. He was the son of Ercole I dEste and Eleanor of Naples, in the first year of his rule he uncovered a plot by his brother Ferrante and half-brother Giulio dEste, directed against him and his other brother Ippolito. They were led away to two cells in the Torre dei Leoni, Ferrante died in his cell after 34 years of imprisonment, while Giulio held on until he was pardoned in 1559, after 53 years of imprisonment. After his release, Giulio was ridiculed in the streets of Ferrara for his outdated clothes and these successes were based on Ferraras artillery, produced in his own foundry which was the best of its time. In both of his portraits by Titian, he poses with his arm across the mouth of one of his cannon, alfonsos first wife was Anna Sforza, the sister of Gian Galeazzo Sforza. His second wife was Lucrezia Borgia and he turned to Bellinis pupil, Titian, for a sequence of paintings. The pallor of the led to the name of this room as the chamber of alabaster. There are documents from Mario Equicola on 9 October 1511, noting plans for painting of a room in Ferrara, I have already found them and have presented them in writing. A letter from Alfonso, dated 14 November 1514, authorized payment to Giovanni Bellini, over the next two decades, Titian added three more paintings, The Worship of Venus, The Bacchanal of the Andrians, and Bacchus and Ariadne. All the bacchanals in the Alabaster Chamber dealt with love, after the Este family lost control of Ferrara in 1598, the Alabaster Chambers paintings and sculpture were dispersed. Alfonso inherited from Cardinal dEste the poet Ariosto, when Alfonso’s grandson Alfonso II dEste -- Robert Brownings duke of My Last Duchess -- produced no male heir, the main dEste line died out. A grandson of Alfonso I and cousin of Alfonso II, Cesare dEste had been out of wedlock. He was recognized by the Emperor but not by the Pope, nevertheless, the House of Este continued in Modena and Reggio. House of Este Italian Wars Taylor, Frederick Lewis, the Art of War in Italy, 1494-1529. Dosso Dossi, Court Painter in Renaissance Ferrara, a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Alfonso dEste, Duke of Ferrara Reconstructing the Dukes private gallery
Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara
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Alfonso after Titian (attributed to Bastianino); Alfonso leans on a cannon, holding his sword
Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara
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Alfonso d'Este, by Dosso Dossi
Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara
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Anna Maria Sforza
Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara
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Lucrezia Borgia, 1518 Dosso Dossi
15.
Torquato Tasso
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He suffered from mental illness and died a few days before he was due to be crowned as the king of poets by the Pope. Until the beginning of the 20th century, Tasso remained one of the most widely read poets in Europe. Born in Sorrento, Torquato was the son of Bernardo Tasso, a nobleman of Bergamo and an epic and lyric poet of considerable fame in his day, and his wife Porzia de Rossi, a noblewoman from Naples. His father had for years been secretary in the service of Ferrante Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno. When the prince of Salerno came into collision with the Spanish government of Naples, being subsequently outlawed and deprived of his hereditary fiefs and he was proclaimed a rebel to the state, together with his son Torquato, and his patrimony was sequestered. These things happened during the boys childhood, in 1552 Torquato was living with his mother and his only sister Cornelia at Naples, pursuing his education under the Jesuits, who had recently opened a school there. The precocity of intellect and the fervour of the boy attracted general admiration. At the age of eight he was already famous, soon after this date he was allowed to join his father, who then resided in great poverty and without occupation in exile in Rome. News reached them in 1556 that Porzia Tasso had died suddenly and mysteriously at Naples and her husband was firmly convinced that she had been poisoned by her brother with the object of getting control over her property. As it subsequently happened, Porzias estate never descended to her son, Tassos father was a poet by predilection and a professional courtier. Therefore, when an opening at the court of Urbino was offered in 1557, the young Torquato, a handsome and brilliant lad, became the companion in sports and studies of Francesco Maria della Rovere, heir to the duke of Urbino. At Urbino a society of cultivated men pursued the aesthetic and literary studies which were then in vogue. Bernardo Tasso read cantos of his poem LAmadigi to the duchess and her ladies, or discussed the merits of Homer and Virgil, Trissino and Ariosto, with the dukes librarians and secretaries. Torquato grew up in an atmosphere of refined luxury and somewhat pedantic criticism, at Venice, where his father went to superintend the printing of his own epic, Amadigi, these influences continued. He found himself the pet and prodigy of a literary circle. But Bernardo had suffered in his own career so seriously from dependence on the Muses and the nobility, Torquato was sent to study law at Padua. Instead of applying himself to law, the young man bestowed all his attention upon philosophy, before the end of 1562, he had produced a twelve-canto epic poem called Rinaldo, which was meant to combine the regularity of the Virgilian with the attractions of the romantic epic. Nevertheless, its author was recognized as the most promising young poet of his time, the flattered father allowed the work to be printed, and, after a short period of study at Bologna, he consented to his sons entering the service of Cardinal Luigi dEste
Torquato Tasso
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A depiction of Tasso from a German encyclopedia, 1905. Note the laurel crown.
Torquato Tasso
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Castello degli Estensi, Ferrara.
Torquato Tasso
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Alfonso II d'Este, portrait by Girolamo da Carpi
Torquato Tasso
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"Tasso in the Hospital of St Anna at Ferrara" by Eugène Delacroix. Tasso spent 1579–1586 in the madhouse of St Anne.
16.
Cantata
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A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. Cantatas for use in the liturgy of church services are called church cantata or sacred cantata, several cantatas were, and still are, written for special occasions, such as Christmas cantatas. Johann Sebastian Bach composed cycles of cantatas for the occasions of the liturgical year. The term originated in the early 17th century simultaneously with opera, prior to that, all cultured music was vocal. With the rise of music the term appeared, while the instrumental art became sufficiently developed to be embodied in sonatas. From the beginning of the 17th century until late in the 18th, a cantata consisted first of a declamatory narrative or scene in recitative, held together by a primitive aria repeated at intervals. Fine examples may be found in the music of Giacomo Carissimi. With the rise of the da capo aria, the became a group of two or three arias joined by recitative. George Frideric Handels numerous Italian duets and trios are examples on a large scale. His Latin motet Silete Venti, for solo, shows the use of this form in church music. This is equally evident whether we examine the church cantatas of Bach, of which nearly 200 are extant. Cantatas were in demand for the services of the Lutheran church. Many secular cantatas were composed for events in the nobility and they were so similar in form to the sacred ones that many of them were parodied to sacred cantatas, for example in Bachs Christmas Oratorio. The term cantata came to be applied almost exclusively to choral works, Anton Bruckner composed several Name-day cantatas, a Festive Cantata and two secular cantatas. Brucknerss Psalm 146 is also in cantata form, mendelssohns Symphony Cantata, the Lobgesang, is a hybrid work, partly in the oratorio style. Robert Schumann wrote the cantata Paradise and the Peri, the full lyric possibilities of a string of choral songs were realized by Johannes Brahms in his Rinaldo, that—like the Walpurgisnacht—was set to a text by Goethe. The competition for the French Prix de Rome prescribed that each candidate submit a cantata, hector Berlioz failed in three attempts before finally winning in 1830 with Sardanapale. While almost all of the Prix de Rome cantatas have long since been forgotten, cantatas, both of the chamber variety and on a grand scale, were composed after 1900 as well
Cantata
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Hymns
17.
Princess Isabella of Savoy
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Isabella of Savoy was a daughter of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and Catherine Michelle of Spain. Her maternal grandparents where Philip II of Spain and Elisabeth of Valois, her grandparents were Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy and Margaret of France. She was the Hereditary Princess of Modena, dying before her husband succeeded to the Duchy of Modena in 1628. Isabella was born in Turin to Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and his wife Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain, in Turin on 22 February 1608 she married Alfonso, Hereditary Prince of Modena, this was a happy marriage, Alfonso was loving and loyal towards his wife. Within two years Isabella bore Alfonso a son, Francesco who would one day succeed his father as Duke of Modena, when Isabella died on 28 August 1626 Alfonso was heartbroken, he never remarried and died in 1644. She died as a result of childbirth and before her husband became duke so she was never Duchess of Modena
Princess Isabella of Savoy
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Isabella of Savoy
18.
Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina
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Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina was the sovereign Duchess of Massa and Princess of Carrara from 1731 until her death in 1790. She was the eldest child of Alderano I Duke of Massa and Carrara and she was the wife of Ercole III dEste, Duke of Modena. Maria Teresa was born in the town of Novellara (in what is now the province of Reggio Emilia, as the eldest child, she was her fathers primary heiress. Her father died on 18 August 1731 when she was just six years old and she wed Eugenio Giovanni Francesco of Savoy by proxy, a grandson of Prince Louis Thomas of Savoy-Carignan. However the couple never met due to the death in 1734. She wed Ercole Rinaldo dEste, heir of the duchy of Modena, the duchy of Massa and the principality of Carrara were then annexed to the duchy of Modena and Reggio. In 1744, she came of age and was no longer under her mothers regency and she reformed the laws, built a hospital and promoted art, culture and architecture. Maria Teresa was praised for helping to set up Art Academies in Carrara and, after correspondence with the Spanish court, from this marriage, the House of Austria-Este was created, a cadet branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, which ruled Modena between 1814 and 1859. Maria Teresa died in 1790 in Modena and her non-sovereign titles, Duchess di Ajello and Baroness di Paduli, as well as that of Sovereign Lady of Moneta, also went to her daughter
Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina
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Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina
19.
Poor Clare
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The Poor Clares were the second Franciscan Order to be established. Founded by Saints Clare of Assisi and Francis of Assisi on Palm Sunday in the year 1212, they were organized after the Order of Friars Minor, as of 2011 there were over 20,000 Poor Clare nuns in over 75 countries throughout the world. They follow several different observances and are organized into federations, the Poor Clares follow the Rule of St. Clare, which was approved by Pope Innocent IV the day before Clares death in 1253. The main branch of the Order follows the observance of Pope Urban, other branches established since that time, who operate under their own unique Constitutions, are the Colettine Poor Clares, the Capuchin Poor Clares and the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. The Poor Clares were founded by Clare of Assisi in the year 1212, little is known of Clares early life, although popular tradition hints that she came from a fairly well-to-do family in Assisi. At the age of eighteen, inspired by the preaching of Francis in the cathedral, Clare ran away home to join his community of friars at the Portiuncula. Although, according to tradition, her family wanted to take her back by force, Clares dedication to holiness and she was given the habit of a nun and transferred to Benedictine monasteries, first at Bastia and then at Sant Angelo di Panzo, for her monastic formation. By 1216 Francis was able to offer Clare and her companions a monastery adjoining the chapel of San Damiano where she became abbess, Clares mother, two of her sisters and some other wealthy women from Florence soon joined her new Order. Clare dedicated her order to the principles of Francis, setting a rule of extreme poverty far more severe than that of any female order of the time. By this time the order had grown to number three monasteries, the movement quickly spread, though in a somewhat disorganized fashion, with several monasteries of women devoted to the Franciscan ideal springing up elsewhere in Northern Italy. At this point Ugolino, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, was given the task of overseeing all such monasteries, communities adopting this less rigorous came to be known as the Order of Saint Clare or the Urbanist Poor Clares. Clare herself resisted the Ugolino Rule, since it did not closely follow the ideal of complete poverty advocated by Francis. Originally applying only to Clares community at San Damiano, this rule was adopted by many monasteries. Communities that followed this rule were fewer in number than the followers of the rule formulated by Cardinal Ugolino. The situation was further complicated a century later when Saint Colette of Corbie restored the rule of strict poverty to 17 French monasteries. Her followers came to be called the Colettine Poor Clares, two further branches, the Capuchin Poor Clares and the Alcantarines, also followed the strict observance. The later group disappeared as a group when their observance among the friars was ended. The spread of the began in 1218 when a monastery was founded in Perugia, new foundations quickly followed in Florence, Venice, Mantua
Poor Clare
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Fresco of Saint Clare and nuns of her Order, Chapel of San Damiano, Assisi
Poor Clare
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Nun of the Order of Poor Clares
Poor Clare
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Mother Jeronima of the Assumption, P.C.C., by Diego Velázquez (1620)
Poor Clare
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Gothic Altar in Cologne Cathedral dedicated to Poor Clare saints
20.
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
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It was founded as the Knights Hospitaller circa 1099 in Jerusalem, Kingdom of Jerusalem, by the Blessed Gerard, making it the worlds oldest surviving chivalric order. It operated from Cyprus, Rhodes, Malta, over which it was sovereign until the French occupation, the order venerates as its patroness Mary, mother of Jesus, under the title Our Lady of Mount Philermos. The Order retains sovereignty under international law, including United Nations permanent observer status, issuing its own passports, currency, the orders military corps, three brigades, are stationed throughout Italy, liaisoned with the Italian Armed Forces. Through its worldwide relief corps, Malteser International, the order aids victims of disasters, epidemics. In several countries, including France, Germany and Ireland, local associations of the order are important providers of emergency services. In the ecclesiastical heraldry of the Roman Catholic Church, the Order of Malta is one of two orders whose insignia may be displayed in a clerical coat of arms. The shield is surrounded with a rosary for professed knights. Members may also display the Maltese cross behind their shield instead of the ribbon, in order to protect its heritage against frauds, the order has legally registered 16 versions of its names and emblems in some 100 countries. The birth of the dates back to around 1048. The Order of St. John of Jerusalem–the monastic community that ran the hospital for the pilgrims in the Holy Land–became independent under the guidance of its founder, by virtue of the Papal Bull, the hospital became an order exempt from the control of the local church. All the Knights were religious, bound by the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. The order thus added the task of defending the faith to that of its hospitaller mission, as time went on, the order adopted the white eight-pointed Cross that is still its symbol today. The eight points represent the eight beatitudes that Jesus pronounced in his Sermon on the Mount, when the last Christian stronghold in the Holy Land fell after the Siege of Acre in 1291, the order settled first in Cyprus. In 1310, led by Grand Master Fra Foulques de Villaret, in the early 14th century, the institutions of the Order and the knights who came to Rhodes from every corner of Europe were grouped according to the languages they spoke. Each Langue included Priories or Grand Priories, Bailiwicks, and Commanderies, the Order was governed by its Grand Master, the Prince of Rhodes, and its Council. The senior positions of the Order were given to representatives of different Langues, after six months of siege and fierce combat against the fleet and army of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, the Knights were forced to surrender in 1523 and left Rhodes with military honours. The Reformation which split Western Europe into Protestant and Roman Catholic states affected the knights as well, in several countries, including England, Scotland and Sweden, the order was disestablished. In others, including the Netherlands and Germany, entire bailiwicks or commanderies experienced religious conversions and it was established that the order should remain neutral in any war between Christian nations
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
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Bust portrait of a Knight of Malta
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
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Flag
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
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Flags of Malta and the SMOM on Fort St. Angelo
Sovereign Military Order of Malta
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Coat of arms of the Knights of Malta, from the façade of the church of San Giovannino dei Cavalieri, Florence
21.
Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara
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Alfonso II dEste was Duke of Ferrara from 1559 to 1597. He was a member of the House of Este and he was the elder son of Ercole II dEste and Renée de France, the daughter of Louis XII of France and Anne of Brittany and was the fifth and last Duke of Ferrara. As a young man, he fought in the service of Henry II of France against the Habsburgs, soon after his accession, he was forced by Pope Pius IV to send back his mother to France due to her Calvinist creed. The 1570 Ferrara earthquake fell into his reign, in 1583 he allied with Emperor Rudolf II in the war against the Turks in Hungary. He married three times, On 3 July 1558, Alfonso married his first wife Lucrezia di Cosimo de Medici and she died two years afterwards, poisoning has been suspected, although it is now thought that she died of tuberculosis. On 5 December 1565, Alfonso married his second wife Barbara of Austria, eighth daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia, on 24 February 1579, Alfonso married his third wife Margherita Gonzaga. She was the eldest daughter of William I, Duke of Mantua, Margherita was the niece of his second wife Barbara. He had no children, legitimate or otherwise. The legitimate line ended in 1597 with him, Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor recognized as heir his cousin Cesare dEste, member of a cadet branch, who continued to rule in the imperial duchies and carried on the family name. The succession, however, was recognized only by the Emperor, in 1598 Ferrara was therefore incorporated into the Papal States by Pope Clement VIII, on grounds of doubtful legitimacy. As a result of Alfonso death Cesare dEste and his family were obliged to leave the city, besides being fluent in Italian he was also proficient in Latin and French. Luzzasco Luzzaschi served as his court organist, in addition, he was the sponsor of the Concerto delle donne, a type of group which was to be copied all over Italy. He also restored the Castello Estense, damaged by an earthquake in 1570 and his expenses, however, went at damage of the public treasure. Alfonso II is the duke upon whom Robert Browning based his poem My Last Duchess
Alfonso II d'Este, Duke of Ferrara
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Alfonso II d'Este by Girolamo da Carpi
22.
Ferrara
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Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 kilometres north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, the town has broad streets and numerous palaces dating from the 14th and 15th centuries, when it hosted the court of the House of Este. For its beauty and cultural importance it has qualified by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Modern times have brought a renewal of industrial activity, Ferrara is on the main rail line from Bologna to Padua and Venice, and has branches to Ravenna, Poggio Rusco and Codigoro. Ferrara appears first in a document of the Lombard king Desiderius of 753 AD, Desiderius pledged a Lombard ducatus ferrariae in 757 to Pope Stephen II. Obizzo II dEste was proclaimed ruler of Ferrara five hundred years later. He also became seignior of nearby Modena in 1288 and of Reggio in 1289, in 1452 the Este rulers were created Dukes of Modena and Reggio, and in 1471 Ferrara also became a duchy. In 1597, when Alfonso II died without heirs, the House of Este lost Ferrara to the Papal States. Ferrara remained a part of the Papal States from 1598 to 1859, with an interruption during the Napoleonic period, in 1859 it became part of the Kingdom of Italy. A fortress was constructed by Pope Paul V on the site of the castle called Castel Tedaldo, at the south-west angle of the town, all of the fortress was dismantled following the birth of the Kingdom of Italy and the bricks used for new constructions all over the town. On August 23,1944, the Ferrara synthetic rubber plant was a target of Strategic bombing during World War II, the town is still surrounded by more than 9 kilometres of ancient walls, mainly built in the 15th and 16th-centuries. Along with those of Lucca, they are the best preserved Renaissance walls in Italy, the imposing brick Castello Estense sited in the very centre of the town is iconic of Ferrara. The castle, erected in 1385, is surrounded by a moat, the pavilions on the top of the towers date from the 16th-century refurbishment. The City Hall, renovated in the 18th century, was the residence of the Este family. Close by it is the former Cathedral of San Giorgio, The Romanesque lower part of the main façade, according to a now lost inscription the church had been commissioned by Guglielmo I of Adelardi. The sculpture of the portal was signed by a Nicholaus. The upper part of the main façade, with arcades of pointed arches, dates from the 13th century, the recumbent lions guarding the entrance are copies of the originals, now in the narthex of the church. An elaborate 13th-century relief depicting the Last Judgement is found in the story of the porch
Ferrara
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The Castle Estense
Ferrara
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Ferrara City Hall.
Ferrara
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The Renaissance walls.
Ferrara
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The Castle Estense.
23.
Reggio Emilia
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Reggio Emilia is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 170,000 inhabitants and is the comune of the Province of Reggio Emilia. The town is referred to by its more official name of Reggio nellEmilia listen. The inhabitants of Reggio nellEmilia usually call their town by the name of Reggio. In some ancient maps the town is also named Reggio di Lombardia, the old town has an hexagonal form, which derives from the ancient walls, and the main buildings are from the 16th–17th centuries. The comunes territory is totally on a plain, crossed by the Crostolo stream, Reggio began as a historical site with the construction by Marcus Aemilius Lepidus of the Via Aemilia, leading from Piacenza to Rimini. Reggio became an administration centre, with a forum called at first Regium Lepidi, then simply Regium. During the Roman age Regium is cited only by Festus and Cicero, however, it was a flourishing city, a Municipium with its own statutes, magistrates and art collegia. Apollinaris of Ravenna brought Christianity in the 1st century CE, the sources confirm the presence of a bishopric in Reggio after the Edict of Milan. In 440 the Reggio diocese was placed under the jurisdiction of Ravenna by Western Roman Emperor Valentinianus III, at the end of the 4th century, however, Reggio had decayed so much that Saint Ambrose included it among the dilapidated cities. Further damage occurred with the Barbarian invasions, after the deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 476 Reggio was part of Odoacers realm. In 489 it came under Ostrogothic control, from 539 it was part of the Roman Empire, Reggio was chosen as Duchy of Reggio seat. In 773 the Franks took Reggio, charlemagne gave the bishop the authority to exercise royal authority over the city and established the diocese limits. In 888 Reggio was handed over to the Kings of Italy, in 899 the Magyars heavily damaged it, killing Bishop Azzo II. As a result of new walls were built. On 31 October 900 Emperor Louis III gave authority for the erection of a castrum in the citys centre. In 1002 Reggios territory, together with that of Parma, Brescia, Modena, Mantua and Ferrara, were merged into the March of Tuscany, Reggio became a free commune around the end of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century. In 1167 it was a member of the Lombard League and took part in the Battle of Legnano, in 1183 the city signed the Treaty of Konstanz, from which the citys consul, Rolando della Carità, received the imperial investiture
Reggio Emilia
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Piazza San Prospero in Reggio Emilia
Reggio Emilia
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Panorama with basilica della Ghiara.
Reggio Emilia
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Palazzo del Monte in Piazza del Duomo, with the Fountain of River Crostolo.
Reggio Emilia
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Piazza Prampolini
24.
Carpi, Emilia-Romagna
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Carpi is an Italian town and comune of about 70,000 people in the province of Modena, Emilia-Romagna. It is a centre for industrial and craft activities and for cultural and commercial exchanges. The name Carpi is derived from carpinus betulus, a hornbeam tree particularly widespread in medieval times in the Po valley region, in Prehistoric times it was a settlement of the Villanovan Culture. The foundation by the Lombard king Aistulf of St. Marys church in the castle in 752 was the first step in the current settlement of the city. From 1319 to 1525 it was ruled by the Pio family, after whom it was acquired by the Este, the city received a Silver Medal for Military Valour in recognition of its participation in the resistance against the German occupation during World War II. As a titular Duke of Modena, the current holder of the title of Prince of Carpi would be Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este. It counts the hamlets of Budrione, Cantone di Gargallo, Cibeno Pile, Cortile, Fossoli, Gargallo, Lama di Quartirolo, Migliarina, Osteriola, San Marino, San Martino Secchia and it is flanked by a portico with 52 columns. Other notable landmarks include, Town hall - formerly the castle of the Pio family and it includes parts from different ages, such as the merloned-tower of Passerino Bonaccolsi, the Renaissance façade and the tower of Galasso Pio, and the 17th century watch tower. It includes a chapel frescoed by Bernardino Loschi and Vincenzo Catena, construction begun 1514, Baroque façade added in 1701 and cupola completed 1774). Church of Santa Maria in Castello or La Sagra - façade designed by Peruzzi, Carpi FC1909 played in Serie B during the 2013-14 season, achieving a 12th-place finish ensuring second tier football remained in the town for another season. On April 28,2015, the club clinched promotion to Serie A for the first time in its history, on 2016 the born in Carpi world champion swimmer Gregorio Paltrinieri won Gold Medal on 500 free style at Brazil Olympics. Jacopo Berengario da Carpi, physician Ermes Effron Borgnino, known as Ernest Borgnine, U. S
Carpi, Emilia-Romagna
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The Cathedral of Carpi ("Duomo")
25.
Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire at its maximal extent, in the 13th century
Holy Roman Empire
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Imperial Banner
Holy Roman Empire
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An illustration from Schedelsche Weltchronik depicting the structure of the Reich: The Holy Roman Emperor is sitting; on his left are three ecclesiastics; on his right are four secular electors.
Holy Roman Empire
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Double-headed eagle with coats of arms of individual states, symbol of the Holy Roman Empire (painting from 1510)
26.
Chartres
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Chartres is a commune and capital of the Eure-et-Loir department in France. It is located 96 km southwest of Paris and this city is well known for its cathedral. Chartres was in Gaul one of the towns of the Carnutes. In the Gallo-Roman period, it was called Autricum, name derived from the river Autura, the city was burned by the Normans in 858, and unsuccessfully besieged by them in 911. During the Middle Ages, it was the most important town of the Beauce. It gave its name to a county which was held by the counts of Blois, and the counts of Champagne, and afterwards by the House of Châtillon, a member of which sold it to the Crown in 1286. In 1417, during the Hundred Years War, Chartres fell into the hands of the English, in 1528, it was raised to the rank of a duchy by Francis I. In 1568, during the Wars of Religion, Chartres was unsuccessfully besieged by the Huguenot leader and it was finally taken by the royal troops of Henry IV on 19 April 1591. In 1674, Louis XIV raised Chartres from a duchy to a peerage in favor of his nephew. The title of Duke of Chartres was hereditary in the House of Orléans, in the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War, Chartres was seized by the Germans on 2 October 1870, and continued during the rest of the war to be an important centre of operations. With his driver, Griffith proceeded to the cathedral and, after searching it all the way up its bell tower, the order to destroy the cathedral was withdrawn. Colonel Griffith was killed in later on that day in the town of Lèves,3.5 kilometres north of Chartres. For his heroic action both at Chartres and Lèves, Colonel Griffith received, posthumously, several decorations awarded by the President of the United States, 5th Infantry and 7th Armored Divisions belonging to the XX Corps of the U. S. Third Army commanded by General George S. Patton, Chartres is built on a hill on the left bank of the Eure River. Its renowned medieval cathedral is at the top of the hill, to the southeast stretches the fertile plain of Beauce, the granary of France, of which the town is the commercial centre. Chartres is best known for its cathedral, the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres and its historical and cultural importance has been recognized by its inclusion on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. It was built on the site of the former Chartres cathedral of Romanesque architecture, begun in 1205, the construction of Notre-Dame de Chartres was completed 66 years later. The stained glass windows of the cathedral were financed by guilds of merchants and craftsmen and it is not known how the famous and unique blue, bleu de Chartres, of the glass was created, and it has been impossible to replicate it
Chartres
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Chartres
Chartres
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Cathedral of Chartres.
Chartres
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The famous "Chartres blue".
Chartres
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South elevation, lithography 1864
27.
Montargis
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Montargis is a commune in the Loiret department in north-central France on the Loing river. The town is located about 110 km south of Paris and 70 km east of Orléans in the Gâtinais, Montargis is the second largest city in the Loiret, after Orléans. It is near a large forest, and contains light industry, due to its numerous canals and bridges, Montargis sometimes bills itself as the Venice of the Gâtinais. Though quite modern, it retains a medieval charm in its downtown area, numerous Gallo-Roman artifacts have been found in the area, and many are in the towns Gâtinais Museum. Later, the town was a stronghold of the Frankish king Clovis I, Montargis was originally a seat of the house of Courtenay, who fortified a château on a hill overlooking the town. The town was ceded to the king of France in 1188, in the 14th and 15th centuries, it was a royal residence. In 1427, during the Hundred Years War, the Earl of Warwick besieged the town with artillery, during the siege, the residents of Montargis sabotaged the dikes of numerous ponds in the district, flooding and drowning many of the besieging Plantagenets. On September 5, a French force of 1600 men broke the siege, led by Jean de Dunois and La Hire and this marked the first important victory by the army of King Charles VII in the war, gratefully remembered by Charles later. After being wounded in an attempt to besiege Paris in September 1429. After the war, Charles VII, rewarded the town for its valor in the war by granting it various privileges, in 1490, his later successor Charles VIII officially declared the town Montargis Le Franc. This title is abbreviated as MLF in the coat of arms. This privilege was renewed by his successors, and Montargis remained free of taxes for three centuries, until it was revoked during the French Revolution. In 1528, King Francis I granted the town to his sister-in-law, Renée of France, Duchess of Ferrara, after her husband Ercole II, the Duke of Ferrara died in 1559, Renée resided at Montargis. She sheltered there Protestant Huguenots fleeing from persecutions in Paris and elsewhere during the 16th century French Wars of Religion, the best-known legend of Montargis is that of the Dog of Montargis. In the story, Aubry de Montdidier, a courtier of King Charles V of France, was murdered around 1400 in a forest near Montargis by Robert Macaire, after his death, Mondidiers dog showed a remarkable hostility to Macaire. King Charles decreed a trial by combat in the town between the dog and Macaire, who was armed with only a cudgel, after the dog won the battle, Macaire confessed to the crime and was hanged. A dramatic bronze statue of this fight is in the courtyard of the Girodet Museum in central Montargis, and the contest is depicted in a stained glass window in a local church as well. The story was the subject of a 19th-century melodrama, Le Chien de Montargis, ou la Forêt de Bondy, in the 1880s, a rubber factory was built in Châlette, a district of Montargis
Montargis
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The Briare Canal in Montargis
28.
Gisors
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Gisors is a commune of Normandy, France. It is located 62.9 km northwest from the centre of Paris, Gisors, together with the neighbouring communes of Trie-Château and Trie-la-Ville, form an urban area of 12,669 inhabitants. This urban area is a town of Paris. Gisors is located in the Vexin normand region of Normandy at the confluence of the Epte, Troesne, the Gisors-Embranchement station is the terminus of a Transilien suburban rail service from the Paris Saint-Lazare station. Château de Gisors, built in the 11th century, the Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais parish church is an outstanding monument fusing Gothic and Renaissance architecture. A field near Gisors was the site of the cutting of the elm, communes of the Eure department INSEE Official site Gazetteer Entry Gisors
Gisors
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City as seen from the castle terrasse
Gisors
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Motte and Castle
Gisors
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Castle of Gisors
Gisors
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The so-called Grosse Tour ("Big Tower") of the St-Gervais-St-Protais church was built between 1542 and 1590.
29.
Caen
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Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department, the city proper has 108,365 inhabitants, while its urban area has 420,000, making Caen the largest city in former Lower Normandy. It is also the second largest municipality in all of Normandy after Le Havre, the metropolitan area of Caen, in turn, is the second largest in Normandy after that of Rouen, the 21st largest in France. It is located 15 kilometres inland from the English Channel, two hours north-west of Paris, and connected to the south of England by the Caen--Portsmouth ferry route. Caen is located in the centre of its region, and it is a centre of political, economic. Located a few miles from the coast, the landing beaches, the city has now preserved the memory by erecting a memorial and a museum dedicated to peace, the Memorial de Caen. Current arms, Gules, an open castle Or, windowed and masoned sable. Under the Ancien Régime, Per fess, gules and azure,3 fleurs de lys Or, during the First French Empire, Gules, a single-towered castle Or, a chief of Good Imperial Cities. Today, Caen has no motto, but it used to have one, as a result, its spelling is archaic and has not been updated, Un Dieu, un Roy, une Foy, une Loy. This motto is reflected in a notable old Chant royal, Caens home port code is CN In 1346, King Edward III of England led his army against the city, hoping to loot it. During the attack, English officials searched its archives and found a copy of the 1339 Franco-Norman plot to invade England, devised by Philip VI of France and this was subsequently used as propaganda to justify the supplying and financing of the conflict and its continuation. Only the castle of Caen held out, despite attempts to besiege it, a few days later, the English left, marching to the east and on to their victory at the Battle of Crécy. It was later captured by Henry V in 1417 and treated harshly for being the first town to put up any resistance to his invasion. During the Battle of Normandy in the Second World War, Caen was liberated from the Nazis in early July, British and Canadian troops had intended to capture the town on D-Day. However they were held up north of the city until 9 July, the Allies seized the western quarters, a month later than Field Marshal Montgomerys original plan. During the battle, many of the inhabitants sought refuge in the Abbaye aux Hommes. Both the cathedral and the university were destroyed by the British. Post-Second World War work included the reconstruction of complete districts of the city and it took 14 years and led to the current urbanization of Caen
Caen
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View of downtown Caen and the Abbey of St. Étienne
Caen
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Ruins of Caen
Caen
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Hôtel d'Escoville, 16th century, Caen
Caen
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Anonymous pen-and-ink bird's-eye view of the fortifications of Caen (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris)
30.
Bayeux
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Bayeux is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy in northwestern France. Bayeux is the home of the Bayeux Tapestry, which depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England, Bayeux is a sub-prefecture of Calvados. It is the seat of the arrondissement of Bayeux and of the canton of Bayeux, Bayeux is located 7 kilometres from the coast of the English Channel and 30 km north-west of Caen. The city, with elevations varying from 32 to 67 metres above sea level – with an average of 46 metres – is bisected by the River Aure, Bayeux is located at the crossroads of RN13 and the train route Paris-Caen-Cherbourg. The city is the capital of the Bessin, which extends north-west of Calvados, the city was known as Augustodurum in the Roman Empire. It means the durum dedicated to Augustus, Roman Emperor, the Celtic word duron, Latinised as durum, was probably used to translate the Latin word forum. In the Late Empire it took the name of the Celtic tribe who lived here, the Bodiocassi, Latinized in Bajocassi, Bajocasses, Bodiocassi has been compared with Old Irish Buidechass with blond locks. Any settlement was more confined to scattered Druid huts along the banks of the Aure. Cemeteries have been found on the nearby Mount Phaunus indicating the area as a Druid centre, titus Sabinus, a lieutenant of Julius Caesar, subjected the Bessin region to Roman domination. The town is mentioned by Ptolemy, writing in the reign of Antoninus Pius under the name Noemagus Biducassium, the main street was already the heart of the city. A pair of spas under the Church of St. Lawrence and the Dairy Street Post Office, in 1990 a closer examination of huge blocks discovered in the cathedral in the 19th century indicated the presence of an old Roman building. Bayeux was built on a crossroads between Lisieux and Valognes, developing first on the west bank of the river, by the end of the 3rd century a walled enclosure surrounded the city until it was removed in the 18th century. Its layout is visible and can be followed today. The citadel of the city was located in the southwest corner, an important city in Normandy, Bayeux was part of the coastal defence of the Roman Empire against the pirates of the region and a Roman Legion was stationed there. The city was destroyed during the Viking raids of the late 9th century but was rebuilt in the early 10th century under the reign of Bothon. In the middle of the 10th century Bayeux was controlled by Hagrold, the 11th century saw the creation of five villages beyond the walls to the north east evidence of its growth during Ducal Normandy. William the Conquerors half brother Odo, Earl of Kent completed the cathedral in the city, however the city began to lose prominence when William placed his capital at Caen. When King Henry I of England defeated his brother Robert Curthose for the rule of Normandy, under Richard the Lionheart, Bayeux was wealthy enough to purchase a municipal charter
Bayeux
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The historic centre, the Notre Dame Cathedral, the Aure and tourist office
Bayeux
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Bayeux (Bagias), depicted in scene 22 of the Bayeux Tapestry
Bayeux
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Bayeux city centre (2011)
Bayeux
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Bayeux Cathedral
31.
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Rudolf II was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Croatia, King of Bohemia and Archduke of Austria. He was a member of the House of Habsburg, Rudolf was born in Vienna on 18 July 1552. Rudolf spent eight years, from age 11 to 19, in Spain. Rudolf would remain for the rest of his reserved, secretive. He suffered from bouts of melancholy, which was common in the Habsburg line. These became worse with age, and were manifested by a withdrawal from the world, like his contemporary, Elizabeth I of England, Rudolf dangled himself as a prize in a string of diplomatic negotiations for marriages, but never in fact married. It has been proposed by A. L. Rowse that he was homosexual, during his periods of self-imposed isolation, Rudolf reportedly had affairs with his court chamberlain, Wolfgang von Rumpf, and a series of valets. One of these, Philip Lang, ruled him for years and was hated by those seeking favour with the emperor, in addition, Rudolf was known to have had a succession of affairs with women, some of whom claimed to have been impregnated by him. He had several children with his mistress Catherina Strada. Their eldest son, Don Julius Caesar dAustria, was born between 1584 and 1586 and received an education and opportunities for political and social prominence from his father. In 1607, Rudolf sent Julius to live at Český Krumlov in Bohemia castle, Julius lived at Český Krumlov when in 1608 he reportedly abused and murdered the daughter of a local barber, who had been living in the castle, and then disfigured her body. Rudolf condemned his sons act and suggested that he should be imprisoned for the rest of his life, however, Julius died in 1609 after showing signs of schizophrenia, refusing to bathe, and living in squalor, his death was apparently caused by an ulcer that ruptured. Many artworks commissioned by Rudolf are unusually erotic, the emperor was the subject of a whispering campaign by his enemies in his family and the Catholic Church in the years before he was deposed. Sexual allegations may well have formed a part of the campaign against him, historians have traditionally blamed Rudolfs preoccupation with the arts, occult sciences, and other personal interests as the reason for the political disasters of his reign. Although raised in his uncles Catholic court in Spain, Rudolf was tolerant of Protestantism and he largely withdrew from Catholic observances, even in death denying last sacramental rites. He had little attachment to Protestants either, except as counter-weight to repressive Papal policies and he put his primary support behind conciliarists, irenicists, and humanists. His conflict with the Ottoman Empire was the cause of his undoing. Unwilling to compromise with the Turks, and stubbornly determined that he could all of Christendom with a new Crusade, he started a long
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Rudolf II
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Archduke Rudolf
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
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A portrait bust of Rudolf II in the collection of the Antwerp City Hall, Belgium
Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Engraving by Aegidius Sadeler (1603)
32.
Kingdom of France
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The Kingdom of France was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Western Europe. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe and a great power since the Late Middle Ages and it was also an early colonial power, with possessions around the world. France originated as West Francia, the half of the Carolingian Empire. A branch of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule until 987, the territory remained known as Francia and its ruler as rex Francorum well into the High Middle Ages. The first king calling himself Roi de France was Philip II, France continued to be ruled by the Capetians and their cadet lines—the Valois and Bourbon—until the monarchy was overthrown in 1792 during the French Revolution. France in the Middle Ages was a de-centralised, feudal monarchy, in Brittany and Catalonia the authority of the French king was barely felt. Lorraine and Provence were states of the Holy Roman Empire and not yet a part of France, during the Late Middle Ages, the Kings of England laid claim to the French throne, resulting in a series of conflicts known as the Hundred Years War. Subsequently, France sought to extend its influence into Italy, but was defeated by Spain in the ensuing Italian Wars, religiously France became divided between the Catholic majority and a Protestant minority, the Huguenots, which led to a series of civil wars, the Wars of Religion. France laid claim to large stretches of North America, known collectively as New France, Wars with Great Britain led to the loss of much of this territory by 1763. French intervention in the American Revolutionary War helped secure the independence of the new United States of America, the Kingdom of France adopted a written constitution in 1791, but the Kingdom was abolished a year later and replaced with the First French Republic. The monarchy was restored by the great powers in 1814. During the later years of the elderly Charlemagnes rule, the Vikings made advances along the northern and western perimeters of the Kingdom of the Franks, after Charlemagnes death in 814 his heirs were incapable of maintaining political unity and the empire began to crumble. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 divided the Carolingian Empire into three parts, with Charles the Bald ruling over West Francia, the nucleus of what would develop into the kingdom of France. Viking advances were allowed to increase, and their dreaded longboats were sailing up the Loire and Seine rivers and other waterways, wreaking havoc. During the reign of Charles the Simple, Normans under Rollo from Norway, were settled in an area on either side of the River Seine, downstream from Paris, that was to become Normandy. With its offshoots, the houses of Valois and Bourbon, it was to rule France for more than 800 years. Henry II inherited the Duchy of Normandy and the County of Anjou, and married Frances newly divorced ex-queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, after the French victory at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214, the English monarchs maintained power only in southwestern Duchy of Guyenne. The death of Charles IV of France in 1328 without male heirs ended the main Capetian line, under Salic law the crown could not pass through a woman, so the throne passed to Philip VI, son of Charles of Valois
Kingdom of France
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The Kingdom of France in 1789. Ancien Régime provinces in 1789.
Kingdom of France
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Royal Standarda
Kingdom of France
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Henry IV, by Frans Pourbus the younger, 1610.
Kingdom of France
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Louis XIII, by Philippe de Champaigne, 1647.
33.
Modena Cathedral
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Modena Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Modena, Italy, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and Saint Geminianus. Formerly the seat of the Diocese, later Archdiocese, of Modena, consecrated in 1184, it is an important Romanesque building in Europe and a World Heritage Site. The initial design and direction was provided by a known as Lanfranco. The Saints remains are exhibited in the cathedrals crypt. The present cathedral was consecrated by Pope Lucius III on July 12,1184, after Lanfrancos work, the Cathedral was embellished by Anselmo da Campione and his heirs, the so-called Campionese-masters. The current façade therefore exhibits different styles, the majestic rose-window was added by Anselmo in the 13th century, while the two lions supporting the entrances columns are of Roman age, probably discovered while digging the foundations. The scholars have pointed out the splendid achievements in the creation of Adam and Eve, the original sin, the side gates are also noteworthy. On Piazza Grande, the Porta Regia, also by the campionesi, on the northern side is the Porta della Pescheria, with reliefs inspired by the cycle of the years twelve months and tales from the Breton Cycle of King Arthur. The interior is divided into three naves, between the central nave and the crypt is a marble parapet by Anselmo da Campione portraying the Passion of Christ, including the Last Supper. The pulpit is by Arrigo da Campione, decorated with terracotta statues. Notable also the wood crucifix from the 14th century, the Duomo houses also the nativity scenes by two great Modenese artistis, Antonio Begarellis one and, in the crypt, Guido Mazzonis one, also known as the Madonna della Pappa. The Torre della Ghirlandina is annexed to the church, the funeral of the late famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti, a native of Modena, was held in the cathedral. The cathedrals north portal, known as the Porta della Pescheria, features high relief carvings of secular scenes on the marble archivolt, the carvings on the archivolt are notable for depicting a very early Arthurian scene. The lintel carvings include a cross, birds, animals, and it is possibly the earliest monumental sculpture to feature the Arthurian legend. The sculptor has been dubbed the Arthur Master, and critics note that while his inspiration outshines his skill he faithfully captures realistic details in architecture, the date of the piece and the artists source have been debated vigorously. Roger Sherman Loomis argued for a date at the beginning of the 12th century, however, other evidence points to a date no earlier than 1120, and the later work of Jacques Stiennon and Rita Lejeune suggests a date between 1120 and 1140. At the center of the Modena Archivolt image is a castle defended by two towers, inside of which are two identified as Mardoc and Winlogee. The left tower is defended by a man named Burmaltus, who faces off against Artus de Bretania, Isdernus, and another unnamed knight
Modena Cathedral
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The Cathedral with the Ghirlandina
Modena Cathedral
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Inscription on the apse.
Modena Cathedral
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Upper part of the Porta della Pescheria.
34.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
International Standard Book Number
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A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an EAN-13 bar code
35.
Margherita Gonzaga, Duchess of Ferrara
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She was the wife of Alfonso II dEste, Duke of Ferrara and Modena, whom she married in February 1579. This was the third marriage, and it was hoped that she would produce a male heir. She did not, which led to the city of Ferraras acquisition by the Papal States. Margherita was born and raised in her fathers court in Mantua, alfonsos concerto delle donne was formed in part to please her, and all of the members were on the court rolls as her ladies in waiting, and the concerts were frequently held in her apartments. A great number of madrigals and anthologies of madrigals were dedicated to her, either singly or to both herself and her husband and these entertainments were created with the choreography first, then the music, then the text. Instead of the balletto being a spontaneous dance among the courtiers, as it had been up until 1579, it became an elaborate and these entertainments frequently included the women cross-dressing, which was often commented on by contemporary chroniclers. One ballet was composed and performed in honor of the marriage, on 22 February 1581, of Laura Peverara, programs for the balletti were made, however these may have been handwritten rather than printed, and none survive. Luzzasco Luzzaschi and Ippolito Fiorini wrote music for the balletto, and Giovanni Battista Guarini wrote texts and this entertainment probably continued until the end of the Este court in 1597, when Alfonso died and the city was taken over by the papacy. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, il sesto libro de madrigali a sei voci. Notes, Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association
Margherita Gonzaga, Duchess of Ferrara
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Margherita Gonzaga
36.
Papal State
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The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were territories in the Italian Peninsula under the sovereign direct rule of the pope, from the 8th century until 1870. They were among the states of Italy from roughly the 8th century until the Italian Peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. At their zenith, they covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, Marche, Umbria and Romagna and these holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy, only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the Popes temporal control. In 1870, the pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ended the crisis between unified Italy and the Vatican by signing the Lateran Treaty, granting the Vatican City State sovereignty. The Papal States were also known as the Papal State, the territories were also referred to variously as the State of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States. For its first 300 years the Catholic Church was persecuted and unrecognized and this system began to change during the reign of the emperor Constantine I, who made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire, and restoring to it any properties that had been confiscated. The Lateran Palace was the first significant new donation to the Church, other donations followed, primarily in mainland Italy but also in the provinces of the Roman Empire. But the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, the seeds of the Papal States as a sovereign political entity were planted in the 6th century. Beginning In 535, the Byzantine Empire, under emperor Justinian I, launched a reconquest of Italy that took decades and devastated Italys political, just as these wars wound down, the Lombards entered the peninsula from the north and conquered much of the countryside. While the popes remained Byzantine subjects, in practice the Duchy of Rome, nevertheless, the pope and the exarch still worked together to control the rising power of the Lombards in Italy. As Byzantine power weakened, though, the took a ever larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards. In practice, the papal efforts served to focus Lombard aggrandizement on the exarch, a climactic moment in the founding of the Papal States was the agreement over boundaries embodied in the Lombard king Liutprands Donation of Sutri to Pope Gregory II. When the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell to the Lombards in 751, the popes renewed earlier attempts to secure the support of the Franks. In 751, Pope Zachary had Pepin the Younger crowned king in place of the powerless Merovingian figurehead king Childeric III, zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, later granted Pepin the title Patrician of the Romans. Pepin led a Frankish army into Italy in 754 and 756, Pepin defeated the Lombards – taking control of northern Italy – and made a gift of the properties formerly constituting the Exarchate of Ravenna to the pope. The cooperation between the papacy and the Carolingian dynasty climaxed in 800, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor, the precise nature of the relationship between the popes and emperors – and between the Papal States and the Empire – is disputed. Events in the 9th century postponed the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire in its Frankish form collapsed as it was subdivided among Charlemagnes grandchildren
Papal State
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The Quirinal Palace, papal residence and home to the civil offices of the Papal States from the Renaissance until their annexation
Papal State
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Flag in 1870
Papal State
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Antichristus (1521) by Lucas Cranach the Elder is a woodcut of the Papal States at war during the Renaissance.
Papal State
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The Breach of Porta Pia, on the right, in 1870.
37.
Maria Caterina Farnese
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Maria Caterina Farnese was a member of the Ducal House of Farnese. She was the Duchess of Modena as the first wife of Francesco I dEste, in some sources she is known simply as Maria Farnese. Born in Parma to Ranuccio I Farnese, Duke of Parma and his wife, Donna Margherita Aldobrandini, she was the sixth child. Her older brother Odoardo Farnese was later the Duke of Parma and her mother was Margherita Aldobrandini, daughter of Olimpia Aldobrandini who in turn, was a member of the House of Aldobrandini of Rome, and the sole heiress to the family fortune. She was a bride of Charles II of England but the marriage plans never materialised Charles instead married Catherine of Braganza. She was engaged to Francesco I dEste, Duke of Modena, son of the defunct Alfonso III dEste, Duke of Modena and she married Francesco on 11 January 1631 in Parma, the marriage produced nine children, three of which went on to have progeny. She died in July 1646 having give birth to a son and she died at the Ducal Palace of Sassuolo outside Modena, the summer residence of the Dukes of Modena. Her nephew Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma married two of Maria Caterinas daughters, Isabella in 1664 and Maria in 1668, Isabella died in childbirth like her mother. Her husband married again twice, firstly to her sister Vittoria Farnese in 1648 and then to Lucrezia Barberini who was the mother of Rinaldo dEste, Alfonso dEste, Hereditary Prince of Modena died in infancy. Alfonso IV dEste, Duke of Modena married Laura Martinozzi and had issue, Isabella dEste married Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma and had issue. Maria dEste married Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma and had issue,18 February 1615 –11 January 1631, Her Highness Maria Caterina Farnese, Princess of Parma 11 January 1631 –25 July 1646, Her Highness The Duchess of Modena
Maria Caterina Farnese
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Maria Caterina Farnese
38.
Eleanor de' Medici
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Eleonor de Medici was a daughter of Francesco I de Medici and Joanna of Austria, daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. She was a member of the famous House of Medici. By marriage she was Duchess consort of Mantua, Eleanor, born Eleonora, was born in Florence, Tuscany, Italy, on 28 February 1567, as the eldest child of Francesco I de Medici and his first wife Archduchess Joanna. Her baptism took place the year and was attended by Cardinal Innocenzo Ciocchi Del Monte an adoptive nephew of Pope Julius III. Cardinal Spinello de Benci performed the ceremony on behalf of Pope Pius V, the baptism was celebrated also with hunting excursions and parties. It was at first believed Eleanor would marry Francis, Duke of Anjou, son of Henry II of France, in 1570 it was feared Eleanor had contracted smallpox but this was not the case, she had only a fever from which she recovered. Her parents and grandfather Cosimo sent her flasks of water as she recovered from her illness. In 1574 when Eleanor was seven years of age, her grandfather Cosimo died therefore, in 1578, when Eleanor was eleven her mother died, and her father later married Bianca Cappello. Medici was one of seven children, the rest of Eleanor and Maries siblings died during childhood also. Medici married Vincenzo I Gonzaga on 29 April 1584, for her husband it was his marriage after he divorced Margherita Farnese. Celebrations for the contract being signed on 4 April 1584, took place in Mantua, including bells ringing. On April 10, Francesco sent a letter to Philip II of Spain asking for permission so that Eleanor, however Francesco also wished for proof of his son-in-laws fertility before concluding marriage negotiations. On 3 May 1584, Eleanor arrive in Mantua, on 7 May 1586, Eleanor gave birth to her first child, a son named Francesco, during the pregnancy her father sent her a present of some plums. The following year, Eleanors father-in-law Guglielmo died therefore Vincenzo became Duke of Mantua whilst Eleanor served as his Duchess consort, the same year, she gave birth to a second son, Ferdinando after a difficult pregnancy. She then suffered a miscarriage in 1596, four months into pregnancy and in 1598 she finally gave birth to a daughter, also named Eleanor. In October 1600, Eleanor attended the wedding of her sister Marie to Henry IV of France, in 1601, Queen Marie gave birth to her first child and son, the future Louis XIII of France, Marie made her sister Eleanor the godmother of the child. In 1602, Vincenzo traveled to Flanders in search of medical treatment, in this time she sent Ferdinando I de Medici a list of men condemned to the galleys, in the letter she informed Ferdinando of her post whilst her husband was away. In 1606, Eleanor accompanied her daughter Margherita to Lorraine for her marriage to Duke Henry, Eleanor fell ill in the first quarter of 1611 with a prolonged illness, but seemed to recover by April
Eleanor de' Medici
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Portrait of Eleonora de' Medici
Eleanor de' Medici
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Marriage of Eleanor de' Medici and Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga
Eleanor de' Medici
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Portrait of Eleanor de' Medici, Duchess of Mantua
39.
Marie de' Medici
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Marie de Medici was Queen of France as the second wife of King Henry IV of France, of the House of Bourbon. She was a member of the wealthy and powerful House of Medici, following the assassination of her husband in 1610, which occurred the day after her coronation, she acted as regent for her son, King Louis XIII of France, until he came of age. She was noted for her ceaseless political intrigues at the French court and she was born as Maria at the Palazzo Pitti of Florence, Italy, the sixth daughter of Francesco I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Archduchess Joanna of Austria. Marie was one of seven children, but only she and her sister Eleonora survived to adulthood, Marie is not a male-line descendant of Lorenzo the Magnificent but from Lorenzo the Elder, a branch of the Medici family sometimes referred to as the cadet branch. She does descend from Lorenzo in the female-line however, through his daughter Lucrezia de Medici, nonetheless this cadet branch produced every Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1537 to 1737, and the kings of France from Louis XIII in 1601 to Louis XVI in 1793. This cadet branch is already 700 years old, beginning with Averardo de Medici in 1320 and flourishes to this day with Louis Alphonse and her daughter, Henrietta Maria was queen consort of England, Scotland, and Ireland as the wife of King Charles I. Henrietta Maria, in turn, was mother of two successors, Charles II and James II. Lorenzo the Magnificents line instead became extinct shortly after the death of Lorenzo in 1492, at the time of his death the Medici Bank was already in bankruptcy. A portrait of Marie as a girl shows her with regular features. Her wavy hair was light brown in colour, and she had honey-brown eyes, the painter was from the school of Santi di Tito. She married Henry IV of France in October 1600 following the annulment of his marriage to Margaret of Valois. The wedding ceremony in Florence, Italy was celebrated with 4,000 guests and lavish entertainments, including examples of the newly invented musical genre of opera and she brought as part of her dowry 600,000 crowns. Her eldest son, the future King Louis XIII, was born at Fontainebleau the following year and her husband was almost 47 at the marriage and had a long succession of mistresses. Dynastic considerations required him to take a second wife, the marriage was successful in producing children, but it was not a happy one. The queen feuded with Henrys mistresses in language that shocked French courtiers, when he failed to do so, and instead married Marie, the result was constant bickering and political intrigues behind the scenes. Catherine referred to Maria as the fat bankers daughter, Henry used Maria for breeding purposes exactly as Henry II had treated Catherine de Medici, although the king could have easily banished his mistress, supporting his queen, he never did so. She, in turn, showed sympathy and support to her husbands banished ex-wife Marguerite de Valois. Marie was crowned Queen of France on 13 May 1610, a day before her husbands death, hours after Henrys assassination, she was confirmed as regent by the Parliament of Paris
Marie de' Medici
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Marie de' Medici
Marie de' Medici
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Portrait of Marie de' Medici as a young girl, possibly adolescent or even pubescent; Maria's head appears to pop out of her ruff like fruit from a flower; a supportasse underpins her ruff.
Marie de' Medici
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María de Médici, by Frans Pourbus, c. 1606, Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao
Marie de' Medici
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Coronation of Marie de' Medici in St. Denis (detail), by Peter Paul Rubens, 1622–1625.
40.
Claudia de' Medici
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Claudia de Medici was Regent of the Austrian County of Tyrol during the minority of her son from 1632 until 1646. She was a daughter of Ferdinando I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and she was born in Florence, and was named after her grandmother Claude of Valois, herself granddaughter of Claude, Duchess of Brittany, consort to King Francis I of France. In 1620, she married Federico Ubaldo della Rovere, the son of Francesco Maria II della Rovere. Their only child went on to marry the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Federico Ubaldo della Rovere died suddenly on 29 June 1623. After her husbands death, she was married, on 19 April 1626, to Leopold V, Archduke of Austria. She died at Innsbruck in 1648, on the death of her husband in 1632, she assumed a regency in the name of her son Ferdinand Charles who was the ruler of the Princely County of Tyrol. Claudia, along with five directors, held the post until 1646 and she had one child by Federico Ubaldo della Rovere, Vittoria della Rovere married Ferdinando II de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and had issue. She had five children by Leopold V, Maria Eleonora of Austria died in infancy, Ferdinand Charles of Austria married Anna de Medici and had issue. Isabella Clara of Austria, who married Charles III, Duke of Mantua and had issue, sigismund Francis of Austria, Count of Tyrol and Regent of Further Austria, who married Countess Palatine Maria Hedwig Auguste of Sulzbach and had no issue. Maria Leopoldine of Austria, who married Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III and had issue, media related to Claudia de Medici at Wikimedia Commons
Claudia de' Medici
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Claudia de' Medici
41.
Margherita de' Medici
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Margherita de Medici was Duchess of Parma and Piacenza by her marriage to Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma. Margherita was regent of Piacenza in 1635 and regent of the duchy in 1646 after the death of her husband. She was the fourth of eight children and the daughter born to Cosimo II de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Margheritas other siblings died in childhood or early adulthood and her paternal grandparents were Ferdinando I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and his wife Christina of Lorraine. Ferdinando was a son of Cosimo I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, margheritas maternal grandparents were Charles II, Archduke of Austria and his wife Maria Anna of Bavaria. Maria Anna was the eldest daughter of Albert V, Duke of Bavaria, Anna was a daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. Hence Margherita is a descendent of the Holy Roman Emperors, Margherita became engaged to Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma in 1620. They married in 1628 when he came of age, the marriage took place in Florence on October 11,1628 in Florence. The wedding celebrations were accompanied by much spectacle and pagentry, including the performance of Marco da Gaglianos opera La Flora, to welcome the couple back to Parma, Mercury and Mars, with music by Claudio Monteverdi and text by Claudio Achillini was performed in the Teatro Farnese. The years in which the ruled over Parma were marked by the plague of 1630. The tax money was used to improve Odoardos armies, the Duke also had a pro-French policy. According to portraiture and the sources of the time, Margherita was a woman, as well as amiable. Unlike his predecessors, the duke was very devoted and loyal to her, on September 11,1646, Odoardo died. Their eldest son, Ranuccio was not yet old enough to rule the Duchy alone so his mother, Margherita outlived at least two of her children. She died in Parma on February 6,1679, Ranuccio II Farnese married Margaret Yolande of Savoy, Isabella dEste, Maria dEste. Alessandro Farnese, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands died unmarried, caterina Farnese a nun Maria Maddalena Farnese died unmarried
Margherita de' Medici
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Margherita de' Medici
Margherita de' Medici
42.
Anna de' Medici, Archduchess of Austria
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For the daughter of Francesco I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, see Anna de Medici. Anna de Medici was a daughter of Cosimo II de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, a patron of the arts, she married Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Further Austria in 1646. They were the parents of Claudia Felicitas of Austria, Holy Roman Empress, Princess Anna was born on 21 July 1616 at the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, then the capital of Tuscany. Her father was Cosimo II de Medici, he had been the reigning Grand Duke of Tuscany since 1609, Annas mother was Maria Maddalena of Austria, a daughter of Charles II, Archduke of Austria, and a sister of Emperor Ferdinand II. Her Medici and Habsburg ancestry was a common pairing among seventeenth century marriages in her family, indeed, she herself would come to marry a Habsburg, as would her daughter. Her father died on 28 February 1621, causing her mother and grandmother Grand Duchess Christina to serve as regents until the majority of Annas brother was reached and it was said that Anna and her sister Margherita inherited from Maria Maddalena her good qualities and marked abilities. Following failed plans for Anna to marry Gaston, Duke of Orléans, in 1646, Anna left her native Florence for Innsbruck to be married. On 10 June, she was married to her double first cousin Ferdinand Charles and he was the eldest son of Leopold V, Archduke of Austria and his wife Claudia de Medici. Anna was thirty years old, while Ferdinand Charles was only eighteen, the match was negotiated by Ferdinand Charles formidable mother, who had been regent of Further Austria and Tyrol since Leopolds death in 1632. Claudia had ruled the duchy well in her regency from 1632 to 1646, during the year of their marriage, Ferdinand Charles took over his mothers governatorial duties and became the ruler of Tyrol and Further Austria, as he was now of age. Anna and Ferdinand Charles had three daughters, the couple preferred the attractions of the opulent Tuscan court to the mountains of Tyrol, and consequently were more often at Florence than at Innsbruck. As a result, their eldest daughter was born in Annas home court, as they had only two surviving daughters, his younger brother Archduke Sigismund Francis inherited his titles as Count of Tyrol and Archduke of Further Austria. On the eve of his marriage to another princess however, Sigismund Francis died in 1665 and this meant that the county reverted to direct rule from Vienna, despite the efforts of Anna to preserve some vestige of power for herself as Dowager Countess. Her attempts to persuade Vienna also stemmed from the fact that Anna wanted to protect the rights of her two daughters. This dispute would not be remedied until 1673, when her only surviving daughter Claudia Felicitas married Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, Anna not only survived her husband by fourteen years but also outlived her eldest daughter, who would die soon after her marriage. On 11 September 1676 in Vienna, Anna died aged sixty, like many Medicis, Anna was a great lover and patron of the arts. Giramos dedication was not the end of works being devoted to Anna, in 1655, famed composer and singer Barbara Strozzi dedicated one of her works to Anna, as Strozzi devoted all of her music publications to prominent aristocratic patrons. She also devoted other works to some of Annas relatives, Anna richly rewarded Strozzi for this dedication
Anna de' Medici, Archduchess of Austria
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Anna in circa 1630 by Medici court painter Justus Sustermans
Anna de' Medici, Archduchess of Austria
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Anna de' Medici in widow garb, c. 1666. Painted by Giovanni Maria Morandi.
43.
Catherine de' Medici, Governor of Siena
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Caterina de Medici was Duchess of Mantua and Montferrat as the second wife of Duke Ferdinando and Governor of Siena from 1627. She was the daughter of Grand Duke Ferdinando I of Tuscany. The second daughter and third child of Grand Duke Ferdinando I and Christina of Lorraine, Caterina, nevertheless, she married in 1617 Ferdinando Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua and Monteferrat, the marriage, however, was childless. Upon being made a widow in 1626, she returned to Tuscany and her nephew, Grand Duke Ferdinando II, created her Governess of Siena in 1627, where she died of smallpox two years later. In later life, Caterina garnered a reputation for intense piety, young asserts that she bore a striking resemblance to her brother Cosimo II and sister Claudia. She was interred in the Medicean necropolis, the Basilica of San Lorenzo. F, the Medici, Volume II, John Murray, London,1920
Catherine de' Medici, Governor of Siena
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Caterina de' Medici
44.
Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici
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Anna Maria Luisa de Medici was the last lineal descent of the House of Medici. The succession of His Serene Grand Duke, Anna Maria Luisa was the only daughter of Cosimo III de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Marguerite Louise dOrléans, a niece of Louis XIII of France. As Johann Wilhelm had syphilis the union produced no offspring, which, combined with her siblings barrenness, meant that the Medici were on the verge of extinction. In 1713 Cosimo III altered the Tuscan laws of succession to allow the accession of his daughter, however, in 1735, as part of a territorial arrangement, the European powers appointed Francis Stephen of Lorraine as heir, and he duly ascended the Tuscan throne in her stead. When Gian Gastone died in 1737, Francis Stephens envoy offered Anna Maria Luisa the position of regent of Tuscany. Her death, in 1743, brought the grand ducal House of Medici to an end and her remains were interred in the Medicean necropolis, the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence, which she helped complete. She was named after her maternal aunt Anne Marie Louise dOrléans and her parents relationship was quarrelsome, Marguerite Louise took every chance to humiliate Cosimo. On one documented occasion, she branded him a groom in the presence of the Papal nuncio. The enmity between them continued until 26 December 1674, after all attempts at conciliation failed, a stressed Cosimo consented to his wifes departure for the Convent of Montmartre, France. The contract created that day revoked her privileges as a fille de France. Cosimo granted her a pension of 80,000 livres in compensation and she abandoned Tuscany in June 1675, Anna Maria Luisa never saw her again. Although Cosimo doted on his daughter, she was raised by her paternal grandmother, in 1669, Anna Maria Luisa was considered as a potential bride to Louis, le Grand Dauphin, the heir-apparent of Louis XIV of France. Cosimo III did not like the idea of a French marriage, instead, Cosimo offered her to his first choice, Peter II of Portugal. Peters ministers, fearing that Princess Anna Maria Luisa would dominate Peter II and fearing she might have inherited Marguerite Louise’s manner, in fact, contemporaries thought her traits to be a combination of those of her father and paternal grandmother, Vittoria della Rovere. Following refusals from Spain, Portugal, France and Savoy, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, suggested Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine. James II of England put forward his brother-in-law, Francesco II dEste, Duke of Modena, the Elector Palatine obtained the style Royal Highness from the Holy Roman Emperor for Cosimo III in February 1691. Consequently, Johann Wilhelm was ultimately chosen and he and Anna Maria Luisa were married by proxy on 29 April 1691. She departed for Düsseldorf, her husband’s capital, on 6 May 1691, accompanied by her younger brother, Johann Wilhelm surprised her at Innsbruck, where they officially married
Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici
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Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici
Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici
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Anna Maria Luisa in Portrait of Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici with flowers by Antonio Franchi, c. 1682–1683
Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici
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Anna Maria Luisa and her husband, Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine, from a painting after Jan Frans van Douven, 1708
Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici
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Anna Maria Luisa in The Electress Palatine in mourning dress by Jan Frans van Douven, 1717. She points to the portrait of Johann Wilhelm's remains, adorned with the Palatine regalia, in the milieu.
45.
Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen
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Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen, was the fifth child of Maria Theresa of Austria and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. Married in 1766 with Prince Albert of Saxony, they received the Duchy of Teschen and also was appointed Governor of the Austrian Netherlands jointly with her husband during 1781–1789, after two expulsions from the Netherlands, she lived with her husband in Vienna until her death. The fifth child and fourth daughter, Maria Christina was born on the 25th birthday of her mother, on 13 May 1742 at Vienna, Austria. The next day she was baptized in the Hofburg with the names Maria Christina Johanna Josepha Antonia, however, at the Viennese court and she was Maria Theresas favourite child, as can be seen in the letters that the Empress wrote to her. Little is known about her early childhood, in a letter dated 22 March 1747 the Prussian ambassador in Vienna, Count Otto Christoph von Podewils, described the then five-year-old Maria Christina as pretty and witty. The Archduchess, capricious and spirited in her youth, received a particularly loving education from her parents, Maria Christina, too, understood herself very badly with her governess, Princess Maria Charlotte Trautson. However, the Empress only agreed with her desire to change her governess only in 1756, Maria Christinas relationship with her was much better, and a few years later Countess Vasquez was even named Obersthofmeisterin on Maria Christinas household. Beautiful, highly intelligent but also gifted, Maria Christina enjoyed a conscientious education. The Jesuit Father Lachner taught her several languages and history, the Archduchess learned, among other things, perfect Italian and French, which, according to Podewils, she particularly liked to speak, as well as quite good English. She also proved very early as a talented painter, in Schönbrunn Palace were exhibited drawings of the imperial family who testify her great artistic talent. She painted some family members including herself and also copy Genre painting of Dutch and French masters, in early January 1760 arrived to the Imperial court Princes Albert and Clemens of Saxony and both were warmly received by the Emperor and Empress. Prince Albert met the lovely Archduchess on the occasion of a concert, in which she participated, at the end of January 1760, Albert and Clemens returned from Vienna. In the following years, Maria Christina developed a friendship with Princess Isabella of Parma. Among other things, the two women often played together. While her husband loved her deeply, she was cold towards him. On the contrary, for Maria Christina she had a heartfelt affection, Maria Christina made a formal description of Isabella, in which she portrayed here as amiable, kind, and generous, but she also did not spare her weaknesses. The early demise of her sister-in-law on 27 November 1763 following childbirth complications, in December 1763, Prince Albert of Saxony returned to Vienna to showed his condolences to the Imperial family for Isabella of Parmas death. He became a friend of the late Isabella after her marriage with the future Joseph II and, as he noted in his diary
Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen
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Maria Christina
Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen
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Marie Christine
Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen
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Cenotaph to Marie Christine of Austria in the Augustinerkirche, by Canova
Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen
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Detail
46.
Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria
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Maria Amalia of Austria was the Duchess of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla by marriage. Maria Amalia was a daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I and she was thus younger sister to Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor and older sister to Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Marie Antoinette, Queen of France. She was the child of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and Emperor Francis I. Born at the Hofburg Imperial Palace, she was raised in the Habsburg Viennese court in winter and at Schönbrunn, as her siblings, she was regularly interviewed by her mother. Maria Amalia, as her sisters, was raised to be an ideal consort and taught the arts and how to be obedient, dutiful. Because of her age and the fact that the siblings were raised separated by gender and she did not have a good relationship with her mother, in fact, of all her daughters, Maria Theresa was said to have the worse relationship with Amalia. When she debuted as an adult in the society life in Vienna, one of her paintings, St. Therese and the child Jesus, still exists today in a private collection. Against her will, Amalia was married to Ferdinand of Parma, the marriage was supported by the future Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, whose first beloved wife had been Ferdinands sister, Princess Isabella of Parma. The Archduchesss marriage to the Duke of Parma was part of a series of contracts that married off Maria Theresas daughters to the King of Naples and Sicily. All three sons-in-law were members of the House of Bourbon, Maria Theresa, however, forbade this and forced her to enter an arranged marriage. This caused a permanent conflict between the Empress and Maria Amalia, who never forgave her mother, Maria Amalia left Austria on 1 July 1769, accompanied by her brother, Joseph II, and married Ferdinand on 19 July, at the Ducal Palace of Colorno. The Duchy of Parma was by this time ruled more or less as a French puppet state by minister Guillaume du Tillot, Du Tillot kept Ferdinand out of politics, and was favored by the maternal grandfather of Duke Ferdinand, Louis XV of France. The marriage had been arranged by Austria and Spain to end the policy in Parma and replace it with an Austrian. Upon her arrival, Maria Amalia was expected to submit to the wishes of Du Tillot, who regarded her with suspicion, which immediately caused a conflict. In 1772, the year after, Maria Amalia fired Jose del Llano and replaced him with an Italian prime minister, after her dismissal of Jose del Llano in 1772, Maria Amalia secured that Parma would not become a Spanish puppet state. In 1773, her mother Empress Maria Theresa appointed count Rosenberg her ambassador in Parma with the task to act as Maria Amalias adviser. Maria Amalia, however, freed Parma also from Austrian influence as she had from French and Spanish, after this, the diplomatic ties with Austria and Spain was cut. As the ruler of Parma, Maria Amalia was referred to by the public as La Signora, from the beginning of her stay in Parma, Maria Amalia caused a scandal with her personal lifestyle
Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria
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Maria Amalia by Martin van Meytens
Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria
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Maria Amalia with her sisters, Liesl(1743–1808), Josepha and Charlotte.
Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria
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Maria Amalia, by Alexander Roslin
Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria
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Maria Amalia and her husband
47.
Archduchess Maria Johanna Gabriela of Austria
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She was described as likeable and good-natured, but died aged 12 of smallpox. One year later, she was joined by a sister, Archduchess Maria Josepha, at the age of five, Johanna received her own suite of rooms in the imperial palace and some additional tutors. She had a relationship with her siblings, albeit with the regular fraternal quarrels. Johanna was very close to her sister Maria Josepha, the two were educated together and had the same aios and aias, as the male and female tutors were called in the imperial family, the girls enjoyed a varied education which was closely monitored by their parents. Additionally, Johanna was highly educated in making music and dancing, while the boys were taught to play different instruments, Johanna and her sisters were given singing lessons. A special theatre was built at Schönbrunn especially for the children, Johanna, another very important part of the Archduchesss education was art, she was educated in drawing and painting, a field where the girls excelled particularly. All in all, Johanna and Josepha developed satisfactory, worked hard at their lessons and were involved in festivities in which they participated enthusiastically. Maria Theresa pursued a deliberate policy to which all of her children had to submit. Thus, she married most of her children off throughout Europe, Maria Theresa then turned her attention to Johanna, the closest sister who was just one year older than Ferdinand, so she betrothed Johanna to Ferdinand instead. In the second half of the century, smallpox was ravaging the Holy Roman Empire. Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, wrote that in the whole of Vienna, if 10 children were on the death register,9 of them had died from smallpox. Johannas older brother Karl Joseph died of smallpox in 1761 and Maria Theresa became a supporter of inoculation. In order to set an example, the Empress ordered the inoculation of all her remaining children. Although without incidents for the children, Johanna became ill after the inoculation. She was buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna,4 February 1750 –23 December 1762 Her Royal Highness Archduchess Maria Johanna Gabriela of Austria, Princess of Hungary and Bohemia, Princess of Tuscany Iby, Elfriede. Maria Theresa, Biography of a Monarch
Archduchess Maria Johanna Gabriela of Austria
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Johanna by Jean-Étienne Liotard, 1762
Archduchess Maria Johanna Gabriela of Austria
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Johanna's tomb in the Imperial Crypt.
48.
Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria
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She was the daughter of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Theresa of Austria, Holy Roman Empress. She died of smallpox at the age of 16 and was buried in the Imperial Crypt, Vienna, born on 19 March 1751, Maria Josepha was the ninth but sixth surviving daughter of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia. She lost that position in May 1767 when her older brother Archduke Joseph married to a second cousin, Empress Maria Theresa wanted to marry her fourth eldest surviving daughter, Archduchess Maria Amalia, to Ferdinand of Naples and Sicily for political reasons. She and Ferdinand were the age, and better yet, Maria Josepha was considered delightfully pretty, pliant by nature. Maria Josepha had been terrified of dying of smallpox ever since the death of her older sister Archduchess Maria Johanna Gabriela in 1762. Her fears were realised when she died of smallpox on the day she was to have left Vienna for her journey across the Alps to marry Ferdinand. However, the rash appeared two days after Maria Josepha visited the vault, and there is a period of about one week after initial infection before symptoms of a rash appear. Therefore, the Archduchess must have been infected before visiting the vault and she is buried in vault number 46 at the Imperial Crypt Vaults of the Imperial Crypt, Vienna. After her death, her sister Maria Carolina of Austria was given as a bride to the King of Naples in her place,19 March 1751 –15 October 1767 Her Royal Highness Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria, Princess of Hungary and Bohemia, Princess of Tuscany
Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria
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Archduchess Maria Josepha
Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria
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Maria Josepha seated at the harpsichord in 1762 by Liotard
49.
Maria Carolina of Austria
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Maria Carolina of Austria was Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand IV & III. She was a proponent of enlightened absolutism until the advent of the French Revolution, born an Austrian archduchess, the thirteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I, she married Ferdinand as part of an Austrian alliance with Spain, where Ferdinands father was king. Following the birth of an heir in 1775, Maria Carolina was admitted to the Privy Council. Thereafter, she dominated it until 1812, when she was sent back to Vienna, like her mother, Maria Carolina took pains to make politically advantageous marriages for her children. Maria Carolina promoted Naples as a centre of the arts, patronising painters Jacob Philipp Hackert and Angelica Kauffman and academics Gaetano Filangieri, Domenico Cirillo and Giuseppe Maria Galanti. Maria Carolina, abhorring her sister Marie Antoinettes treatment by the French, allied Naples with Britain and Austria during the Napoleonic, as a result of a failed Neapolitan invasion of French-occupied Rome, she fled to Sicily with her husband in December 1798. One month later, the Parthenopean Republic was declared, which repudiated Bourbon rule in Naples for six months. Deposed as Queen of Naples for a time by French forces, in 1806, Maria Carolina died in Vienna in 1814. Her godparents were King Louis XV of France and his wife, Maria Carolina was the daughter who resembled her mother most. Maria Carolina formed a close bond with her youngest sister. From very early on they shared the same governess Countess Lerchenfeld, a testament to their closeness is the fact that when one caught an illness the other did too. In August 1767 Maria Theresa separated the two girls, hitherto raised together under the auspices of Countess Marie von Brandis, because of their bad behaviour. Soon after in October of the year, Maria Carolinas sister Maria Josepha, destined to marry Ferdinand IV of Naples as part of an alliance with Spain. Anxious to save the Austro-Spanish alliance Charles III of Spain, father of Ferdinand IV, the Empress offered the court of Madrid, negotiating on behalf of that of Naples, Maria Amalia or Maria Carolina. Because Maria Amalia was five years older than his son Charles III opted for the latter, Maria Carolina reacted badly to her engagement, crying, entreating and saying that Neapolitan marriages were unlucky. Her objections, however, did not delay her preparation for her new role as Queen of Naples by the Countess of Lerchenfeld, nine months later, on 7 April 1768, Maria Carolina married Ferdinand IV of Naples by proxy, her brother Ferdinand representing the bride-groom. The fifteen-year-old Queen of Naples journeyed at leisure from Vienna to Naples, making stops at Mantua, Bologna, Florence and she entered the Kingdom of Naples on 12 May 1768, disembarking at Terracina, where she took leave of her native attendants. To the Countess of Lerchenfeld, she wrote, I love him only out of duty, Ferdinand, too, was not taken with her, declaring, after their first night together, She sleeps like the dead and sweats like a pig
Maria Carolina of Austria
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Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Sicily, by Martin van Meytens, ca. 1770.
Maria Carolina of Austria
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Archduchess Maria Carolina holding a portrait of her father, Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.
Maria Carolina of Austria
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Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Sicily, by Anton Raphael Mengs, ca. 1768.
Maria Carolina of Austria
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Marquis Bernardo Tanucci, de facto ruler of Naples and Sicily from 1759 until 1776.
50.
Marie Antoinette
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Marie Antoinette (/ˈmæriˌæntwəˈnɛt/, /ˌɑ̃ːntwə-/, /ˌɑ̃ːtwə-/, US /məˈriː-/, French, born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna, was the last Queen of France and Navarre before the French Revolution. She was born an Archduchess of Austria, and was the fifteenth and second youngest child of Empress Maria Theresa and Francis I, in April 1770, upon her marriage to Louis-Auguste, heir apparent to the French throne, she became Dauphine of France. After eight years of marriage, Marie Antoinette gave birth to a daughter, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, the Diamond Necklace affair damaged her reputation further. On 10 August 1792, the attack on the Tuileries forced the family to take refuge at the Assembly. On 21 September 1792, the monarchy was abolished, after a two-day trial begun on 14 October 1793, Marie Antoinette was convicted by the Revolutionary Tribunal of high treason, and executed by guillotine on Place de la Révolution on 16 October 1793. Maria Antonia was born on 2 November 1755, at the Hofburg Palace and she was the youngest daughter of Empress Maria Theresa, ruler of the Habsburg Empire, and her husband Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. Her godparents were Joseph I and Mariana Victoria, King and Queen of Portugal, Archduke Joseph, shortly after her birth, she was placed under the care of the Governess of the Imperial children, Countess von Brandeis. Maria Antonia was raised with her older sister Maria Carolina. As to her relationship with her mother, it was difficult, despite the private tutoring she received, results of her schooling were less than satisfactory. At the age of ten she could not write correctly in German or in any language used at court, such as French. Under the teaching of Christoph Willibald Gluck, Maria Antonia developed into a good musician and she learned to play the harp, the harpsichord and the flute. During the familys gatherings in the evenings, she would sing and she also excelled at dancing, had an exquisite poise, and loved dolls. Following the Seven Years War and the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, Empress Maria Theresa decided to end hostilities with her longtime enemy, on 14 May she met her husband at the edge of the forest of Compiègne. Upon her arrival in France, she adopted the French version of her name, a further ceremonial wedding took place on 16 May 1770 in the Palace of Versailles and, after the festivities, the day ended with the ritual bedding. The lack of consummation of the marriage plagued the reputation of both Louis-Auguste and Marie Antoinette for the seven years. The initial reaction to the marriage between Marie Antoinette and Louis-Auguste was mixed, on the one hand, the Dauphine was beautiful, personable and well-liked by the common people. Her first official appearance in Paris on 8 June 1773 was a resounding success, on the other hand, those opposed to the alliance with Austria, and others, for personal reasons, had a difficult relationship with Marie Antoinette. Madame du Barry, for example, was Louis XVs mistress and had political influence over him
Marie Antoinette
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Marie Antoinette with the Rose Portrait by Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, 1783.
Marie Antoinette
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Archduchesses Maria Carolina (in blue dress) and Maria Antonia (in pink dress). Watercolor on ivory by Antonio Pencini, 1764. Vienna, Hofburg.
Marie Antoinette
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Maria Antonia aged 12 by Martin van Meytens, c. 1767-1768.
51.
Archduchess Maria Clementina of Austria
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Maria Clementina of Austria was an Austrian archduchess and the tenth child and third daughter of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Luisa of Spain. In 1797 she married her first cousin Hereditary Prince Francis of Naples, heir of Naples and she was modest, well educated and kind, becoming popular in her adoptive country. Afflicted with frail health, she died of tuberculosis, age twenty four and her only surviving child was the famous duchesse de Berry. She was named after Prince Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony, her mothers uncle and brother of Maria Amalia of Saxony and her father was a son of Empress Maria Theresa and her mother a daughter of Charles III of Spain and Maria Amalia of Saxony. Maria Clementina was her parents tenth child among sixteen children, Prince Francis was the Heir apparent to both the Neapolitan and Sicilian thrones. They were double first cousins as they shared all their grandparents in common, the marriage by proxy took place on 19 September 1790. It was a turbulent period with the Napoleonic wars afflicting the Italian peninsula, in the meantime, both of Maria Clementinas parents died in 1792, in a short period of time, and her brother Francis became the new Emperor. A truce with France finally allowed Maria Clementina to travel to Naples in 1797, a frigate picked her up in Trieste, and her new family awaited her at Foggia where the wedding took place on 26 June 1797. It was an event since it was war time. Maria Clementina was marked by smallpox, but was regal in her bearing and my son loves her passionately and she reciprocates, wrote the Queen of Naples, her mother-in-law, adding that, It is a pleasure to see them harmonize so well. I am delighted with the Princess, gentle, fresh sensible, however, Maria Clementina was homesick and her character was sullen and reserved. Some weeks later Queen Maria Carolina added about the couple, Her husband is her husband two or three times in twenty four hours, a matter which interests her, in spite of this, there is a sadness, a boredom, an invincible disgust. I think it must be due to her health or it is unnatural and it is not that she regrets her life in Vienna. I will do everything for her happiness, although I am sowing amid brambles, thanks to my training the young man is very much in love with her as a woman. But this may not last with so much disgust, boredom and no charm of feature, I shall try to win her confidence, but I am not sure of succeeding. All her wants are anticipated, nothing is lacking, she is discontented, Maria Clementina was dignified and kind. Better educated and more intelligent than her husband, she dominated him. Her husband adores her in every sense of the word and he says she loves him, and assuredly shows and demands many proofs of love wrote the Queen of Naples
Archduchess Maria Clementina of Austria
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Maria Clementina, 1796, Joseph Hickel
52.
Archduchess Auguste Ferdinande of Austria
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Archduchess Auguste Ferdinande of Austria, Princess of Bavaria, was the daughter of Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his first wife, Maria Anna of Saxony. She married Prince Luitpold of Bavaria, who became the Prince Regent of Bavaria after her death. Auguste was one of three born to Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, by his first wife. She was an older half-sister to Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany and she was a member of the direct lineage of both Louis XIV of France and William the Conqueror. After a strict Catholic upbringing, she developed an interest in the arts, contemporaries described her as tall, beautiful and self-conscious. On 15 April 1844, she married Prince Luitpold in Florence, Luitpolds father Ludwig I of Bavaria initially opposed Luitpolds marriage plans, since Auguste was already showing symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis before the marriage. They had four children, including Ludwig III of Bavaria, during the 1848 Revolution, she spoke against Lola Montez and sought to isolate opponents of the monarchy. Luitpold never remarried, with his sister Adelgunde and daughter Therese taking over care of his household, media related to Archduchess Auguste Ferdinande of Austria at Wikimedia Commons
Archduchess Auguste Ferdinande of Austria
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Auguste of Austria, c. 1850
53.
Archduchess Karoline Marie of Austria
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Archduchess Karoline Marie of Austria was a member of the House of Habsburg-Tuscany and Archduchess of Austria, Princess of Tuscany by birth. Through her marriage to Prince August Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Karoline was also a member of the Koháry branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg, Karoline was the fourth child and second eldest daughter of Archduke Karl Salvator of Austria and his wife Princess Maria Immaculata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. She was Princess-Abbess of the Theresian Royal and Imperial Ladies Chapter of the Castle of Prague, Karoline and August had eight children together, August Clemens. Klementine, married on 17 November 1925 to Eduard von Heller, pola,4 May 1900 - d. after 7 January 1945. Philipp, married morganatically on 23 April 1944 to Sarah Aurelia Hálasz, their only son, theresia, married on 6 October 1930 to Lamoral, Freiherr von Taxis di Bordogna e Valnigra. Ernst, married morganatically on 4 September 1939 to Irmgard Röll,5 September 1869 –12 May 1945, Her Imperial and Royal Highness Archduchess Karoline Marie of Austria, Princess of Tuscany
Archduchess Karoline Marie of Austria
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Archduchess Karoline Marie of Austria
54.
Eleanor of Naples, Duchess of Ferrara
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Eleanor of Naples, she was to become the first duchess of Ferrara, and was herself, and also the mother to many extremely influential children, most notably her daughters, during the Renaissance. She would gain merit as being a political figure, while governing Ferrara as Duchess. Born to King Ferdinand I of Naples and Isabella of Clermont, born into wealth, she was the first daughter, and second child, born into her family of six brothers and sisters. Not much is known of her childhood or early life growing up as the first princess of Naples, when she was passed through Rome in June of 1473, on her way to marry Ercole d’Este, duke of Ferrara, she was received grandly. Two nephews of Rodrigo Borgia, who was a cardinals at the time, were there to greet her and they wanted to make a good and lasting impression on the Neapolitan Princess. She wrote to her father that she was given a lavish apartment, in her correspondence with her father, she spoke of the banquet thrown for her, which lasted six hours, and it was an endless succession of food, accompanied by music, dancing and poetry. “The treasures of the Church, is being put to such uses and this has been suspected to be a political power play by the Borgias, in attempt of gaining favor with royalty and gaining more political power. King Ferdinand I of Naples, father Isabella of Clermont, mother Ercole d’Este, Eleanor would go on to marry Ercole d’Este in July of 1473, her supposed second husband. It is claimed that marriage was met with much celebration. Ercole was said to be, “…an unscrupulous and devious ruler. ”He came to be Duke of Ferrara in 1471, taking the title upon the death of his half-brother, Borso, and would rule until his death in 1503. Ercole I dEste and Duchess Eleanor had six children, Isabella, married Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua and her style of dress made her a fashion icon, and she would soon be copied by numerous French women. When her brother, Alfonso, married Lucrezia Borgia, Isabella viewed her as a rival and it was in 1502 that Lucrezia, her brother’s wife, would start an intense and passionate affair, said to be more sexual then loving, with Isabella’s husband. It is stated, and heavily assumed, that Isabella was the model for Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, Beatrice, who married Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan. She, along with her sister was stated to be one of the most influential women of the Renaissance and they were known particularly for their fashionable state of dress. It is said that during her marriage with Ludovico, that Leonardo da Vinci conducted the orchestra at the wedding, Alfonso, who married as his second wife, Lucrezia Borgia. He was to be her husband, and bore him ten children. It was during this marriage that Lucrezia greatly supported her husband and stood up in her role of Duchess of Ferrara and it was during the pregnancy of her tenth child, a daughter born prematurely, that Lucrezia fell ill and would soon pass away. Alfonso was said to grieve her death so heavily, that he fainted at her funeral and he wrote that he found it hard not to weep, when he thought of himself being separated from such a dear wife
Eleanor of Naples, Duchess of Ferrara
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Portrait of Eleonora d'Aragona, from a manuscript "Il modo di regere e di regnare" by Antonio Cornazzano.
55.
Anna Sforza
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Anna Maria Sforza, was Hereditary Princess of Ferrara as the first wife of Alfonso I dEste, future Duke of Ferrara. She was the legitimate daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan, by his second wife. Annas paternal grandparents were Francesco I Sforza and Bianca Maria Visconti and her maternal grandparents were Louis, Duke of Savoy and Anne de Lusignan of Cyprus. She had two brothers, Gian Galeazzo Sforza and Hermes Maria Sforza, Marquis of Tortona. Annas older illegitimate half-sister was Caterina Sforza from her fathers relationship with Lucrezia Landriani and her uncle was Ludovico Sforza Il Moro, Duke of Milan, who married Beatrice dEste, and her aunt was Ippolita Maria Sforza, first wife of King Alfonso II of Naples. When Anna was only five months old, her father was assassinated inside the Church of Santo Stefano in Milan on 26 December 1476 and he was stabbed to death by three high-ranking officials of the Milanese court. In 1477, Anna was formally betrothed to the heir of Ercole I dEste and her wedding with Prince Alfonso dEste took place fourteen years later, on 12 January 1491, amidst banquets, receptions, and theatrical representations. She was buried in the monastery of San Vito, of which Anna was a benefactor and her husband was unable to take part of her funeral because at that time his face was disfigured as a consequence of syphilis. Her death marked the end of the bond between the Sforza and Este families, Alfonso remarried, to Lucrezia Borgia, in 1502
Anna Sforza
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Anna Maria Sforza
56.
Lucrezia Borgia
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Lucrezia Borgia was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattanei. Her brothers included Cesare Borgia, Giovanni Borgia, and Gioffre Borgia and her family arranged several marriages for her that advanced their own political position including Giovanni Sforza, Alfonso of Aragon, and Alfonso I dEste. Tradition has it that Alfonso of Aragon was a son of the King of Naples. Rumors about her and her family cast Lucrezia as a femme fatale, Lucrezia Borgia was born at Subiaco, near Rome. Her mother was Vannozza dei Cattanei, one of the mistresses of Lucrezias father, when Rodrigo became Pope Alexander VI, he sought to be allied with powerful princely families and founding dynasties of Italy. As such, he called off Lucrezias previous engagements and arranged for her to marry Giovanni Sforza, Giovanni was an illegitimate son of Costanzo I Sforza and a Sforza of the second rank. He married Lucrezia on 12 June 1493 in Rome, before long, the Borgia family no longer needed the Sforzas, and the presence of Giovanni Sforza in the papal court was superfluous. Alexander asked Giovannis uncle, Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, to persuade Giovanni to agree to an annulment of the marriage, Giovanni refused and accused Lucrezia of paternal incest. The pope asserted that his daughters marriage had not been consummated and was thus invalid, Giovanni was offered her dowry in return for his cooperation. The Sforza family threatened to withdraw their protection should he refuse, Giovanni finally signed confessions of impotence and documents of annulment before witnesses. There has been speculation that during the process of the annulment, Lucrezia consummated a relationship with someone, perhaps Alexanders chamberlain Pedro Calderon. In any case, families hostile to the Borgias would later accuse her of being pregnant at the time her marriage was annulled for non-consummation. She is known to have retired to the convent of San Sisto in June 1497 to await the outcome of the annulment proceedings, the bodies of Pedro Calderon, and a maid, Pantasilea, were found in the Tiber in February 1498. In March 1498, the Ferrarese ambassador claimed that Lucrezia had given birth, a child was born, however, in the Borgia household the year before Lucrezias marriage to Alfonso of Aragon. He was named Giovanni but is known to historians as the Infans Romanus, in 1501, two papal bulls were issued concerning the child, Giovanni Borgia. In the first, he was recognized as Cesares child from an affair before his marriage, the second, contradictory, bull recognized him as the son of Pope Alexander VI. Lucrezias name is not mentioned in either, and rumors that she was his mother have never been proved, the second bull was kept secret for many years, and Giovanni was assumed to be Cesares son. This is supported by the fact that in 1502 he became Duke of Camerino, one of Cesares recent conquests, Giovanni went to stay with Lucrezia in Ferrara after Alexanders death, where he was accepted as her half-brother
Lucrezia Borgia
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Lucrezia as St. Catherine of Alexandria in a fresco by Pinturicchio, in the Sala dei Santi the Borgia apartments in the Vatican c. 1494.
Lucrezia Borgia
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Lucrezia Borgia, 1518 Dosso Dossi
Lucrezia Borgia
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Portrait of a Woman by Bartolomeo Veneto, traditionally assumed to be Lucrezia Borgia.
Lucrezia Borgia
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Tomb of Alfonso I d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia, Ferrara
57.
Archduchess Barbara of Austria
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Barbara of Austria was born in Vienna to Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. From 1547, in Innsbruck with her sisters Magdalena, Margareta, Helena and Johanna, even though Barbara was regarded as plain, several proposals had been made for her hand, due to her connections with the Austrian and Spanish courts. In 1565 her marriage to Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara, was celebrated with much splendour and it was a happy marriage but it remained childless. Torquato Tasso who, in 1565, had called to the court of Ferrara. In 1570 and 1571, after an earthquake, using her own income she supported young girls without parents and she founded the Conservatore delle orfane di Santa Barbara which was very much appreciated by the population of Ferrara. She was in constant touch with the Jesuits but also had a close relationship with her Protestant mother-in-law, Renée of France. Having been sickly since 1566, she died, aged thirty-three, media related to Archduchess Barbara of Austria at Wikimedia Commons
Archduchess Barbara of Austria
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Archduchess Barbara
58.
Isabella of Savoy
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Isabella of Savoy was a daughter of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and Catherine Michelle of Spain. Her maternal grandparents where Philip II of Spain and Elisabeth of Valois, her grandparents were Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy and Margaret of France. She was the Hereditary Princess of Modena, dying before her husband succeeded to the Duchy of Modena in 1628. Isabella was born in Turin to Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and his wife Infanta Catherine Michelle of Spain, in Turin on 22 February 1608 she married Alfonso, Hereditary Prince of Modena, this was a happy marriage, Alfonso was loving and loyal towards his wife. Within two years Isabella bore Alfonso a son, Francesco who would one day succeed his father as Duke of Modena, when Isabella died on 28 August 1626 Alfonso was heartbroken, he never remarried and died in 1644. She died as a result of childbirth and before her husband became duke so she was never Duchess of Modena
Isabella of Savoy
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Isabella of Savoy
59.
Laura Martinozzi
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Laura Martinozzi was a Duchess consort of Modena. On the death of her husband, she became the regent of the Duchy in the name of her son, Francesco. She was born in Fano to Cardinal Mazarins eldest sister, also named Laura, and her husband Count Girolamo Martinozzi da Fano, for two years Laura lived in France under the guardianship of her uncle and quasi stepmother, Anne of Austria. On her sixteenth birthday,27 May 1655, she was married to the Duke of Modena, the wedding by proxy occurred at the Palace of Compiègne with the Count of Soissons acting as the Duke of Modena. They had three children, two of which survived infancy, Laura was abandoned by her son and died in Rome in 1687, shortly before the birth of her grandson, James, Prince of Wales. The mentally and physically weak Francesco II came under the influence of his half-brother Cesare and she was buried in the Este chapel of the Church of San Vincenzo at Modena. 8,12,2, pp. 407–459, https, //www. academia. edu/6412388/_Sono_nato_principe_libero_tale_voglio_conservarmi_Francesco_II_dEste_1660-1694_ The Peerage GedBrowser
Laura Martinozzi
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Supposed portrait of Laura Martinozzi
60.
Margherita, Archduchess of Austria-Este
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Margherita, Dowager Archduchess of Austria-Este is the first-born child of the late Amedeo, 3rd Duke of Aosta and Princess Anne dOrléans. Margheritas family announced her engagement to Robert, Archduke of Austria-Este on 20 October 1953 and they married on 29 December 1953 in Bourg-en-Bresse, Ain, France and 29 December 1953, in Brou, France. He was the son of former Emperor Charles I of Austria. Robert was 38, and Margherita was 23, as the royal couple arrived for the first ceremony, hundreds of Austrians and Italians stood outside the town hall where the marriage was held. The wedding was attended by former King Umberto II of Italy and Roberts older brother Otto of Habsburg. At six feet tall, Margherita was, according to some witnesses and she wore an ivory gown made out of satin with a long train hung from a diamond tiara. The couple took up residence in Paris, where Robert was a bank clerk and they had five children, Archduchess Maria Beatrice Anna Felicitas Zita Charlotte Adelheid Christina Elisabeth Gennara. Married Count Riprand of Arco-Zinneberg, a great-grandson of the last Bavarian king, Ludwig III, married 22 September 1984 at Brussels, Princess Astrid of Belgium only daughter of King Albert II of the Belgians
Margherita, Archduchess of Austria-Este
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Margherita on 30 August 1953 cover of Epoca
