Isabella de' Medici

Isabella de' Medici

Isabella Romola de' Medici (31 August 154216 July 1576) was the daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleonora di Toledo.

Biography

She was born in Florence and was educated along with her brothers and sisters to a high standard. A great beauty of her day, she had a lively, high-spirited and impulsive character that was commented on by courtiers.

In 1553, when she was only eleven years old, Isabella was betrothed to Paolo Giordano Orsini, a violent condottiero who held the Duchy of Bracciano, a southern neighbour to Tuscany. The two married in 1558. Her father Cosimo negotiated a marriage contract which ensured that Isabella could continue to live in Florence instead of with her husband, thus ensuring that she had far more freedom and control over her own affairs than other women of her era. Following her mother's death, she acted as first lady of Florence for a time, displaying the de' Medici aptitude for politics. She suffered several miscarriages and did not have children until her late twenties, which also meant that she had more freedom than most women her age. Her daughter Francesca Eleonora (called Nora), was born in 1571 and eventually married her cousin Alessandro Sforza. Her son Virginio was born in 1572 and eventually inherited his father's dukedom.

Isabella allegedly had a free-spirited personality which created rumours with regard to the nature of her relationship with Troilo Orsini, Paolo Giordano's cousin, who was charged with looking after her while the Giordano was away tending to military duties. Paolo Giordano was eventually informed of Isabella's infidelity. Her powerful father having died, the duke had Isabella strangled in the Villa di Cerreto Guidi, near Florence, probably with the complicity of her brother Francesco, the new Grand Duke. Troilo was also killed in the same fashion in Paris a few months later.

According to tradition, Isabella's restless ghost appears periodically in some of the places where she lived, including the Odescalchi Castle on Lake Bracciano, near Rome.

Ancestry

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boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe;
1= 1. Isabella de' Medici
2= 2. Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany
3= 3. Eleonora di Toledo
4= 4. Giovanni dalle Bande Nere
5= 5. Maria Salviati
6= 6. Pedro Álvarez de Toledo
7= 7. Maria Osorio Pimentel,
Marchioness of Villafranca del Bierzo
8= 8. Giovanni de' Medici il Popolano
9= 9. Caterina Sforza
10= 10. Jacopo Salviati
11= 11. Lucrezia de' Medici
12= 12. Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo
13= 13. Isabel de Zúñiga y Pimentel
14= 14. Luis Pimentel y Pacheco
15= 15. Juana Osorio y Bazán
16= 16. Pierfrancesco di Lorenzo de' Medici
17= 17. Laudomia Acciaiuoli
18= 18. Galeazzo Maria Sforza
19= 19. Lucrezia Landriani
20= 20. Giovanni Salviati
21= 21. Maddalena Gondi
22= 22. Lorenzo de' Medici
23= 23. Clarice Orsini
24= 24. Garcia Álvarez de Toledo
25= 25. María Enriquez de Quiñones y Toledo
26= 26. Álvaro de Zuñiga y Leiva
27= 27. Leonor Pimentel
28= 28. Rodrigo Afonso Pimentel
29= 29. María Pacheco
30= 30. Pedro Alvarez Osorio
31= 31. María de Bazan

References

*Murphy, Caroline P. (2008) "Murder of a Medici Princess" Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-531439-7


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