Eleanor Medici

Origin and early years

Princess Eleanor was born in Florence on February 28, 1567 ^[1] . She was the first child and eldest daughter of Francesco Medici, the great Crown Prince of Tuscany, and Johann of Austria , Archduke from the House of Habsburg . On the paternal side was the granddaughter of Cosimo I , the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleanor Alvarez de Toledo , an aristocrat from the house of Alvarez de Toledo , who was related to the kings of Spain. On the maternal side was the granddaughter of Ferdinand I , emperor of the Holy Roman Empire , and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary , the last representative of the Jagiellonian house, who ruled the kingdoms of the Czech Republic and Hungary ^{[2] [3]} .

The princess was baptized a year after birth in the Baptistery of St. John , who on this occasion was decorated by Giorgio Vasari and Benvenuto Cellini . Celebrations took place on the day of the baptism of Eleanor in Florence. In 1574, the princess' father succeeded her grandfather, becoming the Grand Duke of Tuscany under the name Francesco I. In 1578, when she was eleven years old, her mother died. The marriage of Eleanor's parents was dynastic and was not happy. Of the eight children in it, only four survived; the rest died in infancy. Eleanor had a younger brother, Filippo , who also died as a child after the death of their mother, and two younger sisters - and Maria . Anna died at the age of fourteen. Maria married the French king Henry IV , who married her a second marriage, and became the mother of another French king, Louis XIII . Shortly after the death of his wife, Francesco I again married his long-time mistress Bianca Cappello ^{[1] [4]} .

According to the testimony of Marcello Donati, the court physician of the Duke of Mantua and Monferrato, Eleanor was tall and had an attractive appearance, despite the expressive chin and lower lip - the features characteristic of the representatives of the Habsburg house. Contemporaries noted her grace and sharp mind ^{[1] [4]} .

At an early age, Eleanor began to look for a decent party. In 1579, the Grand Duke sent his Secretary of State to the court in Mantua with a proposal for the wedding of the Princess and Crown Prince Vincenzo, who was Eleanor's cousin. Their mothers were sisters. However, the proposal was rejected due to the hostile attitude of the wife of the Duke of Mantua and Monferrato to the stepmother of Eleanor. And in 1581, the Grand Duke himself rejected the marriage proposal of the princess with the Crown Prince of Lorraine, as he wanted to maintain allied relations with the Spanish kingdom ^[1] .

Marriage and offspring

In October 1582, matrimonial negotiations between the courts in Mantua and Florence resumed. This time they were initiated by Guglielmo I , Duke of Mantua and Monferrato. The reason for this was an unsuccessful marriage between the Crown Prince of Vincenzo and Princess Margarita of Parma . Representatives of Este's house acted as intermediaries in the negotiations. As a dowry for his daughter, Francesco I agreed to give three hundred thousand scudos . But then his second wife intervened. For the disrespectful attitude towards her person on the part of the groom's parents, Bianca Cappello decided to humiliate them by subjecting Vincenzo, the so-called “test”. The first marriage of the Crown Prince was terminated due to the impossibility of fulfilling his conjugal duty due to problems with his wife. One of the conditions for consent to the marriage of Vincenzo with Eleanor, at the request of Bianca Cappello, was the public confirmation by the crown prince of his ability to marry ^{[1] [4]} .

On January 6, 1584, the parties signed a marriage contract, and in March of the same year, the Crown Prince passed a “test” in Venice . The very next month, Vincenzo, at the head of the retinue, arrived in Florence for his bride. On behalf of the future father-in-law, Eleanor was presented with a diamond worth ten thousand scudos. Celebrations took place in the city, after which Eleanor, together with her fiancé, departed for Mantua. The day after the ceremonial entry into the capital of the Duchy, on April 29, 1584, the wedding ceremony of the princess and the crown prince took place. In memory of this event, coins were issued at the mint of the Mantua Duchy, by order of Guglielmo I ^[5] . Wedding celebrations were overshadowed by the tragedy that happened the day before, under a collapsed podium in the square in front of the cathedral, twenty-two people were killed. In June, the newlyweds traveled by visiting the Venetian Republic and the Duchy of Ferrara . On the occasion of their wedding, the poet Torquato Tasso composed several sonnets, one of which was dedicated to Eleanor herself ^[1] .

Married to Crown Prince Vincenzo (09/21/1562 - 02/18/1612), the future Duke of Mantua and Monferrato under the name Vincenzo I, six children were born to Eleanor - two daughters and four sons:

• Francesco (05/05/1586 - 12/22/1612), Crown Prince of Mantua and Monferrato, from June 10, 1612, the Duke of Mantua under the name Francesco IV and the Duke of Monferrato under the name Francesco II, married February 19, 1608 with Princess Margaret of Savoy (04/28/1589 - 06/26/1655);
• Ferdinando (04/26/1587 - 10/29/1626), Prince of Mantua and Monferrato, from December 22, 1612, the Duke of Mantua and from January 8, 1613, the Duke of Monferrato, was married on February 19, 1616 with a noblewoman Camilla Faa (the marriage was invalidated), February 12, 1607 - a second marriage with Princess Catherine de Medici (2.05.1593 - 04.17.1629);
• Guglielmo Domenico (08/04/1589 - 05/13/1591), Prince of Mantua and Monferrato, died at an early age;
• Margarita (2.10.1591 - 02/07/1632), Princess of Mantua and Monferrato, married on April 21, 1606 with Henry II the Good (11/8/1563 - 07/31/1624), Duke of Lorraine;
• Vincenzo (7.01.1594 - 12.25.1627), Prince of Mantua and Monferrato, from October 29, 1626, the Duke of Mantua and Monferrato under the name of Vincenzo II, in August 1616 was married to the aristocrat Isabella Gonzaga (1576-1630);
• Eleanor Anna Maria (09/23/1598 - 06/27/1655), Princess of Mantua and Monferrato, was married on February 2, 1622 with Ferdinand II , emperor of the Holy Roman Empire ^{[1] [2] [6] [7]} .

Duchess of Mantua and Monferrato

After the death of the father-in-law of Eleanor on August 14, 1587, her husband became the Duke of Mantua and Monferrato, and she is the Duchess. Eleanor had a good relationship with her mother-in-law, who was also her aunt on her maternal side. She chose the confessor of the Dowager Duchess as mentor to her own children. Despite the numerous betrayals of her husband, the relationship of Eleanor and Vincenzo was calm. When, due to her husband's extravagance, the duchy became threatened by the financial crisis, the duchess took over the management of the state’s finances and corrected the situation. In 1595, 1597 and 1601, during the participation of Vincenzo I in the army of the Holy Roman Empire in military campaigns in Hungary , Eleanor ruled the duchy on his behalf. Together with her husband, in April 1589 in Florence, she attended the wedding of her paternal uncle, Grand Duke Ferdinando . And there, in June 1599, already alone, Eleanor was present at the wedding of her sister Mary. She used her presence to negotiate with her sister's husband, King Henry IV, about the patronage of the Duchy of France by the French kingdom ^{[1] [4] [8]} .

The Duchess was susceptible to beauty. She paid great attention to music and literature. Collected works of art. With her, the ducal court in Mantua became one of the centers of the emerging Baroque culture. Here lived and worked the composer Claudio Monteverdi , poet Tarquato Tasso. The latter was introduced to the Duchess in July 1586. Tasso devoted several of his works to her. Eleanor provided the poet with special protection and financially supported him. The last work that he devoted to the Duchess was the poem "Genealogy of the House of Gonzag", written by him in 1591. Another poet who dedicated a poem to Eleanor was Giambattista Marino ^{[1] [4] [9]} .

Death

During the carnival in Mantua in February 1611, the duchess suffered a stroke . Soon after, Eleanor was brought to Cavrian , in the hope that the local climate would be more favorable for the Duchess's health. Throughout Lent, the Duke prayed every Friday for the healing of his wife during services at St. Andrew's Church . For the same purpose he made generous donations to the church . But on the night of September 8-9, 1611, Eleanor died in Cavrian. The duchess was buried in the crypt of the Church of St. Andrew in Mantua a month after death, immediately after the arrival of the duke from Monferrato , where he was at the time of the death of his wife ^{[1] [4]} .

The art critic connects several portraits with Eleanor Medici in which she is depicted at different ages ^[2] . The earliest depiction of the Duchess was her 1578 portrait by Alessandro Allory , on which she was painted with her sister Anna; now lost. Among the well-known images of Eleanor are the Frans Purbus the Younger in the collection in the Pitti Palace in Florence and the painting “The Vincenzo Gonzaga Family” painted by the same artist, in which the Duchess is depicted with children, in the museum of the Ducal Palace in Mantua . In the picture from the collection of the same museum, “ ” by Peter Paul Rubens , painted in 1604-1605, Eleanor is depicted with her husband, father-in-law and mother-in-law ^[1] .

• Alberi Eug. Relazioni degli Ambasciatori Veneti al Senato: Comprende le relazioni degli stati Europei, tranne l'Italia : [ ital. ] . - Firenze: A Spese dell 'Editore, 1863. - P. lxxiv. - 449 p.
• Finucci V. The Prince's Body: Vincenzo Gonzaga and Renaissance Medicine : [ eng. ] . - Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2015. - Vol. Xv. - P. 10. - 273 p. - (I Tatti studies in Italian Renaissance history). - ISBN 978-0-67-472545-4 .
• Hollingsworth M. The Medici : [ eng. ] . - London: Head of Zeus Ltd, 2017 .-- P. 324, 344-345, 349, 363. - 400 p. - ISBN 978-1-78-669151-4 .
• Stevens D. The Letters of Claudio Monteverdi : [ eng. ] . - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980 .-- P. 32. - 443 p. - ISBN 978-0-52-123591-4 .

• Di Fiore FR Le donne di casa Medici - Eleonora de 'Medici Gonzaga (neopr.) . www.dols.it. - Dol's Magazine. Date of treatment November 19, 2017. (Italian)
• Pellizzer S. Eleonora de 'Medici, duchessa di Mantova (neopr.) . www.treccani.it . - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume XLII (1993). Date of treatment November 19, 2017. (Italian)
• Vogt-Lüerssen M. Eleonora de 'Medici, Duchess of Mantua (Neopr.) . www.kleio.org . - Family Trees in Pictures - The Medici. Date of treatment November 19, 2017. (English)
• Monete a nome di Eleonora de 'Medici (neopr.) . www.lamoneta.it . - I Quaderni di Moneta. Il catalogo delle monete e medaglie di Mantova. Date of treatment November 19, 2017. (Italian)