Story : Florentine Histories

The House of Medici or de' Medici was a political dynasty, banking family and later royal house that first began to gather prominence under Cosimo de' Medici in the Republic of Florence during the late 14th century. They were able to bring Florence under their family's power, allowing for an environment where art and humanism could flourish. As one of the most prosperous and most respected institutions in Europe, they fostered and inspired the birth of the Italian Renaissance.

Cosimo, Piero, and Lorenzo, three successive generations of the Medici, ruled over Florence through the greater part of the 15th century, without altogether abolishing representative government, yet while clearly dominating it. These three members of the Medici family had great skills in the management of such a restive and independent city as Florence. But when Lorenzo died in 1492, his son Piero proved quite incapable, and within two years he and his supporters were forced into exile with a republican government replacing him.

After Lorenzo's death, the Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola rose to prominence, warning Florentines against excessive luxury. Under Savonarola's fanatical leadership, many great works were "voluntarily" destroyed and a more democratic rule was carried out. Tired of his extreme teachings, Savonarola was arrested by the Florentines and burned at the stake in the Piazza della Signoria.

Florentine was a historical account by Italian Renaissance political scientist and author Niccolo Machiavelli, published in 1532. The finished work was presented officially to Giulio de' Medici, then Pope, in the May of 1526. The Pope liked the work and rewarded him, albeit moderately, and asked him support in the creation of a national army, on the wake of his theorical work The Art of War, in the preparations for the War of the League of Cognac. However, after the sack of Rome (1527) and the fall of the Medici government in Florence, Machievelli's hopes were dashed. Machiavelli would die soon afterwards.

However, the Medici’s exile was only temporary. Sooner in Rome, The Medici produced four Popes of the Catholic Church and in 1531 the family became hereditary Dukes of Florence. In 1569, the duchy was elevated to a grand duchy after territorial expansion. They ruled the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from its inception until 1737, with the death of Gian Gastone de' Medici. The grand duchy witnessed degrees of economic growth under the earlier grand dukes, but by the time of Cosimo III de' Medici, Tuscany was fiscally bankrupt and this eventually lead to the extinction of the dynasty.