- Maria di Cosimo I de' Medici
Maria de' Medici (April 3, 1540 – November 19, 1557) was the eldest daughter of
Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany andEleonora di Toledo . She was engaged toAlfonso II, Duke of Ferrara , but died at the age of seventeen, before the marriage could take place. She was educated with her brothers and was among the brightest of the children. When her brother Francesco didn't understand his Greek lesson, his tutors called on Maria to explain it to him. Maria kept herself somewhat aloof from her younger brothers and sisters. She grew into an elegant, highly educated, and decorous young woman. [Murphy (2008), pp. 34, 41]According to one unreliable legend, recounted in Edgcumbe Staley's "The Tragedies of the Medici", Maria was lovely and kept closely guarded from men, but managed to meet a young lover, Malatesta de' Malatesti, in secret. According to the story, she was stabbed in the heart by her father after he caught the young lovers together. Cosimo then supposedly put out the story that she had died of a spotted fever and threw her young lover in prison. [ [http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/0/8/7/10877/10877.htm Staley, Edgcumbe The Tragedies of the Medici] ]
Other more accurate accounts indicate that Maria's cause of death was probably
malaria . She died inLivorno . Her father mourned for her deeply and kept her portrait in his bedroom until he died, he had now lost two of his daughters,Bia de' Medici being the other daughter. "She was of the same disposition as myself," said Cosimo, "and she was deprived of fresh air." Her sisterLucrezia di Cosimo de Medici later married Alfonso. [Murphy (2008), p. 63]Ancestry
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1= 1. Maria di Cosimo I 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 di Lorenzo 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 BazanNotes
References
*Murphy, Caroline P. (2008). "Murder of a Medici Princess". USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195314395
* [http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/0/8/7/10877/10877.htm Staley, Edgcumbe The Tragedies of the Medici]
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