Don Antonio de'Medici
1576-1621
Don Antonio de' Medici (1576–1621) was the son of Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his mistress Bianca Cappello. He was a minor figure at the grand ducal Medici court.
Antonio was born under obscure conditions during the lifetime of Francesco's legitimate consort, Joanna of Austria, who died in childbirth in April 1578. The grand duke secretly married Bianca only two months later, but did not celebrate the wedding publicly until 1579, after the official mourning period had ended. The very existence of the infant was not publicly acknowledged until he was almost three years old. But from the moment he was brought into the court, he was raised as the legitimate heir to the Tuscan throne. During his father's lifetime no doubts were raised about either Antonio's paternity or Francesco's intention that he should succeed him. Francesco legitimized Antonio in 1584, after obtaining the implicit approval from Philip II of Spain, the overlord of Siena, which Francesco intended Antonio to rule. Francesco's younger brother , Ferdinando, had been designated for the Church, rising to the rank of Cardinal.
Within hours of Francesco's death on 18 October 1587, Bianca Cappello was dead too, poisoned, it was thought, at the direction of Ferdinando, who now set aside his orders and took the throne as Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Bianca Cappello had recently undergone a false pregnancy in 1586, which encouraged Cardinal Ferdinando to create a story that Bianca's pregnancy in 1576 had been a false one too and that Antonio was the son of a serving girl who had been smuggled into the bed. As a magnanimous gesture, Ferdinando conferred some substantial property on the youth and induced him to take the clerical habit of the Knights of Malta, which would preclude him from producing any further heirs with substantial claims to the Medici inheritance.
Thus at eighteen, Antonio joined the Knights of Malta. He fought the Ottoman Turks in Hungary in 1594-95 and soon contracted syphilis; he served in various ambassadorial capacities, and satisfied his pleasure in the hunt, and in music and theater. His virtuoso interests in alchemy and other scientific concerns, pursued on his property at the Casino Mediceo di San Marco of Florence, brought him into contact with Galileo. His mistress from Lucca presented him with three sons, to the disapproval of the Medici court, but he managed to have them legitimized by Pope Paul V and recognized by Ferdinando's successor, Grand Duke Cosimo. II.
Antonio died in modest retirement in 1621, having withdrawn from the court after 1614.
Antonio was born under obscure conditions during the lifetime of Francesco's legitimate consort, Joanna of Austria, who died in childbirth in April 1578. The grand duke secretly married Bianca only two months later, but did not celebrate the wedding publicly until 1579, after the official mourning period had ended. The very existence of the infant was not publicly acknowledged until he was almost three years old. But from the moment he was brought into the court, he was raised as the legitimate heir to the Tuscan throne. During his father's lifetime no doubts were raised about either Antonio's paternity or Francesco's intention that he should succeed him. Francesco legitimized Antonio in 1584, after obtaining the implicit approval from Philip II of Spain, the overlord of Siena, which Francesco intended Antonio to rule. Francesco's younger brother , Ferdinando, had been designated for the Church, rising to the rank of Cardinal.
Within hours of Francesco's death on 18 October 1587, Bianca Cappello was dead too, poisoned, it was thought, at the direction of Ferdinando, who now set aside his orders and took the throne as Ferdinando de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Bianca Cappello had recently undergone a false pregnancy in 1586, which encouraged Cardinal Ferdinando to create a story that Bianca's pregnancy in 1576 had been a false one too and that Antonio was the son of a serving girl who had been smuggled into the bed. As a magnanimous gesture, Ferdinando conferred some substantial property on the youth and induced him to take the clerical habit of the Knights of Malta, which would preclude him from producing any further heirs with substantial claims to the Medici inheritance.
Thus at eighteen, Antonio joined the Knights of Malta. He fought the Ottoman Turks in Hungary in 1594-95 and soon contracted syphilis; he served in various ambassadorial capacities, and satisfied his pleasure in the hunt, and in music and theater. His virtuoso interests in alchemy and other scientific concerns, pursued on his property at the Casino Mediceo di San Marco of Florence, brought him into contact with Galileo. His mistress from Lucca presented him with three sons, to the disapproval of the Medici court, but he managed to have them legitimized by Pope Paul V and recognized by Ferdinando's successor, Grand Duke Cosimo. II.
Antonio died in modest retirement in 1621, having withdrawn from the court after 1614.