* * * * *

The direct line of Cosimo, "_Il Padre della Patria_," the elder
surviving son of Messer Giovanni di Averardo "Bicci" de' Medici, ended
with Caterina, Queen of France, the only legitimate child of Lorenzo,
Duke of Urbino, and last _Capo della Repubblica_ of Florence; and
Alessandro the Bastard, first Duke of Florence, the illegitimate son of
Pope Clement VII.

The sovereignty of the Medici was maintained in the person of Cosimo,
the only son of Condottiere Giovanni, "delle Bande Nere," the
great-grandson of Lorenzo, the younger of the two surviving sons of
Messer Giovanni di Averardo "Bicci" de' Medici. The rule of the Medici
Grand Dukes of Tuscany was carried on from Cosimo I. to Gian Gastone,
seventh Grand Duke and last of his line, who died in 1737.

The Grand Duchy then passed to the house of Lorraine, and with a
Napoleonic usurpation of eighteen years (1796-1814), it continued in the
Lorraine family, as represented by the collateral Hapsburgs, till the
year 1859. In that year, King Vittorio Emmanuele of Piedmont and
Sardinia, entered Florence, which, with all Italy, was united under the
Royal Crown of the House of Savoy.




THE TRAGEDIES OF THE MEDICI