Grand Duchy of Tuscany
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The Grand Duchy of Tuscany (Italian: Granducato di Toscana, Latin: Magnus Ducatus Tusciae) was a state in central Italy that existed from 1569 to 1859, replacing the Duchy of Florence.[1] The grand duchy consisted of most of the territory of the current Italian region of Tuscany, with the exception of the northernmost portions, which formed the Duchy of Massa, the Principality of Carrara, and the Republic and then the Duchy of Lucca (up to 1847). The grand duchy's capital was Florence.
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[edit] The Medici Period
[edit] Foundation
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was founded in 1569, when the Pope Pius V declared Duke Cosimo I de' Medici,the Grand Duke of Tuscany. Thus, the House of Medici had been raised to the rank of sovereigns, and Cosimo and his successors would now be addressed as Highness [2]. The grand duchy succeeded the Duchy of Florence, which had been established by Cosimo's predecessor, Alessandro de' Medici (proclaimed Duke by his alleged father, Pope Clement VII). Alessandro was succeeded, by his distant relative Cosimo when he was assassinated in 1537.
During Cosimo's reign over the Duchy of Florence, he purchased the island of Elba the Republic of Genoa in 1548.[3] Florence made its largest territorial acquisition (the annexation of the Republic of Siena in 1545).[4], Cosimo instigated naval reforms, and the duchy began the development and construction of a large, well-equipped, and powerful naval base on Elba. Cosimo banned the clergy from holding administrative positions in his realm, and instigated laws of freedom of religion, which were unknown to his time.[5]Cosimo I ruled over Florence from 1537 to 1569, before being gaining the title of grand duke.
The international reaction to Cosimo's elevation was bleak, with Emperor Maximilian II of the Holy Roman Empire and King Philip II of Spain reacting quite angrily, as Florence was still technically under Imperial suzerainty at the time, the two Habsburg rulers declared Pius V's of the Medici invalid. And Cosimo's relative, Queen Catherine of France, only viewed Cosimo with disdain [6].
During the Holy League of 1571, Cosimo fought against the Ottoman Empire, siding with the Holy Roman Empire, whose influence had brought him to the throne of Florence. The Holy League inflicted a crushing defeat against the Ottomans at the Battle of Lepanto [7]. Cosimo's reign was one of the most militaristic Tuscany had seen.
Cosimo had seen many personal tragedies during the later years of his reign. His wife, Eleanor of Toledo, died in 1562, along with four of his children due to a plague epidemic in Florence. These deaths were to affect him greatly, which, along with illness, forced Cosimo to unofficially abdicate in 1564. This left his eldest son, Francesco, to rule the grand duchy. Cosimo I died in 1574 of apoplexy, leaving a stable and prosperous Tuscany behind him, after having been the longest ruling Medici yet.[8]
[edit] Scientific advancements and Ferdinando II
Florence had lost the position of the leading Renaissance city after the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent in 1492. The succeeding regime of Girolamo Savonarola had undone much of the artistic innovations of the renaissance in Florence. Savonarola's most famous example of this is the Bonfire of the Vanities in 1497. At the foundation of the Grand Duchy, the city had not recovered from the damage done by Savonarola, and had become very bland and provincial.
Fortunately for Tuscany, one of the greatest minds of the century was born in Pisa in 1564, this man was Galileo Galilei. Galileo made his first telescope in 1609, and he would become court mathematician to Tuscany in 1613, because of his book The Starry Messenger being dedicated to Grand Duke Cosimo II, Cosimo II had been briefly a student of his. Galileo had been the Professor of Mathematics at the University of Padua since 1492. During his sojourn in Florence, he published Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. This book challenged the Aristotelian ideas which the church recognised as fact. Galileo was a firm believer in the Copernican system (the belief that the earth revolved around the sun) and he featured this in the aforementioned book. He had received the permission of Pope Urban VII before publishing, under the condition that the book portayed the church's theory on the cosmos as correct, yet he was allowed to mention Copernicus fleetingly. Galileo did not keep his promise, and this lead to him being put on trial by the Roman Inquisition in 1633. Galileo eventually withdrew his ideas during the trial, and he was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life, at his Tuscan estate, yet his ideas about physics and mathematics would live on. It was Galileo who tested the theory that different things of different weight fall at the same speed. He also established the theory of perception; whereby things such as smell and sight cannot be measured because they vary from person to person.Galileo enjoyed the sponsorship of Grand Duke Ferdinando II (Cosimo II's son) and he had wanted to support Galileo's case against the Papal States, but his dominating grandmother Dowager Grand Duchess Christina was a vehement supporter of the Papacy, and it was during her period as regent of Tuscany that the clergy began to flock back into the monasteries of Tuscany. Christina also lifted the ban on clergy holding administrative roles in government. Christina dominated her grandson's reign until her death in 1636. After this date, Dowager Grand Duchess Magdalena exercised some power over her son. Madgalena was very pious, and occasionally clashed with her son because of her un-diminishing morality. In 1643, Tuscany was involved in a minor conflict know as The First Castro War, Tuscany was one of the victorious parties, this would prove to be the only military conflict of Ferdinando II's reign.[9] The state of the economy under Ferdinando II was stagnant, the country's exchequer was barely adequate to cover the state's current expenditure. The remaining banking operations of the Medici were finally terminated in Ferdinando II's reign.[10] In 1657 the Accademia del Cimento was founded in the capital, to further the scientific cause.[11] Ferdinando II died in 1670, succeeded by his eldest surviving son Cosimo.[12]
[edit] The Pious Despot
Cosimo III was aged 28 when he became Grand Duke. He had married Marguerite Louise d'Orleans, a niece of Louis XIII of France, in 1661.[13] This marriage would produce three children, that would survive to adulthood: Ferdinando, Anna Maria Luisa and Gian Gastone. This marriage would prove to be a disaster, and Marguerite left Tuscany in 1675, to enter a convent in Paris.[14]
During the reign of Cosimo III, the Grand Duchy continued its long decline (having began in Ferdinado II's rule), despite the fact that he made an attempt at the start of his reign to reform Tuscany's perilous finances.[15] Cosimo III was a zealous puritan, and instituted several laws censoring education, banning May celebrations, forcing prostitutes to pay for licenses and beheading sodomites.[16] The Tuscans had new anti-Semitic laws forced onto to them by the ever radical Cosimo III also, while the country as a whole continued to decline. By 1705, the grand ducal treasury was virtually bankrupt and the population of Florence declined by 50%, and the population of the grand duchy by an estimated 40%. [17] The once powerful navy was reduced to a pitiful state.[18]
The future of the dynasty itself painted a similar picture, Cosimo's eldest son Ferdinando was an alcoholic and epileptic, while his youngest son Gian Gastone was simply not appropriate material for the role of sovereign to the collapsing grand duchy. The Grand Duke gained the style Royal Highness in 1691, an elevation to royalty.[19] Tuscany was neutral during the War of the Spanish Succession, partly due to Tuscany's ramshackle military.[20] The city of Florence had been reduced to a derelict state, and had become full of beggars by the early 1700s.[21] Europe heard of the perils of Tuscany, and the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph I, had asserted his claim to the territory (through some Medici descent), fortunately for Tuscany, he died in 1711, but Tuscany was not to escape Imperial ambitions for much longer. Cosimo was incredibly unpopular among his subjects. Cosimo III was the longest reigning Grand Duke of Tuscany, with a reign of 53 years.[22]
[edit] The last years of the Medici
Cosimo III died in 1723, and was succeeded by his son Gian Gastone, for most of his life he kept to his bed and acted in an unregal manner, he rarely appeared to his subjects, who at times thought he was dead. Gian Gastone would repeal many of his father's puritan laws.[23] In 1731, the Powers gathered at Vienna to decide who would succeed Gian Gastone, because of the Medici's lack of an heir. The powers drew up the Treaty of Vienna, which gave the grand ducal throne to Don Carlos, Duke of Parma (Gian Gastone wasn't invited to the talks or consulted). Don Carlos would soon become King of Naples shortly after his arrival in Florence, in of 1735, by the Treaty of Turin. Francis Stephen of Lorraine now became heir to the Tuscan throne. Gian Gastone had no say in events, and had become quite attached to the Spanish Prince. The Tuscans despised the new occupying "Lorrainers" as they interfered with the Tuscan government, while the occupying Spaniards had not done so.[24] On July 9th 1737, Gian Gastone died, forever ending the once great House of Medici.[25]
[edit] The House of Habsburg-Lorraine
[edit] Francis Stephen
Francis I (as Francis Stephen became known) lived in Florence briefly with his wife, Habsburg heiress Maria Theresa of Austria, who became Tuscany's Grand Duchess. Francis had to cede his ancestral Duchy of Lorraine in order to accommodate the deposed ruler of Poland, whose daughter Maria Leszczyńska, became Queen of France and of Navarre in 1725. Maria's father Stanislaus I ruled Lorraine as compensation for his loss of the Kingdom of Poland.Francis was reluctant to cede, but Charles VI (Maria Theresa's father) stated that if he didn't relinquish his rights to Lorraine, he could not marry Maria Theresa. Francis did not live in his Tuscan realm, living in the capital of his wife's realm, Vienna. He was elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1745. He died at Innsbruck from a stroke in 1765 , his wife would pledge the rest of her life to mourning him, while co-ruling with her son, and Francis' successor (Imperial Successor, Tuscany would pass to his second eldest son, Leopold) Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor.[26] The administrative structure of the grand duchy itself would see little change under Francis I.
[edit] Reform
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Franics' second surviving son Leopold II became Grand Duke of Tuscany and ruled until his brother Joseph's death without a male heir. Leopold gave his all in reforming his small Italian realm. He was unpopular among his subjects, but his reforms brought the Grand Duchy to a level of stability that had not been seen in quite a while.
His ecclesiastical policy, which disturbed the deeply rooted convictions of his people and brought him into collision with the pope, was not successful. He was unable to secularize the property of the religious houses or to put the clergy entirely under the control of the lay power. However, his abolition of capital punishment was the first permanent abolition in modern times. On 30 November 1786, after having de facto blocked capital executions (the last was in 1769), Leopold promulgated the reform of the penal code that abolished the death penalty and ordered the destruction of all the instruments for capital execution in his land. Torture was also banned. In 2000 Tuscany's regional authorities instituted an annual holiday on 30 November to commemorate the event. The event is also commemorated on this day by 300 cities around the world celebrating the Cities for Life Day.
Leopold also approved and collaborated on the development of a political constitution, said to have anticipated by many years the promulgation of the French constitution and which presented some similarities with the Virginia Bill of Rights of 1778. Leopold's concept of this was based on respect for the political rights of citizens and on a harmony of power between the executive and the legislative. However, it could not be put into effect because Leopoldo moved to Vienna to become emperor in 1790, and because it was so radically new that it garnered opposition even from those who might have benefitted from it.
However, Leopold developed and supported many social and economic reforms. Smallpox vaccination was made systematically available (Leopold's mother Maria Thresa had been a huge supporter on inoculation against small pox), and an early institution for the rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents was founded. Leopold also introduced radical reforms to the system of neglect and inhumane treatment of those deemed mentally ill. On 23 January 1774, the "legge sui pazzi" (law on the insane) was established, the first of its kind to be introduced in all Europe, allowing steps to be taken to hospitalize individuals deemed insane. A few years later Leopold undertook the project of building a new hospital, the Bonifacio. He used his skill at choosing collaborators to put a young physician, Vincenzo Chiarugi, at its head. Chiarugi and his collaborators introduced new humanitarian regulations in the running of the hospital and caring for the mentally ill patients, including banning the use of chains and physical punishment, and in so doing have been recognized as early pioneers of what later came to be known as the moral treatment movement.[27] Leopold had to return to Vienna in the year 1790 due to his succession to the Austrian dominions of his family. His son Ferdinand became ruler of the Grand Duchy. Leopold would die in 1792.
[edit] Tuscany during the Great French War
Leopold was succeeded by Ferdinand III. Ferdinand was the son of the incumbent Grand Duke, and Grand Duchess Maria Louisa Ferdinand was forced out by the French after the Treaty of Aranjuez (1801), becoming instead Elector of Salzburg, ruling the territory of the former Archbishopric.
The Grand Duchy was then dissolved, and replaced by the Kingdom of Etruria under the house of Bourbon-Parma, in compensation for their loss of Duchy of Parma. Etruria was, in its turn, annexed by the French in 1807, becoming the départements of Arno, Méditerranée, and Ombrone.
[edit] Tuscany restored and its final demise
With the fall of the Napoleonic system in 1814, Ferdinand was restored to the Grand Duchy, ruling until his death in 1824. Italian Nationalism had exploded in the post-Napoleonic years, leading to secret societies hell-bent on a unified Italy. Many rebellions ensued, such as the Revolutions of 1848 in the Italian states, and several more minor ones preceding. Ferdinand's son, Leopold II of Tuscany, ruled until April 1859, when he was driven out by a revolution following the defeat of the Austrians by the French and Sardinian forces in the Austro-Sardinian War. Napoleon III had supported Sardinia in this war partly because assassination attempts had been made on his life by Italian nationalists.[28]
In July, Leopold, in exile in Vienna, abdicated in favour of his son, Ferdinand IV, who never reigned. Tuscany was under Sardinian administration and Ferdinand was formally deposed by the de facto government on 16 August. In December 1859, the Grand Duchy officially ceased to exist, being joined to the Duchies of Modena and Parma to form the United Provinces of Central Italy, which was annexed by the Kingdom of Sardinia a few months later, in March 1860, Italy was unified in 1870, when the remains of the Papal States were annexed in that September, deposing Pope Pius IX
[edit] See also
- Republic of Florence
- Gian Gastone
- Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
- Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
- Galileo
- Medici Family
- House of Habsburg-Lorraine
- House of Bourbon-Parma
- Rulers of Tuscany
- Line of succession to the Tuscan Throne
- Tuscany
- Duchy of Florence
- History of Tuscany
- Kingdom of Etruria
- Historical states of Italy
- Postage stamps and postal history of Tuscany
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[edit] References
- ^ Strathern, p 315 - 321
- ^ Strathern, Paul : Medici: “Godfathers of the Renaissance (Vintage Publishers) ISBN 978-0-099-52297-3
- ^ Strathern, p 340
- ^ Strathern, p 335
- ^ Strathern, p 375, 381
- ^ Frieda, Leonie, p 268 - 269, "Catherine de Medici" (Orion) IBSN: 0-75382-039-0
- ^ Frieda, p 271-272
- ^ Strathern, p340 - 341
- ^ Strathern, p 375 - 37,380 - 381
- ^ Strathern, p 381
- ^ Strathern, p 378
- ^ Strathern, p 382
- ^ Strathern, p 384
- ^ Strathern, p 389
- ^ Strathern, p 388
- ^ Strathern, p 391
- ^ Strathern, p 392
- ^ Strathern,p 390 - 391
- ^ Strathern, p 394"
- ^ Strathern, p 394
- ^ Strathern, p 400
- ^ Strathern, p 383
- ^ Strathern,p 402 - 405
- ^ Stredathern, p 408 - 409
- ^ Strathern, p 410
- ^ Fraser, Antonia Marie Antoinette: The Journey (Orion) ISBN 0-7538-1305-X
- ^ Mora, G. (1959) Vincenzo Chiarugi (1759-1820) and his psychiatric reform in Florence in the late 18th century (on the occasion of the bi-centenary of his birth) J Hist Med..
- ^ Bresler, Fenton, Napoleon III, Carroll & Graf Publishers; First Edition edition (December 1999) ISBN-13: 978-0786706600
