Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany

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Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (25 March 1541 – 19 October 1587) was the second Grand Duke of Tuscany, ruling from 1574 to 1587. He was the son of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Eleonora di Toledo and served as regent for his father starting in 1564.

On December 18, 1565, he married Johanna of Austria (January 24, 1548 – April 10, 1578), youngest daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. They had seven children:

Eleonora (March 1, 1566 – September 9, 1611), who married Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (1582-1612).
Romola (November 20, 1568 – December 2, 1568)
Anna (December 31, 1569 – February 19, 1584)
Isabella (September 30, 1571 – August 8, 1572)
Lucrezia (November 7, 1572 – August 14, 1574)
Maria (April 26, 1573 – July 3, 1642), who became Queen of France by her marriage to Henri IV December 27, 1612.
Filippo (May 20, 1577 – March 29, 1582)

By all reports, it was not a happy marriage. Joanna was homesick for her native Austria, and Francesco was neither charming nor faithful. After her death at age thirty (1578), there were rumors that Francesco and his Venetian mistress, Bianca Cappello, had conspired to poison Joanna. The Medici marriages of his day were not exemplar. Pietro, the younger brother of Francesco, had his wife's paramour killed; subsequently, by report, when his wife became distraught at learning the news, he personally strangled her. Soon after the Grand Duchess Joanna had died, Francesco himself went on to marry Bianca, after aptly disposing of her husband, a Florentine bureaucrat. By report, he built and decorated Villa Pratolino for her. She was, however, not always popular among Florentines. They had no children, but Francesco adopted her daughter by first marriage Pellegrina (1564- ?) and her son Antonio (* August 29 1576; † May 2 1621), who was first adopted as newborn child by Bianca Cappello with the intention to present him to Francesco as "own child" by means of changeling.

Francesco I of Tuscany as a young, painting by Bronzino.

Like his father, Francesco was often despotic, but while Cosimo had known how to maintain Florentine independence, Francesco acted more like a vassal of his father-in-law, the emperor, and subsequent Holy Roman Emperors. He continued the heavy taxation of his subjects in order to pay large sums to the empire.

He had an amateur's interest in manufacturing and sciences. He founded porcelain and stoneware manufacture, but these did not thrive until after his death. He continued his father's patronage of the arts, supporting artists and building the Medici Theater as well as founding the Accademia della Crusca. He was also passionately interested in chemistry and alchemy and spent many hours in his private laboratory/curio collection, the Studiolo in the Palazzo Vecchio, which held his collections of natural item and stones and allowed him to dabble in amateur chemistry and alchemical schemes.

Francesco and Bianca died on the same day, possibly poisoned or more likely, from malarial fever. Because of her infamy and low social rank, she was refused burial in the family tomb. Francesco was succeeded by his younger brother Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.There is a famous portrait of Francesco as a child by Agnolo Bronzino, which hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

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