First published in English in 1963 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd
This edition first published in 2020
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1963 English Translation Charlotte Haldane
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ISBN: 978-0-367-25398-1 (Set)
ISBN: 978-0-429-29609-3 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-27233-3 (Volume 4) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-29567-6 (Volume 4) (ebk)
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Section from a tapestry. The persons represented are Henri II, Catherine de Medici and probably Henri III.
FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1963
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, no portion may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher.
This translation Charlotte Haldane, 1963
Translated from Catherine de Mdicis
Libraire Artheme Fayard, 1959
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
in 11 point Ehrhardt type
BY SIMSON SHAND LTD
LONDON, HERTFORD AND HARLOW
In order to avoid any mistaken interpretation, the author wishes to underline the following point. Machiavelli and Machiavellism are very often discussed in this book. The personality of the author of II Principe , and also Machiavellism, are envisaged uniquely from the point of view of the sixteenth century. Here, therefore, Machiavelli is not portrayed according to his legend but as an Italian patriot (the true precursor of the unity of the peninsula) as well as an executive official, who was never at the head of affairs but whom it pleased to jot down, not even maxims, but political recipes, according to the Italy of his time. This also means that at that period Machiavellism was not a doctrine, and even less, a system. It was pragmatic and empirical, having recourse to methods appropriate to the immediate needs of the revolutions and civil wars, as well as the ambitions and vengeances that unfolded themselves on a small stage. Catherine de Medicis political aimsand that was why she was misunderstoodwere in advance of a period confined between the limits which inspired the thoughts of the Secretary of the Second Chancellery of Florence, a post that he occupied for fourteen years (14981512).
Chapter One
Naked as a New-Born Babe
(April 1519November 1533)
Very little is known about the early childhood of Catherine de Medici, born on a Wednesday morning, April 13, 1519, of the marriage of Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbino, and Madeleine de la Tour dAuvergne. The young Duchess died of puerpural fever fifteen days after the birth of the baby girl who was predestinedalthough no one could then either have foreseen it or even had a presentiment of itvirtually to become, as the mother of the last of the Valois, ruler of France from 155989. Lorenzo died five days after Madeleine. The child, Florentine on her fathers side and of Auvergne on her mothers, was orphaned in her cradle.
The cruelly premature death of Lorenzo de Medici finally put an end to French influence in Italy, which had already been more than threatened by the secret treaty, signed on January 17, 1519, between Leo X and Don Carlos, who was to become the Emperor Charles V, and which was to confirm that of 1512. Italy passed over to Spain and later to the Empire. The apparent Machiavellism of this change in papal politics was in fact a piece of Ghibelline trickery. Guicciardini, who was in the confidence of the second Medici Pope, Clement VII, successor to the most Ghibelline pontiff, Adrian VI, the former Provost of Utrecht, preceptor and later minister of Charles V, has revealed the illusions that prompted this rupture with France. It was intended to follow the precepts of Machiavelli. The plan was to make use of the Hispano-Germans to throw the Barbarians, who had arrived there from Gaul, out of Southern Italy, and then to make war, in the kingdom of Naples, on the Imperialists, and to defeat them.
The death of Lorenzo de Medici prepared the way for this return to the policy of Julius II. The sacking of Rome in 1527 was the factual result of this Ghibelline mistake, which had led to the loss of Pavia. In 1519 God alone knew that the weak and puling infant in the orphans cradle in the Medici palace would one day prove to be the link in the chain of French history between Franois I and Henri IV. Thus later on, after Richelieu, the Italian, Mazarin, was enabled to complete the great work of conquering the new German Holy Roman Empire, founded on the defeat of the Valois by the Hapsburgs, supporting and suffering the Medici Pope, whose orphaned great-niece, then still a tiny and insignificant babe, would one day make good this error by saving France from becoming a Spanish colony: a political policy based on the principle of princedom, which was to replace the spirit of Christianity. Charles V did not renounce this spirit of Christianity, but the force of circumstances was moving in the opposite direction. Instead of allying himself with the Emperor against the Sultan, Franois I did the contrary. The dice of iron and of destiny were cast down.
In an elegy Ariosto, who at the time of the deaths of Catherines parents had been sent to Florence by the Duke of Ferrara, reminded the city of the Red Lily that a few leaves can revive a lone branch. The Florentines remained torn between fear and hope, wondering whether the winter would destroy or leave her to them. For Catherine, so frail and threatened, was the last legitimate heiress of the Medici. Her grandmother, Alfonsina Orsini, widow of Pietro de Medici, died a few months later, on February 7, 1520. The Cardinal Giuliano de Medici, bastard of Giuliano, the nephew of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and cousin to the orphan, was appointed her tutor. Clarice, the sister of Lorenzo II and wife of Filippo Strozzi, was given charge of the child, who already, in October 1519, had been presented to Leo X. Marco Minio, the Venetian ambassador to Rome, had been impressed by the Popes emotion: Recens fert aerumnas Danaum , Leo X had said to him when he was informed of the arrival of Alfonsina Orsini.
