The Black Prince of Florence: The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de' Medici

by Catherine Fletcher

Overview

The riveting tale of Alessandro de' Medici's unexpected rise and spectacular fall, which unravels centuries-old mysteries, exposes forgeries, and brings to life the epic personalities of the Medicis, Borgias, and others as they waged sordid campaigns to rise to the top.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190612740
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/01/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Catherine Fletcher is a historian of Renaissance and early modern Europe. Her first book, The Divorce of Henry VIII, brought to life the Papal court at the time of the Tudors. She consulted on the Golden-Globe-winning TV miniseries Wolf Hall and regularly broadcasts for BBC radio. She is Associate Professor in History and Heritage at Swansea University and has held research fellowships in London, Florence, and Rome.

Table of Contents

Family tree Glossary of names Timeline Maps A note on money Prologue Book One: The Bastard Son Book Two: The Obedient Nephew Book Three: The Prince Alone Afterword: Alessandro's Ethnicity Acknowledgements Bibliography Notes Index

Editorial Reviews

06/27/2016
Rather than submit to the established account of Alessandro de’ Medici’s life, Fletcher (The Divorce of Henry VIII), associate professor in history and heritage at Swansea University (U.K.), persuasively argues that he suffered assassination twice: “first with a sword, then with a pen.” De’ Medici gained notoriety for being the brutal biracial illegitimate Duke of Florence and an unlikely heir to the dwindling Medici family of bankers and rulers. But in this revelatory work, Fletcher rescues him from the well-known caricature his opponents manufactured while revealing his strengths and weaknesses as an often populist Medici prince. De’ Medici left limited primary documents, but Fletcher distills an extensive array of both sympathetic and antagonistic contemporary sources into clear explanations that give context and a more balanced look at a city-state on tenterhooks and a man struggling to maintain order. To her considerable credit, Fletcher navigates dense central European politics and competing Medici claims with ease, allowing readers to focus on de’ Medici’s life within the context of the financially and politically unstable city. Throughout this compelling narrative, de’ Medici’s unlikely story and extraordinary life finally feel revealed as Fletcher gives him a welcome new complex legacy. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"[O]ffers an engrossing envoi that contextualizes this prince's little-known legacy....Sure-footed and novelistic....[O]ffers fresh research while also soliciting a broad popular readership."—John Gagné, The Historian

"[A]n enviably accessible and entertaining prose style...Recommended."—CHOICE

"[A] gripping narrative...It is impossible to finish this medieval melodrama without thinking that it would make a riveting series for an enterprising TV producer."—The Economist

"Fletcher's first book, The Divorce of Henry VIII, was a study of Vatican intrigue that demonstrated her ability to use rarely accessed Italian archives to create a gripping and original account of a well-worn subject. Here she has used the same skills to even greater effect, creating a compelling portrait of a forgotten man—himself both brutal and brutalised—once at the very heart of the Renaissance world order. Her narrative follows the extraordinary arc of Alessandro's life closely, but also uses it to illuminate the bloody opulence of Renaissance Italian politics in all its squalid, operatic glory." —The Financial Times

"Nothing in sixteenth century history is more astonishing to our era than the career of Alessandro de' Medici. His story, told by an exact and fluent historian, challenges our preconceptions. Catherine Fletcher's eye for the skewering detail makes the citizens of renaissance Florence live again: courtesans and cardinals, artists and assassins." —Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall

"Fletcher displays an excellent comprehension of the Medici family and Renaissance political maneuvering. The connections between ruling and royal families, intermarriages, feuds, and assassinations can boggle the mind, but she carefully separates friends from enemies... Medici fans will expand their awareness of the family's broad reach, and Renaissance students will discover Machiavelli's models for The Prince." —Kirkus

"This is an accomplished and original account of an extraordinary and much misrepresented episode in Italian history. Catherine Fletcher provides a newly sympathetic portrait of a monarch whose rule in Florence was even more unlikely than Henry VII's presence on the English throne." —Diarmaid MacCulloch, author of The Reformation

"In this revelatory work, Fletcher rescues [Allessandro de' Medici] from the well-known caricature his opponents manufactured while revealing his strengths and weaknesses as an often populist Medici prince...Throughout this compelling narrative, de' Medici's unlikely story and extraordinary life finally feel revealed as Fletcher gives him a welcome new complex legacy." —Publishers Weekly, Fall 2016 "Top Ten Picks for History"

"Fletcher paints a perceptive picture of mixed loyalties, jealousy and duplicity... The most revealing arguments of the book regard Alessandro's ethnicity and what it did, or more importantly did not, signify to contemporaries. Fletcher's book is extensively researched and, like the best stories, a compelling read." —Historical Novels Review

"A scintillating book that glisters and gleams with stabbings, poisonings, adultery and intrigue-and a startling reminder of how visceral and dangerous Renaissance Florence was. The drama of events is perfectly complemented by careful scholarship and lucid writing. This is everything a historical biography should be." —Ian Mortimer, author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England

"Packed with intrigue...Fletcher describes with cool menace the plotting and politicking that dominated Alessandro's rule... brought splendidly to life in this excellent book." —Dan Jones, Sunday Times (UK)

"Like a detective, Fletcher interrogates her witnesses...But it is among the detailed records of Alessandro's wardrobe-keepers that she finds her treasure...These lend her narrative a sensuous vividity." —Frances Wilson, Sunday Telegraph (UK)

"As gripping as Othello... Fletcher's approach is scholarly yet dramatic, immersed in Renaissance glamour." —The Spectator

"Bold, Breathless and full of suspense." — Daisy Dunn, The Times (UK)

"Catherine Fletcher is entirely at ease amid the Renaissance world and its archival resources, and her details, particularly those involving dress, feasting, and ceremonial, are generously deployed in the work of recovering a neglected episode of Florentine history." —Literary Review

"Fletcher recounts [Alessandro de' Medici's] life, and even more so the times, in clear and often vivid prose with an eye for interesting detail." —Los Angeles Review of Books

"The Black Prince is a dark and murderous tale that is exceptionally well-told. It leaves the reader rushing from page to page wanting more."—New York Journal of Books

"Fletcher's research is impeccable... and her attention to detail proves excellent."—Washington Free Beacon

"An absorbing tale of betrayal and deadly political alliances during the Renaissance."—Washington Independent Review of Books

"Alessandro de' Medici's life in sixteenth-century Italy speaks volumes about the emerging category of race. In the time since his death, Alessandro has been accorded a dual identity: as the black tyrant who put a violent end to the republican liberty of Florence and as the first person of black African ancestry to rule a major city-state during the Renaissance. Both stories settle on race as definitive of Alessandro's historical significance, notwithstanding the fact that a clear definition of race cannot be had." — Renaissance Quarterly

"With meticulous attention to detail, in The Black Prince of Florence Catherine Fletcher eloquently sets the life of Alessandro against the backdrop of papal power and crisis of dynastic legitimacy."—Renaissance and Reformation

From the Publisher

2016-06-01
An exploration of the life of a lesser-known Medici: Alessandro (1510-1537).Fletcher (History and Heritage/Swansea Univ.; Diplomacy in Renaissance Rome: The Rise of the Resident Ambassador, 2015, etc.) displays an excellent comprehension of the Medici family and Renaissance political maneuvering. The connections between ruling and royal families, intermarriages, feuds, and assassinations can boggle the mind, but she carefully separates friends from enemies (often, one became the other). Alessandro's appointment as Duke of Florence was thanks in great part to his uncle Pope Clement VII and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Alessandro and his cousin Ippolito were both illegitimate, but Alessandro was always referred to as "Moor," and Ippolito was favored. Alessandro's mother was a dark-skinned maid, and while he was also dark-skinned, in 16th-century Italy, few knew of his ethnicity, and racism was not as pronounced as now. Pope Leo X, also an uncle, favored his nephews, educating them and slating Ippolito to take over power in Florence. For unknown reasons—although Ippolito's expulsion from Rome for vandalism might play a part—Leo switched his support to Alessandro, creating an enemy of Ippolito. Alessandro was especially gifted in the stately arts and ensured the power of his family for longer than would have been possible without him. His peacemaking at the Treaty of Barcelona guaranteed the Medici's power in Florence, and he also secured the marriage of Catherine de' Medici to the French king. Alessandro may have been tyrannical and savage, but then again, maybe not. The author mostly leaves readers to sort it out, carefully noting his subject's politics and accomplishments during his short six-year reign.Medici fans will expand their awareness of the family's broad reach, and Renaissance students will discover Machiavelli's models for The Prince.

Kirkus Reviews