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Eleonora Di Garzia Di Toledo
Eleonora di Garzia di Toledo or Leonor Álvarez de Toledo Osorio (March 1553 – 10 July 1576), more often known as "Leonora" or "Dianora", was the daughter of García Álvarez de Toledo, 4th Marquis of Villafranca, Duke of Fernandina. Leonora was born in Florence, where she was raised by Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and his wife Eleanor of Toledo, her aunt and namesake. Betrothed to their son Pietro de' Medici, Pietro at the age of 15, she was mentored by Pietro's older sister, the artistic patron Isabella de' Medici, and was considered a vivacious and witty beauty. Her marriage, like Isabella's, was not a success, and she followed her mentor's example of taking lovers. For this reason, Pietro had her brought in 1576 to the country retreat of Villa Medici at Cafaggiolo, Cafaggiolo, where he strangled her to death with a dog leash. Cosimo's successor, Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Francesco I, tacitly approved the murder, and Pietro was never p ...
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Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence was a centre of Middle Ages, medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of that era. It is considered by many academics to have been the birthplace of the Renaissance, becoming a major artistic, cultural, commercial, political, economic and financial center. During this time, Florence rose to a position of enormous influence in Italy, Europe, and beyond. Its turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful House of Medici, Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city served as the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. The Florentine dialect forms the base of Italian language, standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Italy due to ...
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Valdichiana
The Val di Chiana, Valdichiana, or Chiana Valley, formerly Clanis Valley, is a tectonic valley of central Italy, whose valley floor consists of important alluvial residues filled up since the 11th century, lying on the territories of the provinces of Arezzo and Siena in Tuscany and the provinces of Perugia and Terni in Umbria. Morphological formation of the Clanis (Chiana) Valley The valley, of tectonic origin with extension on the western side and compression on the eastern one, was mainly formed during the Miocene. In the Pliocene it was almost entirely submerged by the great Pliocene sea. Once it had withdrawn, in the upper Villafranchiano (about two million years ago) central Italy hosted large lakes, including that of the Chiana basin which was short-lived as it was drained (at the beginning of the Pleistocene) by the erosion of the hilly threshold of its waters, to take the form of a canyon crossed by a river, tributary of the waters of Lake Trasimeno (whose formation ended ...
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Archduchess Joanna Of Austria (1547–1578)
Archduke (feminine: Archduchess; German: ''Erzherzog'', feminine form: ''Erzherzogin'') was the title borne from 1358 by the Habsburg rulers of the Archduchy of Austria, and later by all senior members of that dynasty. It denotes a rank within the former Holy Roman Empire (962–1806), which was below that of emperor, and roughly equal to that of king, prince-(arch)bishop, and grand duke, but above that of sovereign prince and duke. The territory ruled by an archduke or archduchess was called an archduchy. All remaining archduchies ceased to exist in 1918. The current head of the House of Habsburg is Karl Habsburg. Terminology The English word is first recorded in 1530, derived from Middle French ', a 15th-century derivation from Medieval Latin ', from Latin ''-'' (Greek ) meaning "authority" or "primary" (see '' arch-'') and ' "duke" (literally "leader"). "Archduke" (; ) is a title distinct from "Grand Duke" (; ; ; ), a later monarchic title borne by the rulers of other Eur ...
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Palazzo Vecchio
The ( "Old Palace") is the town hall of Florence, Italy. It overlooks the , which holds a copy of Michelangelo's ''David'' statue, and the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi. Originally called the ''Palazzo della Signoria'', after the Signoria of Florence, the ruling body of the Republic of Florence, this building was also known by several other names: ''Palazzo del Popolo'', ''Palazzo dei Priori'', and ''Palazzo Ducale'', in accordance with the varying use of the palace during its long history. The building acquired its current name when the Medici duke's residence was moved across the Arno River to the Palazzo Pitti. History In 1299, the commune and people of Florence decided to build a palace that would be worthy of the city's importance, and that would be more secure and defensible in times of turbulence for the magistrates of the commune.Bartlett, 37. Arnolfo di Cambio, the architect of the Duomo and the Santa Croce church, began construction upon t ...
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House Of Medici
The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo de' Medici, Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th century. The family originated in the Mugello region of Tuscany, and prospered gradually in trade until it was able to fund the Medici Bank. This bank was the largest in Europe in the 15th century and facilitated the Medicis' rise to political power in Florence, although they officially remained citizens rather than monarchs until the 16th century. In 1532, the family acquired the hereditary title Duke of Florence. In 1569, the duchy was elevated to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany after territorial expansion. The Medici ruled the Grand Duchy from its inception under the builder Cosimo I de' Medici, Cosimo I until 1737, with the death of Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Gian Gastone de' Medici. The Medici produced ...
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Alfonso II, Duke Of Ferrara
Alfonso II d'Este (22 November 1533 – 27 October 1597) was Duke of Ferrara from 1559 to 1597. He was a member of the House of Este. Biography Alfonso was the elder son of Ercole II d'Este and Renée de France, the daughter of Louis XII of France and Anne of Brittany and was the fifth and last Duke of Ferrara. As a young man, Alfonso fought in the service of Henry II of France against the Habsburgs. Soon after his accession, he was forced by Pope Pius IV to send his mother back to France due to her increasingly Calvinist beliefs. The 1570 Ferrara earthquake occurred during his reign. In 1583, he allied with Emperor Rudolf II in the war against the Turks in Hungary. The court of Alfonso was a center for the development of secular music, both in Italy and Europe at large. He assembled the concerto delle donne, a chorus of women performing for the entertainment of Alfonso and his court. Marriages Alfonso married three times: *On 3 July 1558, he married his first wife Lucrez ...
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Lucrezia De' Medici, Duchess Of Ferrara
Lucrezia de' Medici (14 February 1545 – 21 April 1561) was a member of the House of Medici and by marriage Duchess consort of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio from 1558 to 1561. Married to the intended husband of her elder sister Maria, who died young, her marriage was short and unhappy. The Duchess died of pulmonary tuberculosis, but almost immediately after her death there were rumors that she had been poisoned on the orders of her husband. That suspicion inspired the English poet Robert Browning to create a dramatic monologue in verse " My Last Duchess" (1842). Life Early years Born in Florence on 14 February 1545, Lucrezia was the fifth child and third daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Duke of Florence (and from 1569 Grand Duke of Tuscany), and Eleanor of Toledo. Her paternal grandparents were the famous ''condottiere'' Giovanni delle Bande Nere and Maria Salviati (granddaughter of Lorenzo the Magnificent). Her maternal grandparents were Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, Viceroy of N ...
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Ferdinando I De' Medici, Grand Duke Of Tuscany
Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (30 July 1549 – 17 February 1609) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1587 to 1609, having succeeded his older brother Francesco I, who presumably died from malaria. Early life Ferdinando was the fifth son (the third surviving at the time of his birth) of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleanor of Toledo, the daughter of Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, Marquis of Villafranca, the Spanish viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples. He was made a Cardinal in 1562 at the age of 13, but was never ordained into the priesthood. At Rome, he proved an able administrator. He founded the Villa Medici in Rome. He acquired the large collection of antiquities established by Andrea della Valle in 1584, as well as other works of art like the Medici lions. These were subsequently divided among the various Medici estates. Grand Duke When his brother Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, died in 1587, Ferdinando succeeded as grand ...
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Grandee
Grandee (; , ) is an official royal and noble ranks, aristocratic title conferred on some Spanish nobility. Holders of this dignity enjoyed similar privileges to those of the peerage of France during the , though in neither country did they have the significant constitutional political role the House of Lords gave to the Peerage of England, of Peerage of Great Britain, Great Britain and of the Peerage of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom. A "grandee of Spain" nonetheless enjoyed greater social privileges than those of other similar European dignities. With the exception of Duke of Fernandina, Fernandina, List of dukes in the peerage of Spain, all Spanish dukedoms are automatically attached to a grandeeship, yet only a few marquessates, Count (title), countships, List of viscounts in the peerage of Spain, viscountcies, List of barons in the peerage of Spain, baronies and List of lords in the peerage of Spain, lordships have the distinction. A single person can be a grandee of S ...
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List Of Viceroys Of Naples
This is a list of viceroys of the Kingdom of Naples. Following the conquest of Naples by Louis XII of France in 1501, Naples was subject to the rule of the foreign rulers, first for a short time by the King of France and later by Spain and the Habsburg Archdukes of Austria respectively. Commonly staying far from Naples, these rulers governed the Kingdom through a series of viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the Anglo-Norman ''roy'' (Old Frenc ...s. Sources * Giovan Pietro Bellori: ''The Lives of the Modern Painters, Sculptors and Architects'' {{Campania * Viceroys Viceroys of Naples 16th-century Neapolitan people 17th-century Neapolitan people 18th-century Neapolitan people ...
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Pedro Álvarez De Toledo
Pedro Álvarez de Toledo y Zúñiga (13 July 1484 – 21 February 1553) was a Spanish politician. The first effective Spanish viceroy of Naples, in 1532–1552, he was responsible for considerable social, economic and urban improval in the city and southern Italian kingdom in general. He was the father-in-law of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. Biography Early life He was born in 1484 near Salamanca in Spain, the second son of Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, 2nd Duke of Alba and wife Isabel de Zúñiga y Pimentel. His paternal grandmother was Maria Enríquez, the half-sister of Juana Enríquez, the Queen Consort of Aragon through her marriage to widower king of Aragon Juan II of Aragon, and the mother of Ferdinand II of Aragon and ancestress of Habsburgs. Through this relation, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain was a second cousin of Don Pedro. Viceroy of Naples Spain took over the Kingdom of Naples in 1503 and solidified her grasp after the final, fa ...
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Battle Of Lepanto (1571)
The Battle of Lepanto was a naval engagement that took place on 7 October 1571 when a fleet of the Holy League, a coalition of Catholic states arranged by Pope Pius V, inflicted a major defeat on the fleet of the Ottoman Empire in the Gulf of Patras. The Ottoman forces were sailing westward from their naval station in Lepanto (the Venetian name of ancient Naupactus – Greek , Turkish ) when they met the fleet of the Holy League which was sailing east from Messina, Sicily. Lepanto marks the last major engagement in the Western world to be fought almost entirely between rowing vessels, namely the galleys and galleasses, which were the direct descendants of ancient trireme warships. The battle was in essence an "infantry battle on floating platforms".William Stevens, ''History of Sea Power'' (1920),p. 83 It was the largest naval battle in Western history since classical antiquity, involving more than 450 warships. Over the following decades, the increasing importance of the ...
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