Isabella di Cosimo I (1542-1576) 
- Name:
- Isabella di Cosimo I de’ Medici
- Dates:
- Florence, 1542 - Madrid, 1576
- Activity:
- Places:
- Florence, Rome
- Biographical information:
-
Daughter of Cosimo I and Eleonora di Toledo, Isabella is remembered by her contemporaries not only for her beauty, but also for her elegance, vivacity, intelligence and culture. She adored society events, parties, performances and hunting parties and was a great lover of music and art.
In 1555, at the age of just sixteen, she married Paolo Giordano Orsini, Duke of Bracciano (1537-1585), who lived in Rome. A wild and violent man, in 1566 Orsini was appointed general of the papal army by Pope Pius V.After her mother’s death in 1559, Isabella preferred to spend most of her time in Florence where she took over the management of the household of Cosimo I, who had a particular predilection for his daughter. She took up residence in Palazzo Medici in Via Larga, where she gathered around her a small personal court, which was also frequented by artists and intellectuals. She kept with her in Florence her son Virginio, who spent much of his youth in Palazzo Pitti with the scions of the house of Medici, and having reached adulthood entered the service of Ferdinando I.
Orsini was thus able to pursue undisturbed his habitual dissolute life, maintaining an intense amorous liaison with the Roman aristocrat Vittoria Accoramboni. As time went on, spurred by the ambitious intrigues of his lover who was eager to become Duchess of Bracciano, Orsini decided to murder his own wife, Isabella de’ Medici, and Vittoria’s husband, Francesco Peretti.
Isabella, fearing the worst, appealed for hospitality to her cousin Caterina, Queen of France. However, on 16 July 1576 Paolo Orsini arrived in Tuscany and asked his wife to meet him in the Villa of Cerreto Guidi near Empoli. Isabella obeyed, but was murdered there by Orsini, who hanged her with the aid of his hired assassins. The rumour was put about that the murder had been committed to avenge Isabella’s adultery with Troilo Orsini, Paolo Giordano’s cousin.
Isabella’s death took place just a few days after the murder of Dianora (Eleonora) di Toledo, she too killed by her husband, Don Pietro de’ Medici, Isabella’s brother, in another Medici villa, that of Cafaggiolo.
In the following year Troilo was hunted down in Paris, whence he had fled, and killed by order of Isabella’s brother Francesco I, who was then Grand Duke. Paolo Giordano and Vittoria had no alternative but flight; a few years later they both died in Venice.
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