Medici

Medici, Italian banking and political family that long ruled Florence. The Medici first gained prominence in the city in the early 13th century as merchants and moneylenders, and entered public life in the 1260s. Through its extensive European commerce and banking, the family became one of the richest in 15th-century Italy, and it supported the popular faction against the ruling aristocrats in Florence. Cosimo de' Medici the Elder, a shrewd politician, established Medici dominance in Florence from 1434. His grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent perfected Medici control and made the family one of the most powerful in Renaissance Italy. Twice expelled from the city by their political opponents (1494-1512 and 1527-1530), the Medici were both times reinstated with help from Spain.

Two of the most celebrated Renaissance popes, Leo X and Clement VII, were members of the Medici family. Clement made Alessandro de' Medici (1510-1537) Duke of Florence. When Alessandro was assassinated, Cosimo I, a member of the junior branch of the family, succeeded and eventually became (1570) the sovereign Grand Duke of Tuscany. His descendants ruled Florence until 1737. Cosimo's distant cousin Catherine married Henry II of France, and his granddaughter Marie married Henry IV of France.