Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/348

 336 The conquest of Siena added to his wealth and power; and in 1509 the pope created him grand-duke of Tuscany. Though accused of the murder of two of his sons and of a daughter, Cosiino had the force of character and ability to command fear, if not respect, from the people over whom he tyrannized. He was a patron of art, and this hereditary taste was continued in his son the grand-duke Francis I. (1575). The school of art founded by Michelangelo had degener ated into feeble exaggerations, without the genius of the great master. Giovanni Bologna and Benvenuto Cellini alone struck out new and original paths ; and the elegance and grace of their works in bronze and marble still adorn the public places of Florence, eclipsing the clumsy produc tions of their contemporaries, Francis was married first to Joanna of Austria, and secondly to a beautiful Venetian lady, Bianca Capello, whose first husband was assassinated to make way for the grand-duke. Francis and Bianca died on the same day, 1587, not without suspicion of having been poisoned by his brother and successor Ferdinand, who resigned a cardinal s hat for the dukedom, and married Princess Christina of Lorraine. A double alliance was formed with France by the union in marriage of his niece Marie de Medici, daughter of Francis, with King Henry IV. Cosimo II. succeeded Ferdinand in 1609. The day of his accession Galileo Galilei discovered the satellites of Jupiter, which, in compliment to the young sovereign, he named &quot; Stelle Medicei.&quot; Sec GALILEO. Ferdinand II. was still a child when he ascended the throne in 1621. He married Vittoria della Rovere, heiress of Urbino ; and though her lands were claimed by the church, she brought a rich dowry to Florence. Ferdinand and his brother Cardinal Leopold added greatly to the art treasures in the galleries, and founded academies of art and science. Cosimo III., who succeeded in 1670, was a narrow- minded bigot, whose marriage with a gay young princess of the court of Louis XIV. of France ended in separation. He died in 1713, leaving one son, Gian Gastone, whose mild character, aversion to the punishment of death, and abolition of oppressive taxes made him popular with his subjects. Commerce, industry, and agriculture flourished during the reign of this last of the Medici. At his death in 1737 he loft no male heirs to the throne. Tuscany had been already assigned by a European agreement the celebrated Prag matic Sanction to Francis duke of Lorraine in compensa tion for his duchy, which had been annexed to France. In 1753 an edict gave Tuscany to the second son of Francis and the empress Maria Theresa ; and two years later, on the death of his father, Pietro Leopoldo of Austria arrived in Florence to take possession of the throne. His short reign marked a new era of progress and reform. The Inquisition was abolished, privileges set aside, and plans proposed for draining and colonizing the Maremma. In 1790 Leopold was called to Vienna to succeed his brother Joseph II. as emperor, and left his younger son Ferdi nand III. grand-duke of Tuscany. By an article of the Pragmatic Sanction, Tuscany had been declared a separate and independent sovereignty; therefore, when, after the outburst of the French Revolution, the emperor Francis If. claimed the assistance of a Tuscan army to restore the Bourbons in France, the great minister Fossombroni refused, declaring that Tuscany was on terms of peace and amity with the French republic. But in 1796 Ferdinand, yield ing to the importunity of the court at Vienna, joined in the war against France, and two years later Florence was occupied by a French army. The first consul, Napoleon Bonaparte, conquered Tuscany, and whilst Ferdinand renounced his rights on condition of a compensation in Germany, one of the Bourbons of Parma was placed on his throne as king of Etruria. Tuscany was annexed to the Frencli empire in 1808, but in 1809 the grand-dachy was restored in favour of Eliza Bonaparte Bacciochi, sister of the emperor Napoleon. Her reign lasted only five years, and after Napoleon had been exiled to Elba, Ferdinand resumed his sovereignty. On this occasion an Austrian, Prince Rospigliosi, was sent to Florence to announce his arrival, and in his proclamation he declared Tuscany to be an inheritance and patrimony of the imperial house of Austria. The vain attempt of Lombardy in 1820 to shake off the Austrian yoke, an attempt in which the crown prince of Piedmont, Carlo Alberto, was secretly implicated, ended in the incarceration of some of the noblest Italian patriots in Austrian fortresses for a period of from 16 to 20 years. It was vain for Fossombroni to protest, and declare that the Tuscan Govern ment did not require Austrian soldiers to play the masters ; Austrian soldiers arrived to occupy Tuscany as well as the other Italian states, and the aulic counsellor Menz wrote to Prince Metternich that &quot; the Tuscan Government, led to reflect on its dangers, had assumed a firmer attitude, and constituted a more active and vigilant police, and, at all events, the respect inspired by Austrian bayonets placed at the gates of Tuscany were sufficient to dispel revolutionary ideas.&quot; Ferdinand died in 1833, and was succeeded by his son Leopold II., who had married a Neapolitan princess. Alarmed by the revolutionary movements of 1847, Leopold, like other Italian princes, granted his people a constitution, but when they further demanded to be led against the Austrians, to assist in driving the foreigner from Italy, he reluctantly permitted the Tuscan army, chiefly consisting of young volunteers, to depart. The enthusiastic youths who fought for the independence of their country displayed unwonted valour at Curtalone and Montanara ; but the grand-duke signified his displeasure by withdrawing titles and pensions from even the surgeons who attended tlio wounded on the field of battle. Among the liberals in Florence who had long been seeking an opportunity to shake off foreign interference in the government of their country, were men of the greatest moderation and virtue, Baron Bettino Ricasoli, the Marchese Cosimo Ridolfi, tho poets Niccolini and Giusti, Salvagnoli, the Marchese Ncri Corsini, and the Marchese Gino Capponi, the last of that family illustrious for virtue, for genius, and for patriotism. 1 The grand-duke, who either shared the principles of his family, or had not courage to place himself at the head of the distinguished men who coincided with the view of the Piedmontese minister Cavour, invited Austrian troops in 1850 again to occupy his dominions, and though Leopold affected to submit to necessity, the Austrian general de clared he would not have come uninvited. This occupa tion lasted six years, during which time the power of life and death of Tuscan subjects was delivered into the hands of the Austrian commanders. When Victor Emmanuel, king of Piedmont and Sardinia, with the assistance of France, made war against Austria for the independence of Italy in 1859, a vain hope was still entertained that Leopold would have consented to unite his army with that of Piedmont ; but the proclamation of war went forth without a sign from Tuscany. On the 27th April 1859 the Tuscan troops unanimously declared their intention to throw down their arms unless they were allowed to join the War of Independence. The liberals insisted on the abdication of Leopold in favour of his son, and on an offen sive and defensive alliance with Piedmont. Leopold de clined these proposals, and quitted Florence with his family, amidst the silence of the assembled multitudes, never to return. 1 Shortly before his death in 1S7G, at upwards of 80 years of age, lie completed his admirable history of the Florentine Republic, Storiu delict Repubblica di Fircnzc di Gino Capponi, 2 torn., 8vo, 1875.