Florence & Tuscany - Italy - page 948

evidence suggests the presence of an earlier village founded by the Etruscans of Fiesole
around 200 BC.
In the 12th century Florence became a free comune (town council), ruled by 12 priori
(consuls) assisted by the Consiglio di Cento (Council of One Hundred), drawn mainly
from the merchant class. Agitation among different factions led to the appointment of a
foreign governing podestà (magistrate) in 1207.
The first conflicts between two of the factions, the pro-papal Guelphs (Guelfi) and the
pro-imperial Ghibellines (Ghibellini), started in the mid-13th century, with power passing
between the two groups for almost a century.
A plague in 1348 halved the city's population and in 1378 the government was rocked
by a revolt by the city's ciompi (wool carders), who sought a greater voice in the comune
's decision-making processes. Though initially successful, the major and minor guilds
soon closed ranks to re-establish the old order, with members of the Medici family,
bankers to the pope, taking a major role in the city's government.
In 1434, Cosimo il Vecchio (the Elder, also known simply as Cosimo de' Medici,
1389-1464) became Florence's de facto ruler. His eye for talent saw a constellation of
artists such as Alberti, Brunelleschi, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Donatello, Fra' Angelico and Fra'
Filippo Lippi flourish.
The rule of Lorenzo il Magnifico (1469-92), Cosimo's grandson, ushered in the most
glorious period of Florentine civilisation and of the Italian Renaissance. His court fostered
a flowering of art, music and poetry, turning Florence into Italy's cultural capital. Not long
before Lorenzo's death, the Medici bank failed and the family was driven out of Florence.
The city fell under the control of Savonarola, a Dominican monk who led a puritanical re-
public, burning the city's wealth on his 'bonfire of vanities'. His lure proved to be short-
lived, and after falling from favour he was tried as a heretic and executed in 1498.
After the Spanish defeated Florence in 1512, Emperor Charles V married his daughter
to Lorenzo's great-grandson Alessandro de' Medici, whom he made duke of Florence in
1530. Seven years later Cosimo I, one of the last truly capable Medici rulers, took charge,
becoming grand duke of Tuscany after Siena fell to Florence in 1569.
In 1737 the grand duchy of Tuscany passed to the French House of Lorraine, which re-
tained control, apart from a brief interruption under Napoleon, until it was incorporated
into the Kingdom of Italy in 1860. Florence briefly became the national capital but Rome
assumed the mantle permanently in 1870.