Back
Holiday was nice, good to see some Switzerland and travelled through Alps on a train, Venice good, Florence good.
Enough of that, now I ramble about the Medici and my strange disillusionment.
See, I studied Renaissance Florence as part of my degree. Florence itself is beautiful (though when we were there there was terrible hailstorm that knocked tiles of buildings and smashed car windscreens >.>), as is the copious art and the history is fascinating, but the ongoing history... We started our history studying in the latter part of the 13th century - Florence was a republic back then with a number of guilds, and the more noble families weren't allowed to have anything to do with politics lest they attempt to take it over. The Medici weren't nobles, but really came to prominence as bankers, running the most successful bank in the world at the time. Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici was the one who achieved that, and he didn't take too large a part in politics beyond what was expected of someone of his rank. His son Cosimo (il Vecchio) continued to run their banks well and really started their library and collection of treasures, and - although he had to avoid officially doing so - effectively took over the politics of Florence too. His son didn't live too long after his father's death, but his grandson Lorenzo (the magnificent) was a pretty great diplomat and another great collector and patron of the arts, though he wasn't so fussed with running the banks.
And that pretty much covered the Medici in the period we studied. They weren't perfect and there were various attempts to expel (if not assassinate) them for the power they increasingly held, but they were talented and fairly capable to a point that, even without the pretty bad political corruption in the republic, they may well have deserved their power anyway. But I bought a book about the Rise and Fall of the Medici (they died out in the 18th century) which went on beyond that point.
And as you go on and they more securely hold the power, it becomes awful really. The Medici Bank, the source of their wealth, failed in 1494, but the descendants continued to spend to a ridiculous level they couldn't sustain, and eating ridiculously too, detroying their health. Basically all the talent and virtue (besides interest in collecting things, generally) in the main line was gone. It got a little better again when a cousin branch took over instead, with Grand Duke Cosimo I being a very good military leader, etc, but after a few generations, again, there was the terrible overspending, the quite possibly morbid obesity, and the hold on power without any kind of sign of deserving it. Eventually, like in the mainline, it's almost like the being spoilt and selfish just leads to them dying out as the men - who did tend to listen to their fathers with regards to who they had to marry - were more interested in having bastard children (if they were involving themselves with women at all) than any (surviving) legitimate ones. But given the way the family would go when the successors expected power, the dying out may have been for the best.
I'm sure that's all fairly simplistic, and I'm overattached to the idea of (good) families (see: the legacy challenge), but it is disheartening the way it seems like after a point it's an inexorable slide downwards. I guess the other thing is that it's a positive show for democracy - members were far better when they were competing for power, when it wasn't just going to come to them automatically. Venice was a republic of a kind too and no family ever managed to take that over (until it surrendered to Napoleon in 1797), so their leaders were probably generally better too, or else they wouldn't be in the position.
Oh, and don't even get me started on the ridiculous corruption in the Papacy during the period (there were two Medici popes, one of whom became a cardinal at 13 though they kept it hushed up until he was 16).
Goddammit history, you have like no nice lasting stories.
Enough of that, now I ramble about the Medici and my strange disillusionment.
See, I studied Renaissance Florence as part of my degree. Florence itself is beautiful (though when we were there there was terrible hailstorm that knocked tiles of buildings and smashed car windscreens >.>), as is the copious art and the history is fascinating, but the ongoing history... We started our history studying in the latter part of the 13th century - Florence was a republic back then with a number of guilds, and the more noble families weren't allowed to have anything to do with politics lest they attempt to take it over. The Medici weren't nobles, but really came to prominence as bankers, running the most successful bank in the world at the time. Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici was the one who achieved that, and he didn't take too large a part in politics beyond what was expected of someone of his rank. His son Cosimo (il Vecchio) continued to run their banks well and really started their library and collection of treasures, and - although he had to avoid officially doing so - effectively took over the politics of Florence too. His son didn't live too long after his father's death, but his grandson Lorenzo (the magnificent) was a pretty great diplomat and another great collector and patron of the arts, though he wasn't so fussed with running the banks.
And that pretty much covered the Medici in the period we studied. They weren't perfect and there were various attempts to expel (if not assassinate) them for the power they increasingly held, but they were talented and fairly capable to a point that, even without the pretty bad political corruption in the republic, they may well have deserved their power anyway. But I bought a book about the Rise and Fall of the Medici (they died out in the 18th century) which went on beyond that point.
And as you go on and they more securely hold the power, it becomes awful really. The Medici Bank, the source of their wealth, failed in 1494, but the descendants continued to spend to a ridiculous level they couldn't sustain, and eating ridiculously too, detroying their health. Basically all the talent and virtue (besides interest in collecting things, generally) in the main line was gone. It got a little better again when a cousin branch took over instead, with Grand Duke Cosimo I being a very good military leader, etc, but after a few generations, again, there was the terrible overspending, the quite possibly morbid obesity, and the hold on power without any kind of sign of deserving it. Eventually, like in the mainline, it's almost like the being spoilt and selfish just leads to them dying out as the men - who did tend to listen to their fathers with regards to who they had to marry - were more interested in having bastard children (if they were involving themselves with women at all) than any (surviving) legitimate ones. But given the way the family would go when the successors expected power, the dying out may have been for the best.
I'm sure that's all fairly simplistic, and I'm overattached to the idea of (good) families (see: the legacy challenge), but it is disheartening the way it seems like after a point it's an inexorable slide downwards. I guess the other thing is that it's a positive show for democracy - members were far better when they were competing for power, when it wasn't just going to come to them automatically. Venice was a republic of a kind too and no family ever managed to take that over (until it surrendered to Napoleon in 1797), so their leaders were probably generally better too, or else they wouldn't be in the position.
Oh, and don't even get me started on the ridiculous corruption in the Papacy during the period (there were two Medici popes, one of whom became a cardinal at 13 though they kept it hushed up until he was 16).
Goddammit history, you have like no nice lasting stories.