The Black Prince of Florence

Ruler of Florence for seven bloody years, 1531 to 1537, Alessandro de' Medici was arguably the first person of color to serve as a head of state in the Western world. Born out of wedlock to a dark-skinned maid and Lorenzo de' Medici, he was the last legitimate heir to the line of Lorenzo the
Magnificent. When Alessandro's noble father died of syphilis, the family looked to him. Groomed for power, he carved a path through the backstabbing world of Italian politics in a time when cardinals, popes, and princes vied for wealth and advantage. By the age of nineteen, he was prince of
Florence, inheritor of the legacy of the grandest dynasty of the Italian Renaissance.

Alessandro faced down family rivalry and enormous resistance from Florence's oligarchs, who called him a womanizer-which he undoubtedly was--and a tyrant. Yet this real-life counterpart to Machiavelli's Prince kept his grip on power until he was assassinated at the age of 26 during a late-night
tryst arranged by his scheming cousins. After his death, his brief but colorful reign was criticized by those who had murdered him in a failed attempt to restore the Florentine republic. For the first time, the true story is told in The Black Prince of Florence.

Catherine Fletcher tells the riveting tale of Alessandro's unexpected rise and spectacular fall, unraveling centuries-old mysteries, exposing forgeries, and bringing to life the epic personalities of the Medicis, Borgias, and others as they waged sordid campaigns to rise to the top. Drawing on new
research and first-hand sources, this biography of a most intriguing Renaissance figure combines archival scholarship with discussions of race and class that are still relevant today.

"Ruler of Florence for seven bloody years, 1531 to 1537, Alessandro de' Medici was arguably the first person of color to serve as a head of state in the Western world. Born out of wedlock to a dark-skinned maid and Lorenzo de' Medici, he was the last legitimate heir to the line of Lorenzo the Magnificent. When Alessandro's noble father died of syphilis, the family looked to him. Groomed for power, he carved a path through the backstabbing world of Italian politics in a time when cardinals, popes, and princes vied for wealth and advantage. By the age of nineteen, he was prince of Florence, inheritor of the legacy of the grandest dynasty of the Italian Renaissance. Alessandro faced down family rivalry and enormous resistance from Florence's oligarchs, who called him a womanizer-which he undoubtedly was--and a tyrant. Yet this real-life counterpart to Machiavelli's Prince kept his grip on power until he was assassinated at the age of 26 during a late-night tryst arranged by his scheming cousins. After his death, his brief but colorful reign was criticized by those who had murdered him in a failed attempt to restore the Florentine republic. For the first time, the true story is told in The Black Prince of Florence. Catherine Fletcher tells the riveting tale of Alessandro's unexpected rise and spectacular fall, unraveling centuries-old mysteries, exposing forgeries, and bringing to life the epic personalities of the Medicis, Borgias, and others as they waged sordid campaigns to rise to the top. Drawing on new research and first-hand sources, this biography of a most intriguing Renaissance figure combines archival scholarship with discussions of race and class that are still relevant today."--Provided by publisher.

"[O]ffers an engrossing envoi that contextualizes this prince's little-known legacy....Sure-footed and novelistic....[O]ffers fresh research while also soliciting a broad popular readership."--John Gagn�, The Historian

"[A]n enviably accessible and entertaining prose style...Recommended."--CHOICE

"[A] gripping narrative...It is impossible to finish this medieval melodrama without thinking that it would make a riveting series for an enterprising TV producer."--The Economist

"Fletcher's first book, The Divorce of Henry VIII, was a study of Vatican intrigue that demonstrated her ability to use rarely accessed Italian archives to create a gripping and original account of a well-worn subject. Here she has used the same skills to even greater effect, creating a compelling
portrait of a forgotten man--himself both brutal and brutalised--once at the very heart of the Renaissance world order. Her narrative follows the extraordinary arc of Alessandro's life closely, but also uses it to illuminate the bloody opulence of Renaissance Italian politics in all its squalid,
operatic glory." --The Financial Times

"Nothing in sixteenth century history is more astonishing to our era than the career of Alessandro de' Medici. His story, told by an exact and fluent historian, challenges our preconceptions. Catherine Fletcher's eye for the skewering detail makes the citizens of renaissance Florence live again:
courtesans and cardinals, artists and assassins." --Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall

"Fletcher displays an excellent comprehension of the Medici family and Renaissance political maneuvering. The connections between ruling and royal families, intermarriages, feuds, and assassinations can boggle the mind, but she carefully separates friends from enemies... Medici fans will expand
their awareness of the family's broad reach, and Renaissance students will discover Machiavelli's models for The Prince." --Kirkus

"This is an accomplished and original account of an extraordinary and much misrepresented episode in Italian history. Catherine Fletcher provides a newly sympathetic portrait of a monarch whose rule in Florence was even more unlikely than Henry VII's presence on the English throne." --Diarmaid
MacCulloch, author of The Reformation

"In this revelatory work, Fletcher rescues [Allessandro de' Medici] from the well-known caricature his opponents manufactured while revealing his strengths and weaknesses as an often populist Medici prince...Throughout this compelling narrative, de' Medici's unlikely story and extraordinary life
finally feel revealed as Fletcher gives him a welcome new complex legacy." --Publishers Weekly, Fall 2016 "Top Ten Picks for History"

"Fletcher paints a perceptive picture of mixed loyalties, jealousy and duplicity... The most revealing arguments of the book regard Alessandro's ethnicity and what it did, or more importantly did not, signify to contemporaries. Fletcher's book is extensively researched and, like the best stories, a
compelling read." --Historical Novels Review

"A scintillating book that glisters and gleams with stabbings, poisonings, adultery and intrigue-and a startling reminder of how visceral and dangerous Renaissance Florence was. The drama of events is perfectly complemented by careful scholarship and lucid writing. This is everything a historical
biography should be." --Ian Mortimer, author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England

"Packed with intrigue...Fletcher describes with cool menace the plotting and politicking that dominated Alessandro's rule... brought splendidly to life in this excellent book." --Dan Jones, Sunday Times (UK)

"Like a detective, Fletcher interrogates her witnesses...But it is among the detailed records of Alessandro's wardrobe-keepers that she finds her treasure...These lend her narrative a sensuous vividity." --Frances Wilson, Sunday Telegraph (UK)

"As gripping as Othello... Fletcher's approach is scholarly yet dramatic, immersed in Renaissance glamour." --The Spectator

"Bold, Breathless and full of suspense." -- Daisy Dunn, The Times (UK)

"Catherine Fletcher is entirely at ease amid the Renaissance world and its archival resources, and her details, particularly those involving dress, feasting, and ceremonial, are generously deployed in the work of recovering a neglected episode of Florentine history." --Literary Review

"Fletcher recounts [Alessandro de' Medici's] life, and even more so the times, in clear and often vivid prose with an eye for interesting detail." --Los Angeles Review of Books

"The Black Prince is a dark and murderous tale that is exceptionally well-told. It leaves the reader rushing from page to page wanting more."--New York Journal of Books

"Fletcher's research is impeccable... and her attention to detail proves excellent."--Washington Free Beacon

"An absorbing tale of betrayal and deadly political alliances during the Renaissance."--Washington Independent Review of Books

"Alessandro de' Medici's life in sixteenth-century Italy speaks volumes about the emerging category of race. In the time since his death, Alessandro has been accorded a dual identity: as the black tyrant who put a violent end to the republican liberty of Florence and as the first person of black
African ancestry to rule a major city-state during the Renaissance. Both stories settle on race as definitive of Alessandro's historical significance, notwithstanding the fact that a clear definition of race cannot be had." -- Renaissance Quarterly

"With meticulous attention to detail, in The Black Prince of Florence Catherine Fletcher eloquently sets the life of Alessandro against the backdrop of papal power and crisis of dynastic legitimacy."--Renaissance and Reformation