Queer Places:
Basilica di San Lorenzo, Piazza di San Lorenzo, 9, 50123 Firenze FI, Italia
Gian Gastone de' Medici (Giovanni Battista Gastone; 24 May 1671 – 9 July
1737) was the seventh and last Medicean Grand Duke of Tuscany. He was the
second son of Grand Duke Cosimo III and Marguerite Louise d'Orléans.[1]
His sister, Electress Palatine Anna Maria Luisa, arranged his marriage to the
wealthy and widowed Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg in 1697. The couple
despised each other and had no children. As Grand Prince Ferdinando, Gian
Gastone's elder brother, predeceased Cosimo III, Gian Gastone succeeded his
father in 1723.
His reign was marked by the reversal of his predecessor's conservative
policy; he abolished taxes for poorer people, repealed penal laws which
restricted Jews and discontinued public executions.[2]
The Medici were wanting in male heirs; his father, Cosimo III, wanted the
Electress Palatine to succeed Gian Gastone. However, Spain, Great Britain,
Austria and the
Dutch Republic disregarded Cosimo's plan and appointed Charles of
Spain—whose mother, Elisabeth Farnese, was a great-granddaughter of Margherita
de' Medici—Gian Gastone's heir.[3]
Charles later transferred his claim to Francis Stephen of Lorraine pursuant to
a preliminary peace that was finalized in 1738.[4]
Francis Stephen duly succeeded at Gian Gastone's demise, on 9 July 1737,
ending almost 300 years of Medici rule over Florence. For the latter part of
his reign, Gian Gastone chose to remain confined in his bed, tended by his
entourage, the Ruspanti.[5]
My published books:
BACK TO HOME PAGE
-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gian_Gastone_de%27_Medici,_Grand_Duke_of_Tuscany#References