Giancarlo de' Medici (24 July 1611 – 22 January 1663) was an Italian

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

of the

House of Medici The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo de' Medici, Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first h ...

. He was the second son of Grand Duke Cosimo II of Tuscany and his wife, Maria Maddalena of Austria, and the brother of

Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando II de' Medici (14 July 1610 – 23 May 1670) was Grand Duchy of Tuscany, grand duke of Tuscany from 1621 to 1670. He was the eldest son of Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Cosimo II de' Medici and Archduchess Maria Mad ...

Biography

He was born at

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, the second son and third child of Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Maria Maddalena of Austria. He entered the ecclesiastical state at a young age. In 1620 he joined the

Sovereign Military Order of Malta The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta, and commonly known as the Order of Malta or the Knights of Malta, is a Catholic lay religious ...

and was named Grand Prior of Pisa. In 1638 he was named General of the Mediterranean Sea. On 14 November 1644 Pope Innocent X created Giancarlo a cardinal-deacon as a token of his affection toward the Medici. Thus forced to give up his military career and with it the title of "General of the Spanish Seas", Giancarlo could not reconcile himself to his new "religious" lifestyle. Cardinal de' Medici participated in the papal conclave, 1655 as one of leaders of the Spanish faction. Pope Alexander VII made Giancarlo responsible for welcoming Queen Christina of Sweden, a new convert to Catholicism, to Rome in 1655. Upon discovering of the closeness that had formed between the two, the Pope sent Gian Carlo back to Florence, declaring him "too handsome and too young" to be "spiritual advisor" to the Queen. Here, Giancarlo led a life of dissipation, taking many mistresses; nevertheless, Ferdinando II delegated to him the management of the state's financial affairs. After one of his mistresses died, "the sexton who buried her said that Cardinal Gian Carlo, remembering the convulsions of that ivory body, came to look once more; and overcome by so much beauty, entered the vault and lay with her for the last time." He murdered a romantic rival, Cavaliere Luna, but his brother, Duke Ferdinando II, did nothing. He was patron of science, letters and music. He founded the ''Accademia degli Immobili'' and contributed to the construction of ''Teatro della Pergola'' and the enrichment of the ''Galleria Palatina di Palazzo Pitti''. In later years, Giancarlo donated his sizeable art collection to form the Pitti Gallery. He died at Florence, of an apoplexy, at the age of 51, and was interred in the Medicean necropolis, the Basilica of San Lorenzo,

.Young, ''The Medici: Volume II'', p 452. Four years after the death of Giancarlo, his younger brother Leopoldo was created a cardinal.

Ancestors

References

Sources

*Acton, Harold: ''The Last Medici'', Macmillan, London, 1980, *Young, G.F.: ''The Medici: Volume II'', John Murray, London, 1920 {{DEFAULTSORT:Medici, Giancarlo De Giancarlo 17th-century Italian cardinals 1611 births 1663 deaths Tuscan princes Burials at San Lorenzo, Florence Sons of dukes