Madonna Maria, Messer Jacopo de’ Salviati’s daughter, the widow of Giovanni de’ Medici, “delle Bande Nere,” who resided near Lorenzino, certainly heard loud cries which terrified her, but it was not an unusual occurrence. Lorenzino had, in his villainous scheme, devised a cunning decoy to accustom neighbours and passers-by to noisy behaviour. He had repeatedly gathered in his house groups of young men with swords, whom he instructed to cross their weapons as in serious self-defence, and to cry out “Murder!” “Help!” and such like.
The first intimation of the tragedy was furnished by Lorenzino’s porter, who kept his keys—that of the bedchamber was missing and the door was locked! The man sought an interview with Cardinal Cibo, then in Florence, and his former master, and told him his fears. The door was, by his order, forced and then, of course, the terrible truth was made clear.
Under the pain of losing their heads, the Cardinal commanded absolute secrecy on the part of the domestics and guards who had looked upon that gruesome corpse. At the same time he ordered the game of “Saracino” to be played in the Piazza close by, to remove the fears of a fast gathering crowd of citizens. When asked if he knew where the Duke was, he replied quite casually: “Oh, don’t worry about the Duke, he’s in bed of course, sleeping off the effects of last night’s conviviality. He’ll appear when he thinks fit. Go away and mind your own affairs.”
Somehow or another at last the news leaked out that Alessandro was dead, and that Lorenzino had killed him. Cardinal Cibo convened the Council of Forty-eight to discuss the situation. To him full powers were accorded to administer the government for three days, until a settlement was reached. This decision was most unpopular with the citizens, who began to rise in opposition.
Just when another bloody revolution seemed imminent, Cosimo de’ Medici, the young son of Giovanni “delle Bande Nere,” rode into the city, accompanied by a few of his friends. Everywhere he was hailed with enthusiastic cries—“Evviva il Giovanni e il Cosimo.”
The young Duchess Margaret fled precipitately from the Via Larga to the fortress of San Giovanni, which Alessandro had only just built and fortified. With her went three young children—not her own indeed, for she had proved to be barren,—but children she found in her husband’s house. By Florentine law they were recognised as belonging to the family, and no one troubled about their precise origin.
These little ones were probably the issue of the Duke by a handsome contadina employed in the palace, who went by the name of Anna da Massa. Francesco Guicciardini, however, says she was the Marchesa da Massa, a noble lady, one of Alessandro’s chief favourites. Giulio, some five years old, became a soldier, and died Prior of the new military Order of St Stephen of Pisa; Porczia died an enclosed nun in Rome; and Giulia married Francesco de’ Barthelemmi.
Margaret herself married Ottavio Farnese, Prince of Nepi and Camerino, a lad of sixteen years of age, and, a second time, being left a widow, she espoused the Duke of Parma, and died in 1586—fifty years after her ill-starred marriage with Alessandro de’ Medici.
It was reputed that shortly before his assassination, a Greek soothsayer one day stopped the Duke’s cortege in the street, and cried out, so that all might hear: “Alessandro, Duke of Florence, thou shall be slain by a relative, a thin man, small of stature, and dark of countenance. He will have one accomplice. Beware!”
As for Lorenzino, whilst no action was taken publicly in Florence against him—for, secretly all men, and openly the majority, praised his act—there was a party whose members were sworn to avenge Alessandro’s blood. They enlisted a service of irreconcilables to track the murderer to his death.