Piero de' Medici (February 15, 1472 – December 28, 1503), called Piero the Unfortunate, was the Gran maestro of Florence from 1492 until his exile in 1494.
Born in Florence, Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici was the oldest son of Lorenzo de' Medici (the Magnificent) and Clarice Orsini, and older brother of Pope Leo X.
He was educated to succeed his father as head of the Medici family and as lord of the Florentine State, under notable figures such as An...
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Piero de' Medici (February 15, 1472 – December 28, 1503), called Piero the Unfortunate, was the Gran maestro of Florence from 1492 until his exile in 1494.
Born in Florence, Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici was the oldest son of Lorenzo de' Medici (the Magnificent) and Clarice Orsini, and older brother of Pope Leo X.
He was educated to succeed his father as head of the Medici family and as lord of the Florentine State, under notable figures such as Angelo Poliziano. However, his feeble, arrogant and undisciplined character was to prove unsuited to such a role.
Piero took over as leader of Florence in 1492. After a short relatively calm period, the fragile pacific equilibrium between the Italian states, laboriously constructed from Piero's father, collapsed two years later (1494) with the decision of the King Charles VIII of France to cross the Alps with an army in order to take the Reign of Naples on which he boasted hereditary rights (1494). Charles had been lured to Italy by Ludovico...
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