![\"(c)](\"https:\/\/ladyjanegrey.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Medici.jpg\")
<\/a>(c) Bodley Head<\/p><\/div>\n
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‘Alessandro de\u2019 Medici is thought to be the first black head of state in the modern West. This is the first biography in two hundred years to tell the story of his spectacular life.<\/p>\n
Between 1531 and 1537, Alessandro\u2019s reign as prince of Florence was as magnificently colourful as it was short. The bastard son of a Medici duke and a \u2018half-Negro\u2019 maidservant, he was propelled to power at the age of only nineteen after the grandest dynasty of the Italian Renaissance lost its last legitimate heir. Betrothed to the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor, he faced down bloody family rivalry and enormous hostility from Florence\u2019s oligarchs, who called him a womaniser and tyrant. Yet this real-life counterpart to Machiavelli\u2019s Prince kept his grip on power until he was assassinated during a late-night assignation by his scheming cousin.<\/p>\n
From dazzling palaces and Tuscan villas to the treacherous backstreets of Florence and the corridors of papal power, this dramatic biography draws on extensive archival research to overturn our perceptions both of the history of race and of the Italian Renaissance.<\/p>\n
From Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/I><\/p>\n Further details – Catherine Fletcher<\/a><\/p>\n Further details – Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n 21 April 2016 – The Black Prince of Florence by Catherine Fletcher ‘Alessandro de\u2019 Medici is thought to be the first black head of state in the modern West. This is the first biography in two hundred years to tell … Continue reading
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