Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Gian Gastone de ' Medici ( April 24, 1671 *, † July 9, 1737 in Florence ) was the last Grand Duke of Tuscany from the Medici house. He reigned from 1723 to 1737 and was the last male member of the younger branch of the family.

Life

Gian Gastone was in 1697 married to Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe- Lauenburg, the widow of a German prince, with whom he lived in imperial city in Bohemia. The wedding took place in Dusseldorf at the court of his brother Johann Wilhelm and his sister Anna Maria Luisa. Disgusted by his wife and his Bohemian surroundings, he moved as early as next year to France. He returned once more to her, then broke up but finally from her. Since 1713 his brother Ferdinando died childless, the dynasty of the Medici was doomed to extinction.

As Gian Gastone in 1723 took over the government, he ruled over a Grand Duchy in the descent. He began with the badly needed reforms, facilitated the tax burden of the poor, put anti-Semitic laws repealed and ordered the end of public executions. However, he soon fell into inertia and its well-known homosexual inclination led to early speculation about the political heritage loose end of Medici rule. At his death, the Grand Duchy passed to Francis Stephen of Lorraine to replace the husband of Maria Theresa and later Emperor Franz I, the European powers had chosen to Gian Gastone. Tuscany was thus part of the dominions of the Habsburgs, as Francis Stephen Duchy in turn was part of France.

Literature (selection )

• Dominique Fernandez: Le dernier des Médicis. Novel. Grasset, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-246-48701-3. German translation: Revenge of the Medici. Novel. From the French by Wieland Grommes. Diederichs, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-424-01249-1.