The Murder of a Medici Princess
Women didn’t commit adultery and get away with it in the Medici court
At 2:00 AM, on July 10, 1576, Eleonora di Toledo de Medici (Leonora) fell into bed at the Medici villa at Cafaggiolo, exhausted after a night of dancing. History does not record whom she was with that night, but it was not her husband. At the time, Leonora was rumored to have taken several lovers.
As the niece of the powerful Cosimo I de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leonora had freedoms that most Italian Renaissance women did not. As long as she was discreet, Cosimo did not chastise her for her indulgences.
But the Italians have a proverb, “Quando il gatto non c’è i topi ballano.” It translates as “when the cat isn’t there, the mice dance.” This saying comes with an implied warning — the cat will eventually return. And then the mice are in some serious trouble.
When her Uncle Cosimo died in 1574, Leonora should have curbed her dancing.
Leonora woke that evening to her husband Don Pietro de’ Medici standing over her bed. He had a dog leash in his hands, and Leonora knew what he planned to do with it.
She thrashed against his body, biting his hand and leaving a half-moon wound in his flesh. The household would later recall the sounds of her screams…
