Between fifteen and eighteen we have few records of Cosimo’s life and no hint as to where he was during the terrible years of tyranny and debauchery in Florence.  Anyhow, Duke Alessandro owed him no kindness, nor did he enter into any relations with him.  What dealings he had with Lorenzino and Giuliano, his cousins, are unknown.  They were nearer the succession to the ducal throne than himself—­indeed, the former was regarded as next heir to Alessandro.  In all probability the young man lived with his mother at the villa at Castello which had belonged to his father, and kept himself very much out of sight.

* * * * *

The news of Duke Alessandro’s assassination very soon got about, and groups of citizens gathered in the Via Larga and also in the Piazza del Signoria.  Although considerable excitement pervaded those assemblages, the people remained quiet and self-controlled.  “Everybody,” as Benedetto Varchi has recorded, “spoke out quite fully, as though no one doubted but that the Greater Council of the city would at once be summoned.  They debated as to who would be chosen Gonfaloniere, and whether for life or not.  Meanwhile the Council of Forty-eight had assembled at the Medici Palace at the call of the Cardinal (Cibo), and were in conference in the long gallery upstairs.”

Cardinal Cibo was the son of Maddalena de’ Medici, Lorenzo il Magnifico’s eldest daughter.  He with Francesco de’ Guicciardini and Francesco de’ Vettori had constituted themselves, in a sort of way, mentors and advisers to the murdered Duke, who was only too glad to free himself of some of the distasteful duties of State, and confide them to anyone who would relieve him of them.

As for a successor to Alessandro, the Cardinal at first suggested Giulio, the Duke’s bastard son, a child of eight years of age.  The Council scouted the idea of another regency, and intimated plainly their intention to seek an adult Head of the Government.  Full powers were given to the triumvirate to carry on State business during the interregnum—­a decision which greatly displeased the populace.  On dispersing from the conference the councillors were greeted with derisive cries—­“If you cannot make up your minds, we must do it for you!”

During the adjournment the Cardinal and his two successors took counsel with the Strozzi and other influential men in and beyond Florence, and called to their aid the four Florentine Cardinals, Salviati, Gaddi, Pucci, and Ridolfi.  Paul III.—­naturally anxious to have a finger in the pie—­despatched Roberto negli Strozzi with fifteen hundred mounted men to hold Montepulciano, and at the same time directed the Cardinals to join him there.  The Papal nominee was Giuliano, younger brother of Lorenzino, the Duke’s murderer—­an entirely impossible choice.