“Signor Cosimo,” wrote Benedetto Varchi, “arrived in Florence with but a few followers.  As the son of Signor Giovanni, of fair aspect and having always displayed a kindly disposition and a good understanding, he was liked greatly by the populace, and they hailed him as heir to Duke Alessandro, with marked affection.  Affecting neither grief nor joy, he rode on with an air of serene importance, showing rather his merit for the throne than his wish for it.  Dismounting at the palace, he visited Cardinal Cibo, and expressing his regret at the Duke’s sanguinary death, went on to say that like a good son of Florence he had come to place not only his fortunes but his life at the service of his country.”

Cosimo was named Head of the State, not Duke, on four conditions:—­

1.  To render justice indifferently to rich and poor.

2.  Never to disagree with the policy of the Emperor.

3.  To avenge the death of Duke Alessandro.

4.  To treat his three illegitimate children with kindness.

Those who come to the front through their own genius or their destiny, upon the first step of the throne accept the conditions of their appointment, but, upon the last step, they commonly impose their own upon their makers.  Consequently, although but a youth of nineteen years of age at the time of his opportune arrival in Florence, Cosimo at once showed his intention of assuming personally and untrammelled the government of the State.  Cardinal Cibo and Francesco de’ Guicciardini, who had been the first to recognise not only his claim but his fitness to rule, were very tactfully set aside, and others, who might be expected to assert powers of direction and supervision, were quietly assigned to positions where they could not interfere with his freedom of action.

Within six months of his acclamation by the people as “Head of the State,” Cosimo obtained from the Emperor Charles V. the full recognition of his title of Duke of Florence.

There were great doings at the Palazzo Medici in the May of 1539, when Cosimo welcomed his bride, Donna Eleanora, second daughter of Don Pedro de Toledo, Duca d’Alba, the King of Spain’s Viceroy at Naples.  She was certainly no beauty, but a woman of estimable qualities, and profoundly imbued with the spirit of devotion.  Hardly, perhaps, the wife Cosimo would have chosen, had not reasons of State as usual guided him.  Eleanora, nevertheless, proved herself a worthy spouse and an exemplary mother.

Within the palace Eleanora was shocked to find a little child, “La Bia”—­short for “Bambina,” “Baby”—­she was called, some two years old.  No one seemed to know quite who was her mother.  Some said she was a village girl of Trebbio, and others, a young gentlewoman of Florence.  Only Cosimo’s mother, Madonna Maria, knew, and she refused to reveal the girl’s identity, but she admitted that “La Bia” was Cosimo’s child.  Eleanora would not tolerate her presence in the palace, so Cosimo sent her off with several attendants to the Villa del Castello, where, perhaps fortunately, she died on the last day of February the following year.