In the suite of Duchess Eleanora de Toledo were several young relatives, bound to her by ties of affection and looking to her for patronage and advancement.  The ranks of these dependants were constantly being recruited by young people of noble birth, for whom the exceptional educational advantages obtainable in Florence were strong attractions.

One of these was the Duchess’s niece and godchild—­Donna Eleanora, the daughter of her brother, Don Garzia de Toledo.  Born in 1553 in Naples, where her father kept his Court as Viceroy for the King of Spain, the child lost her mother when she was only seven years old.  The Duchess Eleanora adopted her and sent to Naples for her, and little Eleanora de Garzia was brought up with the children of Cosimo and Eleanora, and she was regarded by them as their sister.

Upon the Duchess’ melancholy death in 1562, her daughter Isabella, Duchess of Bracciano, acted the part of mother, young as she was, and only just two years married.  She had no child of her own, and, apparently, no promise of one, anyhow by her husband; and the lively, pretty little Spanish girl, nestling upon her knee, much consoled her in her disappointment.

At fourteen, Eleanora de Garzia was, as Antonio Lapini has described her:  “Beautiful, elegant, gracious, kindly, charming, affable, and, above all, possessed of two eyes rivalling the stars in brilliancy.”  She was also a clever girl, and her studies had been carried on in companionship with the younger children of her aunt—­Garzia, Ferdinando, and Piero.  The strictness of their control was loosened when the Duke became a widower, and he does not seem to have done anything to guard the morals of his young children.

The Court of Florence was not the place in which to rear, in ways of obedience and steadiness, young boys and girls, and Eleanora and her “brothers” were left pretty much to themselves, save for the indulgent guardianship of their tutors and attendants.  To be sure, Don Ferdinando was sent off to Rome when he was fourteen, and was enrolled in the Sacred College.  Don Garzia’s tragic death in 1562 left Don Piero the sole playmate of little Eleanora—­a strange act of Providence.

Duke Cosimo was not quite inconsolable for the loss of his Spanish wife; he had, during her lifetime, set an evil example in Florence for libertinage and unchastity.  Every good-looking girl, in city or at Court, in one way or another, received his amorous attentions; and the halo which surrounded his first acclamation as Duke, and which he earned well, be it said, became dimmed by the execrations of many disgraced and suffering households.  Men and women saw the bad days of Duke Alessandro revived, and Florence, after a temporary purgation, became once more the sink of iniquity.

When the Duke laid aside, in 1564, his sovereignty, it was that he might give reins to his passions, and, of the many girls he ruined, probably not one he loved better or longer than Eleanora degli Albizzi.  At Villa del Castello he had his harem.  This was the example Cosimo de’ Medici set his wayward, precocious son Piero, and the lad followed it to his heart’s content, until his escapades became so notorious, and raised up such a storm of resentment amongst the citizens, that his father was forced to intervene.