Alessandro had a lot of power when he was the first duke of Florence. He was the patron of some of the leading artists of the era and is one of the two Medici princes whose remains are buried in the famous tomb by Michaelangelo. He was the first black head of state in the modern western world. Alessandro was born in 1510 to a black serving woman in the Medici household who is simply mentioned in existing documents as Simonetta da Collavechio. Historians today are convinced that Alessandro was fathered by the seventeen year old Cardinal Giulio de Medici. His father would later become Pope Clement VII. Cardinal Giulio was the nephew of Lorenzo the Magnificent. When Giulio was being elected Pope in 1523, he was forced to relinquish the lordship of Florence but he appointed a regent for his thirteen year old son Alessandro who had just been created Duke of Penna, and a nephew, Ipollito. They were the last of what has come to be referred to as the elders of the family. …show more content…
When peace was finally made two years later between the Papal and the Imperial factions, Charles V agreed to militarily restore Florence to the Medici. After a restriction of eleven months, Alessandro was brought back as the Emperor 's designated head of state. In 1532, the new Florentine constitution stated Alessandro the permanent gonfalonier of the republic. Though his common sense and his feeling for justice won his subjects ' affection, the others in sympathy with the displaced opposition hated Alessandro and accused him of using his power to sexually exploit the public. However, only two illegitimate children with the possibility of a third, have been attributed to him and even these he fathered with one woman, Taddea Malespina, a distant cousin of