"Alessandro de Medici" { July 22,1510-

The son of a Black servant woman named Simonette da Collavechio and the 17-year-old Cardinal Giulio de Medici who later became Pope Clement VII.The young Alessandro's daddy,Cardinal Giulio de Medici was the first Black head of state in the modern western world.On being elected Pope in 1523,Cardinal Giulio was forced to linquish the lordship of Florence but appointed a regent for his 13-year-old son Alessandro who had just created Duke of Penna.A title also went to a nephew Ipolito.Even though both were lllegimate births,they were the last of what has come to be referred to as elder line of the family.Republicanism had grown in Florence under the regent and when Emperor Charles V.sacked Rome in 1527,the Florentines took advantages of the situation to install a more democratic form of government and both Alessandro and Ipolito fled.When peace was finally made two years later between the Papal and the Imperial factions,Charles V.agreed to restore Florence to the Medici.After a siege of 11 months,Alessandro was brought back as the Emperor's designated head of state.In 1532,the new Florentine constitution declared him hereditary Duke of the republic.With the death of his daddy,the pope,in 1534,the exiles attempted to oust Duke de Medici from Florence.The Emperor decided to uphold him and in an obvious show support gave Assandro his own illegitmate daughter Margaret of Austria,as his wife.Despite the security,Lorenzaccio de Medici,a distant cousin who had ingratiated himself in order to win his confidence,assassinated Alessandro a few months after his wedding in 1537.Alessandro African heritage is rarely if ever mentioned.He wielded great power as 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 Michelangelo.