catalina-de-aragon: Italian history: Bianca Capello (1548 – 1587) She was daughter of Bartolom

catalina-de-aragon:Italian history:Bianca Capello (1548 – 1587)She was daughter of Bartolomeo Capello and Pellegrina Morosini, a member of one of the richest and noblest Venetian families. Not much is known about her childhood, but by the time she reached adolescence, she was known for her great beauty, with reddish blond hair and a voluptuous figure. At the age of fifteen, Bianca scandalized her family by secretly marrying Florentine Pietro Buonaventura. Maria Donati, the Capello family’s maid who assisted in the couple’s romance, was put to death for her complicity with Bianca’s deception. Pietro had lured Bianca Capello into marriage under false pretenses by claiming he was a member of the wealthy Salvati family. In reality, he was only a clerk in the Venetian branch of the Salvati bank. With the help of his uncle, Giovan Battista Buonaventuri, the newlyweds fled to Florence to escape her family’s wrath. Giovan was imprisoned for his involvement. Bianca’s hopes for an illustrious life in Florence were dashed when Pietro brought her to his small family home. His parents were poor, and she was mistreated by his mother. Not long after arriving in Florence, Bianca had a daughter named Pellegrina. Though Bianca was miserable in Florence and her family urged her to move back to Venice, she never returned over fears of being murdered to restore the family’s honor. In Florence, Bianca lived in constant terror that hired henchmen might kidnap her and bring her back to Venice. Although there is disagreement among scholars, many believe that Bianca first met Prince Francesco, the heir to the Florentine Medici fortune, when Pietro Buonaventura took her to visit Grand Duke Cosimo I, to fight a Venetian petition to send Bianca back to her father. Most agree that Cosimo decided to ignore the petition when he realized that his son had fallen in love with Bianca Capello. The alternative and more popular version of their meeting recounts a depressed Bianca, who was sitting in her in-laws’ second story window when Francesco passed on his way to his personal laboratory. Francesco, who was famous for his lack of interest in women and obsession with alchemy, poison making, and porcelain, decided that he had to know the beautiful woman in the window. Though already married to Archduchess Joanna of Austria, Francesco arranged for a meeting with Bianca with the help of his chamberlain, Fabio de Mandragone, and his wife, Ana de Pontes.Bianca and Francesco de’ Medici become lovers, a relationship which profited the Buonaventura family. In 1564, Pietro was appointed to the Medici court to work as a guardoba. In 1569 he was promoted to the head of the office, which gave him and Bianca access to the court. Francesco gave Bianca jewels, money and other presents. She became a close friend of Francesco’s wife, until Joanna of Austria discovered their affair some time later. But despite his wife’s protest, Francesco refused to have Bianca removed from court. Even Cosimo, the head of the Medici household, refused to help her remove Bianca because of Joanna’s hostility towards his own mistress, Camilla Martelli. For the sake of decorum, Joanna refused to attend any social events that Bianca Capello was invited to, just as she did with Camilla. However, this did not have the desired effect: Francesco began accompanying Bianca around Florence as if she were his wife.Bianca’s husband consoled himself with other ladies. In 1572 Pietro Buonaventura was ambushed and killed on the Ponte Santa Trinita. He was murdered by the brothers of his mistress, whom they also killed for shaming the family. Though many suspected the assassins were actually Francesco’s doing. On the death of Cosimo in 1574, Francesco succeeded to the grand duchy; he now installed Bianca in a palace close to his own and outraged his wife by flaunting his mistress before her. The Medici family was divided in its reactions: several family members, most vocally Francesco’s brother, Cardinal Ferdinando, voiced opposition to the illicit relationship. As Joanna had borne Francesco only one son, Filippo, who died as a juvenile, and six daughters, of whom, only two lived to adulthood, Bianca was very anxious to present him with an heir, for otherwise her position would remain very insecure. In 1576 Bianca gave birth to Antonio de’ Medici, but he was not openly acknowledged as Francesco’s heir until after Joanna’s death, when the boy was about three years old. When the Grand Duchess Joanna died in 1578, Francesco and Bianca were married, first secretly at Palazzo Pitti, then very publicly in a ceremony at the Duomo in 1579, to which Bianca arrived in a carriage drawn by lions. Florentines hated Bianca Capello and spread rumors that she was a witch, that she possessed the evil eye, and that she had poisoned Joanna of Austria in order to gain more control over the Medici family. Now the Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Bianca was forgiven by her family and the Venetian doges, who named her a “true and particular daughter of the Republic.” Settled into married life, Bianca invited her brother Vittorio to join her, making more enemies at court and further fueling the long-standing rumors of espionage for Venice.In October 1587, Francesco became alarmingly ill and died a few days later. Two days after that, Bianca Capello died from the same mysterious illness. Two stories regarding Bianca and Francesco’s death circulated after evidence for arsenic poisoning was found. The first alleged that Bianca died from her own poison in a plot to kill Cardinal Ferdinando, while the second contended that it was Cardinal Ferdinando who poisoned Bianca and Francesco. In 2006, forensic and toxicology experts at the University of Florence reported evidence of arsenic poisoning in a study published in the British Medical Journal, but in 2010 evidence of the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which causes malaria, was found in Francesco’s remains.“I believe that the high arsenic concentrations found by the researchers were due to the frequent use of arsenic mixtures in embalming. Francesco died of pernicious malaria,” Gino Fornaciari, professor of forensic anthropology and director of the Pathology Museum at the University of Pisa, said.Cardinal Ferdinando, the new Grand Duke, did not allow Bianca Capello an official state funeral. This meant that Capello was buried anonymously. When Bernardo Buontalenti asked Grand Duke where his sister-in-law would be buried, he reportedly replied, “Wherever you like, we will not have her among us.” However, recent evidence suggests that Bianca Capello was buried near the church of Santa Maria a Bonistallo, located near the place where she died.(x)(x)(x)Bianca Capello in documentary “Die Akte Medici” -- source link

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