Double-headed eagle

Eleonora of Toledo, the wife of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1519 – 1574), great-grandson of Cosimo the Elder and a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, was brought up in Naples at the household of Jacob Abarbanel’s son Don Samuel Abarbanel and daughter-in-law Benvenida.[1] Their children would intermarry with the important houses of Este, Sforza and Savoy, who were hereditary claimants of the Kingdom of Jerusalem—producing several Grand Masters of the so-called Priory of Sion, popularized in Dan Brown’s sensationalistic The Da Vinci Code. According to the genealogical research of Ian Mladjov, through two trajectories—from Agatha of Bulgaria through the Plantagenets, and from the Palaiologos dynasty of Montferrat who ruled the Byzantine Empire and employed the heraldic symbol of the double-headed eagle—the House of Savoy can trance their descent to the Bagratuni dynasty of Armenia who claimed Jewish descent.[2]

The double-headed eagle or double-eagle is an ancient motif that appears in Mycenaean Greece and in the Ancient Near East, especially in Hittite iconography. One of the earliest examples is Anzû, a lesser divinity or monster in several Mesopotamian religions, depicted as a lion-headed eagle with wings outspread, grasping a lion in each talon. Anzu was an important influence for the figure of Tiamat, the Mesopotamian sea-serpent or dragon defeated by Marduk, or Bel, a crucial and decisive event in the Babylonian epic of creation, Enuma elish. Like the Baal Epic, the Tiamat myth is one of the earliest recorded versions of the Chaoskampf, the battle between a culture hero and a chthonic or aquatic serpent or dragon, which later evolved into the legend of Saint George and the dragon.[3]

The eagle has been the coat of arms of the ancient Arsacid, Mamikonyan, and Bagratuni dynasties of Armenia. The use of double-headed eagle or double-eagle dates back to Mycenaean Greece and in the Ancient Near East, especially in Hittite iconography. In the eleventh and thirteenth century, representations have also been found in Islamic Spain, France and the Serbian principality of Raška. From the thirteenth century onward, it became even more widespread, and was used in the Islamic world by the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum and the Mamluk Sultanate. By about the tenth century, the double-headed eagle appears in Byzantine art, but as an imperial emblem only much later, during the final century of the Palaiologos dynasty.

The Seljuk, like the Hungarians, were descended from Turks, from whom they inherited the mythological symbol of the Turul hawk. According to Hungarian legends, Emese, the mother of Almos, the father of Arpad, the founder of the Hungarian nation, was impregnated by the Turul hawk in a dream. Simon of the Gesta, who wrote the Hunnorum et Hungarorum in the late thirteenth century, identified the hawk by the Turkic word turul and then called Árpád “of the Turul kindred.” According to the Hungarian Illuminated Chronicle of the fourteenth century, “On his shield, Attila used to carry a coat of arms, in the likeness of a hawk86 with crowned head. So long as they governed themselves as a community, until the times of the Duke Géza, son of Taksony [grandson of Arpad], all the Hungarians in the army carried this sign.”[4]

The German Imperial Eagle, or Reichsadler, is believed to have been used by Charlemagne, derived ultimately from the Aquila or eagle standard, of the Roman army. Frederick Barbarossa popularized the use of the eagle as the Imperial emblem by using it in all his banners, coats of arms, coins and insignia. Judith of Bavaria, the mother of Frederick Barbarossa, was the granddaughter of Magnus Billung, Duke of Saxony, and Sophia of Hungary, the daughter of Bela I of Hungary and Richeza of Poland, the granddaughter of Boleslav the Brave, the son of Dobrawa of Bohemia and Mieszko I of Poland, whose father was Boleslav I the Cruel, who acted as the conduit for the Schechter Letter of Hasdai ibn Saprut to King Joseph of the Khazars. An early depiction of a double-headed eagle in a heraldic shield, attributed to Frederick Barbarossa’s grandson, Emperor Frederick II, is found in the Chronica Majora by Matthew Paris (c. 1200 – 1259). After he was crowned Emperor in 1433, Emperor Sigismund, who was also King of Hungary, used a black double-headed eagle, which like the Gnostic Ouroboros serpent biting its tale employed for the emblem of his Order of the Dragon, is a common alchemical symbol. From that time, the single-headed Reichsadler represented the title of King of the Romans, and the double-headed version, inherited from the Palaiologos dynasty, the title of Holy Roman Emperor.[5]

The House of Savoy, like the houses of Gonzaga, Cleves, Lorraine, Wettin and Montferrat all began their ascent after they were recognized by Emperor Sigismund, founder of the Order of Dragon. The House of Savoy, whose descendants would inherit the title of King of Jerusalem, was a royal dynasty established in 1003 in the historical Savoy region, which comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps between Lake Geneva in the north and Dauphiné in the south. The house descended from Humbert I (1003 –1047 or 1048) whose son, Otto of Savoy (c. 1023 – c. 1057/1060), succeeded to the title of count in 1051 after the death of his elder brother Amadeus I of Savoy. Through his marriage to Adelaide, heiress of the march of Susa and county of Turin, Otto obtained extensive possessions in northern Italy, and thereafter, the House of Savoy concentrated its expansion efforts towards Italy. The House of Savoy’s lands occupied much of modern Savoy and Piedmont.

Otto’s daughter Bertha married Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor, and their daughter Agnes married Frederick I, Duke of Swabia, the first ruler of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, and was the grandmother of Frederick Barbarossa. Otto was succeeded by his son, Amadeus II of Savoy (c. 1050 – 1080), whose son Humbert II (1065 – 1103) married William I of Burgundy. Humbert II’s daughter Adélaide of Maurienne who married Louis VI of France, and their son Louis VII of France married Eleanor of Aquitaine, to father Marie of France, wife of Henry I of Champagne and sponsor of Grail author Chretien de Troyes. Humbert II was succeeded by Amadeus III, Count of Savoy (1095 – 1148), whose daughter Matilda married Afonso I of Portugal. Amadeus III’s son and successor was Humbert III, Count of Savoy (1136 – 1189, father of Thomas I of Savoy (1178 – 1233).

Thomas was succeeded by his son Amadeus IV of Savoy (1197 – 1253), who married Margaret of Burgundy, whose daughter Beatrice of Savoy married Manfred, King of Sicily, son of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, the grandson of Frederick Barbarossa. Frederick II’s other royal title was King of Jerusalem by virtue of his marriage to Isabella II of Jerusalem, the daughter of Conrad of Montferrat (d. 1192) and Isabella I of Jerusalem, who was descended from Baldwin II of Jerusalem and Morphia of Armenia of the Skull of Sidon legend. The Marquises and Dukes of Montferrat were the rulers of a territory in Piedmont south of the Po and east of Turin called Montferrat. The area was constituted as the marca Aleramica (“March of Montferrat”) by Berengar II of Italy in 950, for his son-in-law Alermo (d. 991), during a redistribution of power in the northwest of his kingdom. When Italy came under the direct control of the Holy Roman Empire in 962, Aleramo’s titles were confirmed by the Otto the Great.

Aleram's descendants were relatively obscure until Rainier, Marquis of Montferrat (c. 1084 – May 1135) in the early twelfth century. About 1133, Rainier’s son Marquess William V (c. 1115 – 1191) married Judith of Babenberg, Leopold III of Austria and Agnes of Waiblingen. Agnes’ first husband was Frederick I, Duke of Swabia, grandfather of Frederick Barbarossa. As the half-sister of Conrad III of Germany, William V’s marriage to Judith greatly increasing the family’s prestige. William V entered into the Italian policies of Conrad and the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos, setting a Ghibelline precedent for his successors, and with his sons became involved in the Crusades.

William V was the father of Conrad of Montferrat. Conrad’s brother was Boniface I, Marquis of Montferrat (c. 1150 – 1207), leader of the Fourth Crusade (1201–04). Though the intent of the Fourth Crusade had been to recapture the city of Jerusalem from the Muslims, a sequence of events culminated in the Crusader army’s Sack of Constantinople, the capital Byzantine Empire, in 1204. Boniface was assumed to be the new emperor, but the Venetians vetoed him and chose Baldwin of Flanders (1172 – c. 1205) instead, who became Baldwin I, the first emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Boniface I established the Kingdom of Thessalonica in the Latin Empire of Greece.

Guy of Lusignan lost his claim to the throne of Jerusalem when his wife Sibylla died in 1190. Conrad then acquired the title by virtue of his marriage to her half-sister Isabella. The marriage was conducted by Philip of Dreux, Bishop of Beauvais, son of Conrad's cousin Robert I of Dreux, brother of Louis VII of France. However, in 1192, Conrad was killed by the Assassins. Under torture, the surviving Assassin claimed that Richard the Lionheart had ordered the killing. Isabella later married Richard’s nephew, Henry II of Champagne, the son of Henry I of Champagne and Marie of France, and then Guy of Lusignan’s brother Aimery of Lusignan. After Isabella died in 1205, her and Conrad’s daughter Maria became Queen of Jerusalem, while her stepbrother from Aimery’s first marriage to Eschiva of Ibelin became Hugh I of Cyprus (1194/1195 – 1218) and married Maria’s half-sister, Alice of Champagne. Maria married John of Brienne (c. 1170 – 1237), a leader of the Fifth Crusade, an attack against Jerusalem with Andrew II of Hungary and Duke Leopold VI of Austria. In 1225, Jon gave their daughter in marriage Isabella II Frederick II, who ended John's rule over the Kingdom of Jerusalem. In 1231, John was crowned as co-ruler with Baldwin II 1217 – 1273) of the Latin Empire in Constantinople.

Manfred and Beatrice’s daughter Constance of Sicily married Peter III of Aragon, the son of James I of Aragon, who was raised by the Templars, after his father Peter II of Aragon was killed at the Battle Muret supporting the Cathars. Peter III’s sister Violant was married to Alfonso X of Castile, known as el Astrologo. Peter III and Constance’s children included James II of Aragon, founder of the Order of Montesa; Elizabeth, the wife of Denis I of Portugal, founder of the Ordr of Christ, and Frederick III of Sicily, who hired the services of the famous Templar Roger de Flor. Frederick III married Eleanor of Anjou, sister of Charles I of Hungary, founder of the Order of Saint George. Their daughter Constance of Sicily, married Henry II of Lusignan, who transferred property of Templars to Hospitallers. After the end of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291 with the conquest of Saladin, Henry II continued to use the title of King of Jerusalem, and after his death, the title was claimed by his successors, the kings of Cyprus.

Amadeus IV of Savoy’s sister Beatrice married Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence, who was raised by the Templars with his cousin James I of Aragon. Beatrice and Ramon had four daughters, including Margaret of Provence, wife of Louis IX of France, great-grandson of Louis VII of France and Adela of Champagne, daughter of Theobald IV of Champagne; Eleanor of Provence, wife of Henry III of England, who was involved in blood libel case of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, and was the father of Edward I of England, grandfather of Edward III, founder of the Order of the Garter; Sanchia of Provence, the wife of Richard of Cornwall, son of John, King of England; and Beatrice of Provence, wife of Charles I of Anjou, founder of the Angevin kings of Naples, who used the title of King of Jerusalem.

Kingdom of Naples

After the end of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291 with the conquest of Saladin, Henry II continued to use the title of King of Jerusalem, and after his death, the title was claimed by his successors, the kings of Cyprus. Amadeus IV of Savoy’s sister Beatrice married Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Provence, who was raised by the Templars with his cousin James I of Aragon. Beatrice and Ramon had four daughters, including Margaret of Provence, wife of Louis IX of France, great-grandson of Louis VII of France and Adela of Champagne, daughter of Theobald IV of Champagne; Eleanor of Provence, wife of Henry III of England, who was involved in blood libel case of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, and was the father of Edward I of England, grandfather of Edward III, founder of the Order of the Garter; Sanchia of Provence, the wife of Richard of Cornwall, son of John, King of England; and Beatrice of Provence, wife of Charles I of Anjou, founder of the Angevin kings of Naples, who used the title of King of Jerusalem.

Genealogy of the House of Lusignan

• Hugh VIII of Lusignan + Burgundia of Rancon

  • Aimery of Cyprus + Isabella I of Jerusalem

    • Melisende de Lusignan + Bohemond IV of Antioce

      • Marie of Antioch (sold title of King of Jerusalem to Charles I of Anjou)

  • Aimery of Cyprus + Eschiva of Ibelin

    • Hugh I of Cyprus + Alice of Champagne

      • Isabelle de Lusignan + Henry of Antioch

        • Hugh III of Cyprus + Isabella of Ibelin

          • Henry II of Lusignan + Constance of Sicily (d. of Frederick III of Sicily)

          • Amalric of Lusignan + Isabella of Armenia (d. of Leo II)

            • Guy of Lusignan

            • John of Lusignan + Soldane Bagrationi of Georgia

              • Leo V (last Latin king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia) + Marguerite de Soissons

          • Mary + James II of Aragon

          • Guy, Constable of Cyprus + Eschiva of Ibelin

            • Hugh IV of Cyprus + Alix of Ibelin

              • John of Lusignan

              • James I of Cyprus, + Helvis of Brunswick-Grubenhagen

                • Janus of Cyprus + Charlotte of Bourbon

                  • John II of Cyprus + Helena Palaiologina

                    • Charlotte, Queen of Cyprus + Louis of Cyprus

                  • ANNE OF LUSIGNAN + LOUIS, DUKE OF SAVOY (s. of Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy, Elevated Duke of Savoy by Sigismund of Luxembourg, founder of the Order of the Dragon + Mary of Burgundy, d. of Jean de Berry, b. of Marie of Valois, and Philip the Bold, grandfather of Philip the Good, founder of the Order of the Golden Fleece)

In 1277, Charles I of Anjou bought a claim to the throne of Jerusalem from Mary of Antioch, by proximity of blood to Conradin (1252 – 1268), who had crowned himself King of Jerusalem as the grandson of Frederick II and his third wife, Isabella of England. Mary was the granddaughter of Amalric II of Jerusalem and Isabella I of Jerusalem. Conradin was executed in 1268 by Charles I of Anjou, who had seized Conradin’s kingdom of Sicily by papal authority. At the time of his death, Marie of Antioch was the only living grandchild of Isabella I, and claimed the throne of Jerusalem on the basis of proximity in blood to the kings of Jerusalem. The Haute Cour of Jerusalem passed over her claim, however, and instead chose Hugh III of Lusignan, a great-grandson of Isabella I, as the next ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Following the rebellion in 1282, Charles I of Anjou was forced to leave the island of Sicily by Peter III of Aragon's troops. Charles, however, maintained his possessions on the mainland, customarily known as the “Kingdom of Naples,” after its capital city. Charles and his Angevin successors maintained a claim to Sicily, warring against the Aragonese until 1373, when Joanna I of Naples, the great-granddaughter of Charles II, formally renounced the claim by the Treaty of Villeneuve. Joanna’s reign was contested by Louis I of Hungary (1326 – 1382), the son of Charles I of Hungary, who captured the kingdom several times (1348–1352). Joanna I also played a part in the ultimate demise of the first Kingdom of Naples. As she was childless, she adopted Louis I, Duke of Anjou (1339 – 1384), as her heir. Louis was the brother of John, Duke of Berry, Philip the Bold and Marie of Valois. His father John II of France appointed him Duke of Anjou in 1360.

Charles II and his Angevin successors maintained a claim to Sicily, warring against the Aragonese until 1373, when Joanna I of Naples, the great-granddaughter of Charles II, formally renounced the claim by the Treaty of Villeneuve. Joanna was the last of the 106 biographies of women featured Boccaccio’s in his De Mulieribus Claris ("Concerning Famous Women”), where she is described as “Joanna, queen of Sicily and Jerusalem, is more renowned than other woman of her time for lineage, power, and character.” Boccaccio affirmed that Joanna I was a descendant of a noble bloodline, claiming that it could be traced all the way back to “Dardanus, the founder of Troy, whose father the ancients said was Jupiter.” Joanna’s reign was contested by Louis I of Hungary (1326 – 1382), the son of Charles I of Hungary, who captured the kingdom several times (1348–1352). Joanna I also played a part in the ultimate demise of the first Kingdom of Naples. As she was childless, she adopted Louis I, Duke of Anjou (1339 – 1384), as her heir. Louis was the brother of John, Duke of Berry, Philip the Bold and Marie of Valois. His father John II of France appointed him Duke of Anjou in 1360.

Joan I’s claim was in spite of the claims of her cousin, the Prince of Durazzo, effectively setting up a junior Angevin line in competition with the senior line. This led to Joan I's murder in 1382 at the hands of the Prince of Durazzo (1345 – 1386), grandson of Charles II, and his seizing the throne as Charles III of Naples. The two competing Angevin lines contested each other for the possession of the Kingdom of Naples over the following decades. In 1389, Louis II of Anjou (1377 – 1417), son of Louis I, managed to seize the throne from Ladislas of Naples’ son of Charles III, but was expelled by Ladislas in 1399. Charles III's daughter Joanna II adopted Alfonso V of Aragon (1396 – 1458) and Louis III of Anjou as heirs alternately, finally settling succession on Louis’ brother René of Anjou who succeeded her in 1435.

In 1430, when Louis I of Bar, the last Duke of Bar of the male line died, Bar passed to his great-nephew, René of Anjou, Count of Piedmont, Duke of Bar, Duke of Lorraine, King of Naples, titular King of Jerusalem and Aragon, and purported Grand Master of the Priory of Sion. René was the great-grandson of Marie of Valois and Robert I, Duke of Bar, the grandson of Edward I, Count of Bar, a purported Grand Master of the Priory of Sion. It was at the request of her brother Jean Duke Berry that Jean d’Arras wrote a long prose romance called the Roman de Mélusine or the Chronique de Melusine part of Le Noble Hystoire de Lusignan. D’Arras dedicated the work to Marie of Valois, and expressed the hope that it would aid in the political education of her children. René married to Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine, and in 1434, he was recognized as Duke of Lorraine by Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg, founder of the Order of the Dragon.

In 1441, Naples was also claimed by Alfonso V of Aragon, also a member of the Order of the Dragon, who had been first adopted and then repudiated by Joanna II, when he laid a six-month siege to Naples. René of Anjou returned to France in the same year, and though he retained the title of King of Naples his effective rule was never recovered [7] Alfonso V was the son of Ferdinand I of Aragon (1380 – 1416), who was the founder of the Order of the Jar. According to legend, the Order of the Jar was one of the oldest military orders in Europe, having been founded in the Kingdom of Navarre in the eleventh century. In the most elaborate version of the legend, the order was founded by García III in 1043. When he was hunting with his falcon, which was chasing a pigeon, both birds stood at the entrance to a cave in Nájera, inside of which was an image of the Virgin Mary next to a jar of lilies, symbol of the Annunciation. García decided to build a monastery near the cave, which became Santa María la Real of Nájera, and at the same time create the Orden de la Terraza, an archaic word for jar.[8] After Ferdinand took over the Crown of Aragon, the Order of the Jar effectively became the royal order of his kingdoms, including Aragon, Sicily and Naples after 1443. In 1415, Ferdinand I conferred membership into the order on Emperor Sigismund. He also conferred membership on the ambassadors of King Ladislas of Naples. Alfonso V of Aragon introduced the order to the Kingdom of Naples after he conquered it in 1443. Alfonso V conferred the order on Philip the Good after the latter arranged for his election to the Order of the Golden Fleece.[9]

René of Anjou’s sister Marie married Charles VII of France, the son of Charles VI. Charles VII supported René’s claim to Lorraine by right of his wife Isabella, elder daughter of Charles II of Lorraine, but it was contested by Antony of Vaudémont (c. 1400 – 1458). Antony defeated René at Bulgnéville in 1431, took him prisoner, and handed him over to Philip the Good. Released on parole the following year after giving his sons John and Louis as hostages, in 1433 René agreed that his elder daughter Yolande de Bar should marry Antony’s son Ferry II of Vaudémont (c. 1428 – 1470). Yolande is also said to have succeeded her father as Grand Master of the Priory of Sion. In the nineteenth century, a romanticized version of Yolande’s early life was popularized by King René’s Daughter, a play by Henrik Hertz, which was later adapted to Tchaikovsky’s opera Iolanta.

But, in 1434, when the Sigismund recognized René as Duke of Lorraine, and when René had also inherited Anjou and Provence from Louis III, Philip the Good summoned René back into captivity. René finally obtained his discharge in 1437, promising a heavy ransom and making territorial concessions. Peace between René and Philip finally came about when René’s eldest son Jean of Calabria married Marie of Bourbon, daughter of Charles, duke of Bourbon and Philip’s niece in 1444.

As a result of the marriage of his daughter Margaret of Anjou to Henry VI, René pressured Margaret into persuading her husband to give up Maine and the English claims to Anjou which Henry agreed to, Maine was eventually won back militarily in 1448. It was during that year René founded the neo-Arthurian Military Order of the Crescent, aimed at a level of prestige comparable to that of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The avowed purpose of the Order was the re-establishment of the Judaic-Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem. René himself described the Order of the Crescent as a revived version of the old Order of the Ship and the Double Crescent, created by Louis IX for nobles who accompanied him on the ill-fated Sixth Crusade, commonly known as the Crusade of Frederick II (1228–1229), a military expedition to recapture the city of Jerusalem. The Sovereign of the Order was in theory the Reigning King of Jerusalem of the Anjou dynasty.[10] Early members of the order included René’s son-in-law Ferry and the elder Cosimo de Medici. Cosimo’s interest in ancient manuscripts, which gave birth to his academy of Platonic studies in Florence headed by Marsilio Ficino, was through the encouragement of René of Anjou, who also fostered the transplantation of Italian Renaissance thought in his own dominions.[11]

After a brief interlude of 1453–1473, when the duchy of Lorraine passed in right of Marie to Jean, Lorraine reverted to the House of Vaudemont, in the person of Yolande’s son, René II, Duke of Lorraine (1451 – 1508), who was Count of Vaudémont, Duke of Lorraine, Duke of Bar, and claimed the crown of the Kingdom of Naples and the County of Provence as the Duke of Calabria, and as King of Naples and Jerusalem.

House of Savoy

In 1396, when the title and privileges of the final king of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, Leo V (1342 – 1393), were transferred to his cousin James I (1334 – 1398) of the Lusignan dynasty, the title of King of Armenia was thus united with the titles of King of Cyprus and King of Jerusalem. James’ daughter Mary of Lusignan married Ladislaus of Naples, while his son and successor, Janus of Lusignan (1375 – 1432), married Charlotte de Bourbon. Janus was succeeded by John II of Cyprus (1418 – 1458), who married Helena Palaiologina, a member of the Palaiologos dynasty, and titular Queen of Armenia and Jerusalem. The Palaiologos dynasty, who used the double-headed eagle as their emblem, came from a direct line of descent back to Comuta Nikola (d. 1014), founder of the dynasty who ruled the First Bulgarian Empire, and who had married Ripsime or Hripsime, possibly a daughter of King Ashot II of Armenia of the Bagratuni dynasty of Armenia who claimed Jewish descent. Nikola was also the great-grandfather of Agatha of Bulgaria, from whom descend the kings of Scotland and the House of Plantagenet.[12]

The dynasty began in 1261, with Michael VIII Palaiologos (1223 – 1282), recaptured Constantinople from the Crusaders in 1261. The double-headed eagle symbolized the dynasty's interests in both East and West. The double-headed eagle was taken back to Western Europe by two daughters of the Baldwin I and Marie of Champagne, sister of Henry II, Count of Champagne. Margaret II, Countess of Flanders, struck coins in Flanders with the eagle. Her sister Joan, Countess of Flanders, married Thomas II of Savoy (c. 1199 – 1259), bringing the eagle in the Savoy achievement.[13] It is thought that Thomas II’s father, Thomas I of Savoy, adopted for his coat of arms the black single-headed eagle with scarlet claws and beak in 1207 at Basel, where he espoused the cause of the Hohenstaufens.[14] Thomas II’s brother, Peter II, Count of Savoy (1203 – 1268), was granted land by Henry III of England between the Strand and the Thames, where he built the Savoy Palace in 1263, on the site of the present Savoy Hotel, which adopted the double-headed eagle as its coat-of-arms. The Manessier's Continuation (also called the Third Continuation), one of the novels of the Story of the Grail was written for Joan, as well as the Life of St. Martha of Wauchier de Denain.

Michael VIII was succeeded by Andronikos II Palaiologos (1258 – 1332), who married Anna of Hungary, the daughter of Stephen V of Hungary, and sister of Mary of Hungary, wife of Charles II of Naples. Andronikos II’s grandson by Anna was Andronikos III Palaiologos (1297 – 1341), who married Anna of Savoy, the daughter of Thomas II and Joan’s son, Amadeus V of Savoy (1249 – 1323). Andronikos III and Anna were the great-grandparents of Helena Palaiologina. The last ruling monarchs of Cyprus and Jerusalem were John II and Helene’s daughter Charlotte I, who was followed by her usurping half-brother James II, who died in 1473 but had a posthumous son, James III, who died a year later. Venetian merchants had a significant presence in Cyprus and both deaths were suspicious; soon after the death of the baby James the Venetian Republic took control and made Cyprus a Venetian colony.

Genealogy of the Palaiologos Dynasty and Marquises of Montferrat

• Michael VIII Palaiologos + Theodora Palaiologina

  • Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (1259 – 1332) + Anna of Hungary (the daughter of Stephen V of Hungary, and sister of Mary of Hungary, wife of Charles II of Naples)

    • Michael IX Palaiologos + Rita of Armenia

      • Andronikos III Palaiologos + Anna (daughter of Count Amadeus V of Savoy)

        • John V Palaiologos (1332 – 1391) + Helena Kantakouzene

          • Manuel II Palaiologos (1350 – 1425) + Helena Dragaš

            • Theodore II Palaiologos, Despot of Morea, + Cleofa Malatesta

              • Helena Palaiologina + John II of Cyprus (of the Lusignan dynasty)

                • Charlotte, Queen of Cyprus

                • James II of Cyprus + Catherine Cornaro

                  • James III of Cyprus (died in mysterious circumstances as an infant, leaving his mother as the last Queen of Cyprus. His death paved the way for Venice to gain control of Cyprus)

            • John VIII Palaiologos + Sophia of Montferrat (see below)

  • Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos (1259 – 1332) + Yolanda (renamed Irene),

    • Theodore I, Marquess of Montferrat (adopted double-headed eagle) + Argentina Spinola

      • John II, Marquis of Montferrat + Isabel of Majorca

        • Theodore II, Marquis of Montferrat + Joanna of Bar (Robert of Bar and Marie of France, Duchess of Bar)

          • John Jacob of Montferrat (received the investiture as Marquis by Emperor Sigismund) + Joanna of Savoy (see below)

          • John VIII Palaiologos + Sophia of Montferrat (see above)

      • Yolande Palaeologina of Montferrat + Aimone, Count of Savoy (son of Amadeus V)

        • Amadeus VI, the “Green Count” of Savoy + Bonne of Bourbon

          • Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy + Bonne of Berry (see above)

            • Amadeus VIII (Antipope Felix V, elevated Duke of Savoy by Sigismund of Luxembourg, founder of the Order of the Dragon) + Mary of Burgundy (d. of Philip the Bold, brother of John, Duke of Berry, Marie of Valois, Charles V of France, and grandfather of Philip the Good, founder of the Order of the Golden Fleece)

              • Marie of Savoy + Filippo Maria Visconti (see below)

          • Joanna of Savoy + John Jacob of Montferrat (see above)

            • Boniface III, Marquis of Montferrat + Maria of Serbia

              • William IX of Montferrat + Anna of Alençon

                • Margaret Paleologa + Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (adopted double-headed eagle)

                  • LUDOVICO GONZAGA, DUKE OF NEVERS (Grand Master of the PRIORY OF SION)

        • Bianca of Savoy + Galeazzo II Visconti

          • Gian Galeazzo Visconti + Isabella of France (sister of John, Duke of Berry, Philip the Bold, Marie of Valois and Charles V of France)

          • Gian Galeazzo Visconti + Caterina Visconti

            • Gian Maria Visconti

            • Filippo Maria Visconti (commissioned first Tarot deck with Francesco I Sforza) + Marie of Savoy (see above)

            • Filippo Maria Visconti + Agnese del Maino

              • Bianca Maria Visconti + Francesco I Sforza (Order of the Crescent founded by René of Anjou)

Andronikos II’s second wife was Irene of Montferrat, the daughter William VII, Marquis of Montferrat and Beatrice of Castile, daughter of Alfonso X of Castile. In 1306, when the March of Montferrat shifted to the Palaiologoi from the Aleramici, whose line became extinct, Irene’s children inherited the double-headed eagle. From Theodore I of Montferrat (c. 1290 – 1338) onwards the arms of the marquises contained the heraldic symbol.[15] Theodore I’s daughter, Yolande Palaeologina of Montferrat, married Anna of Savoy’s brother, Aimone, Count of Savoy (1291 – 1343). Aimone’s son and successor, Amadeus VI (1334 –1383), married Bonne of Bourbon, the daughter of Peter I, Duke of Bourbon, and Isabella of Valois, niece of Philip IV “le Bel” of France. They were the parents of Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy (1360 – 1391), who married Bonne of Berry, the daughter of John, Duke of Berry.

Amadeus VII and Bonne’s son, Amadeus VIII (1383 – 1451) of Savoy, was elevated by Emperor Sigismund to the Duke of Savoy in 1416. Amadeus VIII was a claimant to the papacy from 1439 to 1449 as Felix V in opposition to Eugene IV and Nicholas V, and is considered the last historical antipope. Amadeus VIII’s son and successor Louis, Duke of Savoy (1413 – 1465) married Charlotte I’s aunt, Anne de Lusignan, the sister of John II of Cyprus. Their son Philip II, Duke of Savoy (1438 – 1497) married Margaret of Bourbon, the daughter of Charles I, Duke of Bourbon and Agnes of Burgundy, sister of Philip the Good. Philip II’s sister Charlotte married King Louis XI of France (1423 – 1483). Louis XI was the grandson of the mother of René of Anjou, Yolande of Aragon, who was a force in the royal family for driving the English out of France. Louis XI married Charlotte against the wishes of his father Charles VII, who sent an army to compel his son to his will, but Louis fled to Burgundy, where he was hosted by Philip the Good, the Duke of Burgundy, Charles VI’s greatest enemy.

Philip II’s nephew, Charles I (1468 – 1490), Duke of Savoy, the son of Philip II’s brother, Amadeus IX (1435 – 1472), Duke of Savoy and Yolande of Valois, daughter of king Charles VII of France. Charles I was doubly-related to Anne of Lusignan’s niece, the childless Queen Charlotte I of Cyprus. Not only was Charlotte his father Amadeus IX’s first cousin, in such a way that her rights would naturally descend to this line, but she was also the widow of Charles’ paternal uncle Louis of Savoy, Count of Geneva (d. 1482). Charlotte however was without a kingdom, having been exiled in the 1460s from her own legitimate kingdom of Cyprus by her illegitimate half-brother James II of Cyprus. In 1485, in exchange for an annual pension of 4,300 florins, Charlotte ceded her rights in Cyprus, Armenia, and Jerusalem to Charles I, the next legitimate heir in line from Janus. The kingdom itself was held by the republic of Venice, but the Savoy dynasty continued to claim it.

Charles III of Savoy (1486 – 1553), Philip II’s son by his second wife Claudine de Brosse, succeeded his half-brother Philibert II (1480 – 1504), becoming head the Savoy dynasty, which had now also received the titles of the kingdoms of Cyprus, Jerusalem and Armenia, after he married Yolande Louise, the daughter of his cousin Charles I, Duke of Savoy. Charles III married the rich, beautiful and ambitious Infanta Beatrice of Portugal (1504 – 1538), daughter of the richest monarch in Europe at the time, Manuel I of Portugal, a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece and Grand Master of the Order of Christ. Manuel I was the grandson of Edward I of Portugal, the brother of Prince Henry the Navigator, founder of the Order of Christ. Beatrice’s mother Maria of Aragon was the daughter of the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand II, a knight of the Order of the Golden, and Isabella of Spain.

House of Visconti

The Visconti ruled Milan until the early Renaissance, first as Lords, then, from 1395, with the mighty Gian Galeazzo (1351 – 1402), the first duke of Milan, who endeavored to unify Northern Italy and Tuscany, as Dukes. Gian Galeazzo was the son of Galeazzo II Visconti (c. 1320 – 1378) and Bianca of Savoy, the sister of Amadeus VI of Savoy. Galeazzo II’s step-brother was Bernabò Visconti (1323 – 1385), the father of Viridis Visconti. Ernest the Iron (1377 – 1424), of the House of Habsburg and a member of the Order of the Dragon, was the son of Leopold III, Duke of Inner Austria (1351 – 1386), and Viridis Visconti. Viridis’ sister Taddea Visconti married Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria, whose daughter was Isabeau of Bavaria, who married Charles VI of France. Their son, Charles VII of France, married Marie of Anjou, the sister of René of Anjou, and fathered Louis XI of France (1423 – 1483).

Genealogy of Francesco I Sforza

• Francesco I Sforza (Order of the Crescent) + Bianca Maria Visconti (d. of Filippo Maria Visconti)

  • Galeazzo Maria Sforza + Lucrezia Landriani

    • Giovanni delle Bande Nere + Maria Salviati

      • Cosimo I de' Medici (Order of the Golden Fleece) + Eleanor of Toledo

        • Lucrezia, Duchess of Modena + Alfonso II d'Este

  • Galeazzo Maria Sforza + Bona of Savoy (d. of Louis, Duke of Savoy and Anne de Lusignan of Cyprus)

    • Gian Galeazzo Sforza + Isabella of Naples

      • Bona Sforza + Sigismund I the Old (Order of the Golden Fleece)

        • Sigismund II Augustus + Barbara Radziwiłł (accused of promiscuity and witchcraft)

          • Sigismund II Augustus

        • Anna Jagiellon + Stephen Báthory (sponsor of John Dee and uncle of Elizabeth Báthory, the “Blood Countess”)

        • Catherine Jagiellon + John III of Sweden

          • Sigismund III Vasa (from whom the Vasa kings of Poland were descended. Raised by Jesuits, sponsored alchemist Sendivogius)

    • Anna Sforza + Alfonso I d’Este

  • Ludovico Sforza (commissioned The Last Supper) + Beatrice d’Este (double-wedding with Anna Sforza + Alfonso I d’Este orchestrated by Leonardo da Vinci)

Gian Galeazzo’s first wife was Isabelle of Valois, sister of Marie de Valois, John, Duke of Berry and Philip the Bold. Their daughter Valentina Visconti married her cousin, Louis I, Duke of Orléans, brother of Charles VI of France. Visconti rule in Milan ended with the death in 1447 of Filippo Maria Visconti (1392 – 1447), the son of Gian Galeazzo Visconti by his second wife, Caterina Visconti. Filippo’s second wife was Marie of Savoy, daughter of Amadeus VIII of Savoy, who reigned briefly as antipope Felix V with Filippo’s support. Filippo Maria was succeeded by a short-lived republic and then by his son-in-law Francesco I Sforza (1401 – 1466), a member of the Order of the Crescent, who married his illegitimate daughter Bianca Maria, and established the reign of the House of Sforza. In 1440, as Francesco I’s fiefs in the Kingdom of Naples were occupied by Alfonso I of Aragon, he reconciled himself with Filippo Visconti. In 1442, he allied with René of Anjou and marched against southern Italy. During Francesco I’s reign, Florence was under the command of Cosimo de Medici and the two rulers became close friends. In 1447, Francesco came to power in Milan and rapidly transformed the city into a major center of art and learning that drew the Renaissance humanist Leone Battista Alberti (1404 – 1472).

Francesco and his father-in-law Filippo commissioned the Visconti-Sforza tarot decks, the oldest surviving tarot cards. They commissioned Marziano da Tortona who created the Game of Sixteen Deified Heroes. An example was sent by Jacopo Antonio Marcello, a member of the Order of the Cresent, to Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine, the wife of René of Anjou. A lost tarot pack was described by Martiano as a sixty-card deck with sixteen cards having images of the Roman gods and suits depicting four kinds of birds. The sixteen cards were regarded as “trumps” since in 1449 Marcello recalled that the now deceased Visconti had invented a “a new and exquisite kind of triumphs.”[15] According to tarot historian Gertrude Moakley, the cards’ fanciful images—from the Fool to Death—were inspired by the costumed figures who participated in carnival parades.[16] Like the common playing cards, tarot has four suits of fourteen cards each. In addition, the tarot has a separate 21-card trump suit and a single card known as the Fool, the ancestor of the modern Jack. In Florence, an expanded deck of 97 cards called Minchiate was used, which includes astrological symbols and the four elements, as well as traditional tarot motifs.[17] The earliest reference to minchiate is found in a 1466 letter by Luigi Pulci to Lorenzo de Medici. The word minchiate comes from a dialect word meaning “nonsense” or “trifle,” derived from mencla, the vulgar form of mentula, a Latin word for “phallus.”[18] The word minchione is attested in Italian as meaning “fool.” The Joker and the Fool in the Tarot or Tarock decks share many similarities both in appearance and play function.

Franceso I’s son, Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1444 – 1476) was the father of Caterina Sforza, whose experimental activities originate the Medici interest in the subject that lasted into the seventeenth century.[20] Caterina was one of the most famous women of the Italian Renaissance, and one of the few women discussed by Machiavelli at length. Machiavelli recounted a well-known incident, when Caterina’s children were threatened with being taken hostage or killed, that she had everything she needed to create others and to prove that she lifted up her skirts and showed her genitalia.[21] Caterina also conducted a series of experiments in alchemy, the results of which were recorded in a manuscript titled Gli Experimenti, as well as recipes for household cleansers, medical remedies, and even poisons.[22] Although the original manuscript is now lost, the text was posthumously transcribed in 1525 by Lucantonio Cuppano.  

Cuppano was a follower of Caterina’s son, the famous condottiere Ludovico de’ Medici, known as Giovanni delle Bande Nere, whose father was Giovanni de Medici (1467 – 1498), the grandson of Lorenzo the Elder (c. 1395 – 1440), a brother of Cosimo de Medici the elder. Giovanni and his brother Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici (1463 – 1503), would come under the tutelage of their older cousin, Lorenzo the Magnificent, and studied under Marsilio Ficino. The brothers’ support for Savonarola gained them the nickname of Popolano (“commoner”). In 1501, Lorenzo was suspected of a plot with Cesare Borgia to favor the latter in the conquest of the city. In the early 1500s, Amerigo Vespucci would send most of his famous letters on the “New World” to Lorenzo.

House of Este

The Borgia family arranged several marriages for Cesare Borgia’s sister, the notorious Lucrezia Borgia, that advanced their own political position including Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro and Gradara, Count of Catignola; Alfonso of Aragon, Duke of Bisceglie and Prince of Salerno; and Alfonso I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara (1476 – 1534), of the House of Este, who was reputed to be of Davidic descent.[23] The House of Este, an Italian princely family linked with several royal dynasties, including the Habsburgs and the British royal family. The first known member of the House of Este was Margrave Adalbert of Mainz (d. 951?), also known as “il Margravio” or “Adalberto III,” an Italian nobleman tied with the Obertenghi family and a well-known ancestor to the Este, Pallavicini and Malaspina family. Adalbert was either the first-born son of Lambert, margrave of Tuscany (d. 938), the second son of Adalbert II of Tuscany (c. 875 – 915), and Bertha, daughter of Lothair II of Lotharingia, or Lambert's brother Guy, Margrave of Tuscany (d. 929), who was married to Marozia (c. 890 – 937), the daughter of the Roman consul Theophylact, Count of Tusculum, and of Theodora, the real power in Rome. Their descendants controlled the papacy for the next hundred years.

The period of Marozia, the Theophylacti, their relatives and allies, is known as the Saeculum obscurum (“the dark age”), or the “pornocracy” (“rule of prostitutes”), by German historians of the nineteenth century. Marozia was the alleged mistress of Pope Sergius III and was given the unprecedented titles senatrix (“senatoress”) and patricia of Rome by Pope John X. Edward Gibbon wrote of her that the “influence of two sister prostitutes, Marozia and Theodora was founded on their wealth and beauty, their political and amorous intrigues: the most strenuous of their lovers were rewarded with the Roman tiara, and their reign may have suggested to darker ages the fable of a female pope. The bastard son, two grandsons, two great grandsons, and one great great grandson of Marozia—a rare genealogy—were seated in the Chair of St. Peter.” Pope John XIII was her nephew, the offspring of her younger sister Theodora. At the age of fifteen, Marozia became the mistress of Pope Sergius III, whom she knew when he was bishop of Portus.

Genealogy of the House of Este

• Ercole I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara + Eleonora d'Aragon (daughter of Ferdinand I of Naples (Order of the Golden Fleece. Her brother Alfonso II of Naples married Ippolita Maria Sforza, daughter of Francesco I Sforza, member of Rene of Anjou’s Order of the Crescent)

  • Isabella d’Este + Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua

    • Ferrante Gonzaga (Order of the Golden Fleece and 14th Grand Master of Priory of Sion).

    • Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua + Margaret Palaeologina (see above)

      • Louis Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers (Grand Master of the Priory of Sion) + (see above)

      • Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua + Eleonora of Austria (d. of Ferdinand I and Anna Jagellonica)

        • Margherita Gonzaga + (see below)

  • Beatrice + Ludovico Sforza (s. Francesco I Sforza, founding member of Rene of Anjou’s Order of the Crescent. Double wedding orchestrated by Leonardo da Vinci)

    • Gian Galeazzo Sforza + Isabella of Naples (a masque entitled Il Paradiso, with words by Bernardo Bellincioni and sets and costumes by Leonardo da Vinci at their wedding)

      • Bona Sforza (1494 – 1557) + Sigismund I the Old

        • Anna Jagiellon + Stephen Bathory (sponsor of John Dee and uncle of Elizabeth Báthory, the “Blood Countess”)

  • Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara + Lucrezia Borgia (daughter of Pope Alexander VI and Vannozza dei Cattaneia, double wedding orchestrated by Leonardo da Vinci)

In order to counter the influence of another of her alleged lovers, Pope John X, Marozia subsequently married his opponent Guy of Tuscany. Together they attacked Rome, arrested and jailed Pope John X in the Lateran. Either Guy had him killed in 928 or he simply died. Marozia seized power in Rome in a coup d'état. The following popes, Leo VI and Stephen VII, were both her puppets. In 931, she even managed to impose her son by Pope Sergius III as Pope John XI. When Guy died in 929, Marozia negotiated a marriage with his half-brother Hugh of Arles (c. 880 – 947), who had been elected King of Italy.

Adalbert was the father of Oberto I (d. 975), whose the title of count palatine confirmed by Otto the Great. Soon after assuming the Italian throne, Berengar II of Italy reorganised his territories south of the Po River, dividing them into three new marches named after their respective margraves: the marca Aleramica of Aleram, the marca Arduinica of Arduin Glaber (d. 977) of the Arduinici dynasty, and the marca Obertenga of Oberto I. Oberto’s grandson, Albert Azzo II, Margrave of Milan (996 – 1097), is considered the founder of Casa d’Este (House of Este), having built a castle at Este, near Padua, and named himself after the location. Albert Azzo II married Kunigunde of Altdorf, daughter of Welf II, Count of Altdorf (c. 960/70 – 1030), and Imiza of Luxembourg. Imiza was the daughter of Frederick of Luxembourg, the son of Sigfried, Count of the Ardennes, through whom the House of Luxembourg claim descent from the female dragon-spirit Melusina. Albert Azzo II had three sons from two marriages, two of whom became the ancestors of the two branches of the family. Welf I, Duke of Bavaria, the ancestor of the elder branch, the House of Welf, who became known as Guelfs, historical enemies of the Guidelines; Hugh (c. (1055 – 1131) inherited the French County of Maine, but died without heirs; Fulco I, Margrave of Milan (d 1128/35), the ancestor of the younger Italian line of Este. The two surviving branches, with Henry the Lion on the German side, concluded an agreement in 1154 which allocated the family’s Italian possessions to the younger line, the Fulc-Este, who acquired Ferrara, Modena and Reggio. All later generations of the Italian branch are descendants of Fulco d'Este.

The younger branch of the House of Este included rulers of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio. Ferrara became a significant center of culture under Niccolò d’Este III (1384 – 1441). His successors were his illegitimate sons Leonello d’Este (1407 – 1450) and his brother Borso (1413 – 1471), who was elevated to Duke of Modena and Reggio by Emperor Frederick III in 1452, receiving these duchies as imperial fiefs. By one of his mistresses, Giraldona Carlino, Alfonso V of Aragon had three children, including Maria who married Leonello. Borso was succeeded by a half-brother Ercole I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara (1431 – 1505), who was one of the most significant patrons of the arts in late fifteenth and early sixteenth-century Italy. Ercole I’s brother was Sigismondo d'Este (1433 – 1507), named after his godfather, Emperor Sigismund. Ercole was an admirer of heretic Savonarola, who was also from Ferrara, and sought his advice on both spiritual and political matters. Approximately a dozen letters between them survive. Ercole attempted to have Savonarola freed by church authorities of Florence, but was unsuccessful, and Savonarola was burned at the stake in 1498.[24] In 1503 or 1504, Ercole asked his newly hired composer Josquin des Prez to write a musical testament for him, structured on Savonarola’s prison meditation Infelix ego, resulting in the Miserere.[25] The first definite record of des Prez’s employment is dated 1477, and shows that he was a singer in Aix-en-Provence at the chapel of René of Anjou.[26]

As the capital city of the dukes of d’Este, Ferrara was a center of Italian and European Judaism, with more than 2000 Jews out of a population of 30,000 during its golden age between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Ashkenazi Jews from Germany and Sephardim, welcomed after their expulsion from Spain, lived side by side under the protection of the local authorities. In 1448, upon a request from Leonello d’Este, Pope Nicholas V suppressed the anti-Jewish sermons of the friars. In 1451, Borso declared that he would protect the Jews who entered his lands. In 1473, Ercole I, in opposition to papal demands, protected his Jewish subjects, particularly the moneylenders. In 1481, he authorized Samuel Melli of Rome to buy a mansion in Ferrara and turn it into a synagogue, which is still used. The Spanish Jews were also well received in Ferrara by Ercole I and in Tuscany through the mediation of Jehiel of Pisa (d. 1492) and his sons. Jehiel was on intimate terms with Don Isaac Abravanel, with whom he carried on a correspondence. The Italian rabbi and Kabbalist Johanan Alemanno (c. 1435 – d. after 1504), the teacher of Pico di Mirandola, seems to have lived for years in Jehiel’s house.[27] In 1492, when the first refugees from Spain appeared in Italy, Ercole I allowed some of them to settle in Ferrara, promising to let them have their own leaders and judges, permitting them to practice commerce and medicine, and granting them tax reductions.

Ercole I married Eleanor of Naples, whose father was Garter knight Ferdinand I of Naples (1423 – 1494), the son of Alfonso V of Aragon, both of them members of the Order of the Dragon and the Order of the Golden Fleece. In 1491, Ercole I’s son and successor was Alfonso I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara (1476 – 1534), who married Anna Sforza, the daughter of Galeazzo Maria Sforza and Bona of Savoy, another daughter of Philip II, Duke of Savoy and Margaret of Bourbon. In 1464, Bona of Savoy was to have been betrothed to Edward IV of England, until his secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was revealed. Ercole II d’Este (1508 – 1559), the son of Alfonso I by his second wife Lucrezia Borgia, married Renée of France, daughter of Louis XII of France. Their son Alfonso II d’Este (1533 – 1597) married Lucrezia, a daughter of Cosimo I de Medici.

After the death of Pope Paul III, born Alessandro Farnese, who had showed favor to the Jews, a period of strife, persecution, and despondency set in. In 1537, Jacob Abarbanel, who was one of the two brothers of Isaac Abarbanel, was instrumental by influencing Cosimo I de Medici in allowing Jews and Marranos from Spain and Portugal to settle in Florence. Cosimo’s wife, Eleonora di Toledo, was the daughter of Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, Viceroy of Naples. Before eventually settling in Tuscany, Eleonora was brought up in Naples at the household of Jacob Abarbanel’s son Don Samuel Abarbanel and daughter-in-law Benvenida, whom she continued to honor as her mother.[28] Eleonora’s father was the lieutenant-governor of Emperor Charles V and brother of the Duke of Alba. Through her father’s side, Eleanor was the third cousin of the Emperor since their great-grandmothers were daughters of Fadrique Enríquez de Mendoza (1390 – 1473), grandson of King Alfonso XI of Castile. Mendoza’s father was Alonso Enríquez, was the son of Fadrique Alfonso, 25th Master of the Order of Santiago, from a Jewish woman named Paloma.[29] Alonso Enríquez’s half-sister was Juana, Queen of Aragon, mother of Ferdinand II of Aragon, the husband of Queen Isbella of Spain. There has been an attempt to introduce the Inquisition into the Neapolitan realm, then under Spanish rule, and Emperor Charles V neared the point of exiling the Jews from Naples when Benvenida caused him to defer the action. A few years later, in 1533, a similar decree was proclaimed, when Jacob’s brother Samuel Abarbanel and others were able through their influence to avert for several years the execution of the edict.

In 1532, Ercole II had issued another permit allowing Jews from Bohemia and other countries in Central Europe to come and settle in Ferrara. In 1524 and 1538, Ercole II encouraged the Marranos and in 1553 they were allowed to return to the Jewish faith. In 1540, an invitation to settle in Ferrara was extended to the persecuted Jews of Milan and a year later to those banished from the kingdom of Naples.[30] The situation declined after 1597, when Alfonso II died without a male heir, when d’Este court abandoned the city and the papacy took control. The d’Este left for Modena, followed by a number of Jews.[31]

Palazzo Vecchio

Cosimo I de Medici was an enthusiast of alchemy, a passion he inherited from his grandmother Caterina Sforza.[32] Cosimo I became duke of Florence in 1537 and was made grand duke of Tuscany only in 1569. In 1541, as part of his political agenda, and also because his wife Eleanor of Toledo had just given him an heir, Francesco I de Medici (1541 – 1587), Cosimo I decided to move his principal residence from the old Medici Palace on Via Larga to the headquarters of the former republican government, the Palazzo della Signoria, named after the Signoria of Florence, the ruling body of the Republic of Florence. When Cosimo later removed to Palazzo Pitti, he officially renamed the palace to the Palazzo Vecchio, the “Old Palace.” The first alterations to Palazzo Vecchio date from 1342-43, during the brief tyranny of the crusader Walter VI of Brienne (c. 1304 – 1356), and most importantly during the decades between 1440-60, when Cosimo the Elder de Medici took over the government of the city. The most imposing chamber, the Salone dei Cinquecento (“Hall of the Five Hundred”) was commissioned by Savonarola who wanted it as a seat of the Grand Council. Later the hall was enlarged by Giorgio Vasari (1511 – 1574), an artist, architect and friend of Michelangelo, so that Cosimo I could hold his court in this chamber. The Palazzo Vecchio holds a copy of Michelangelo’s David.

Genealogy of the Medici

• Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici + Piccarda Bueri

  • Cosimo de' Medici the Elder (sponsor of Marsilio Ficino, and member of Order of the Crescent founded by René of Anjou) + Contessina de' Bardi

    • Piero di Cosimo de' Medici + Contessina de' Bardi

      • Lorenzo de' Medici (Lorenzo the Magnificent) + Clarice Orsini

        • Piero the Unfortunate + Alfonsina Orsini

          • Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbino + Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne

            • Catherine de Medici (sponsor of Nostradamus, practitioner of Black Mass) + Henry II of France

              • Claude of France + Charles III, Duke of Lorraine

                • Henry II, Duke of Lorraine + Margherita Gonzaga

                • Christina of Lorraine + (patron of Galileo)

              • Henry III of France (educated in Black Arts by his mother) + Louise of Lorraine

          • Clarice de Medici + Filippo Strozzi the Younger

        • Pope Leo X

        • Lucrezia de Medici + Jacopo Salviati

          • Maria Salviati + Giovanni delle Bande Nere

      • Giuliano de' Medici + Fioretta Gorini

        • Pope Clement VII

  • Lorenzo the Elder + Ginevra Cavalcanti

    • Pierfrancesco the Elder + Laudomia di Agnolo Acciaioli

      • Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici (with his brother, educated by Marsilio Ficino, sponsors of Amerigo Vespuci, supporters of heretic Savonarola)

      • Giovanni de' Medici il Popolano + Caterina Sforza (g-d of Francesco I Sforza, member of Order of the Crescent, founded by René of Anjou, Grand Master of the Priory of Sion. Conducted alchemical experients)

        • Giovanni delle Bande Nere + Maria Salviati (see above)

          • Cosimo I de' Medici (Order of the Golden Fleece) + Eleanor of Toledo (brought up in the household of Jacob Abarbanel’s son Don Samuel Abarbanel and daughter-in-law Benvenida)

            • Lucrezia, Duchess of Modena + Alfonso II d'Este (ally of Rudolf II, supporter of John Dee)

            • Francesco I de' Medici + Joanna of Austria (daughter of Ferdinand I and Anna Jagellonica)

              • Marie de Medici (Cosimo Ruggeri, who had been the trusted sorcerer of Catherine de Medici, was a personal friend of Marie de Medici’s favorites, Concino Concini and his wife Leonora Dori, who was later burned at the stake for witchcraft) + Henry IV of France

In the mythology the Medici had been articulating since Cosimo I established the dynasty, a correspondence was drawn between cosmos and Cosimo, and Jupiter was regularly associated with Cosimo I, and the first of the “Medicean gods,” as Vasari referred to them.[33] The horoscope of the city of Florence, as was commonly cast since the Middle Ages, was employed to suggest the astrological fate of Medici rule. Cosimo I had classical theogonies allegorically reinterpreted to resemble the history of the house of Medici. This mythological program was best articulated in Vasari’s frescoes decorating the Apartment of the Elements in the Palazzo Vecchio. The Apartment of the Elements consists of five rooms that were the private quarters of Cosimo I. The walls contain allegorical frescoes depicting Fire (The Forge of Vulcan), Earth (The Reign of Saturn), and Water (The Birth of Venus). The frescoes of each room downstairs present a mythologized history of the member of the Medici family it honors. Right below the Apartment of the Elements is the Apartment of Leo X, displaying the Medici pantheon. Each room of the Apartment of Leo X is dedicated to a member of the Medici family who was instrumental in establishing the dynasty. As Vasari put it, “There is nothing painted upstairs that does not correspond to something painted downstairs,” corresponding with the Hermetic dictum of “As above so below.”[34]

The ceiling Apartment of the Elements, which serves as the representation of Air, has smaller panels of the Times of Day, and of Truth, Justice, Peace, and Fame. In the center is the very rare subject of The Castration of Ouranos by Saturn, derived from the Theogony of Hesiod by way of Boccaccio. In his book of instructive conversations with Francesco I, Vasari explains first interprets the castration in terms of Aristotelian cosmology: “Cutting off the heat as form, and its falling into the sea as matter, gave rise to the generation of earthly things that are fallen and corruptible and mortal, generating Venus from the sea foam.” When Francesco I asks about the choir of figures surrounding the central figures, Vasari share an exegesis on the ten Sephiroth of the Kabbalah.[35]

The correspondence between the paintings in the Room of Jupiter which present the childhood of Cosimo I, is the core of the mythological narratives developed throughout the paintings of the two apartments. Born of Ops and Saturn, the child Jupiter was saved by his mother from the cruelty of his father Saturn, who tended to eat his offspring. The mother hid baby Jupiter in a cave in Crete where was he was reared by two nymphs. One of them, Amalthea, was represented as a goat and associated with divine Providence, while the other nymph Melissa was divine Knowledge, suggesting that Cosimo I absorbed these virtues in the cradle. In memory of Amalthea, Jupiter added the sign of Capricorn, Cosimo's zodiac sign. The seven stars of Capricorn became emblems of the seven virtues, three theological and four moral. In essence, Cosimo was endowed with divine providence and knowledge by Jupiter and received the seven virtues from Capricorn.[36]

House of Gonzaga

The arms of the marquises of Montferrat contained the double-headed eagle until the last legitimate male heir of the Palaiologos family, William IX’s brother Giovanni Giorgio (1488 – 1533), and the city was inherited by Federico II Gonzaga (1500 – 1540) who added the heraldic symbol to his own.[37] The House of Gonzaga were an Italian princely family that ruled Mantua, in northern Italy, from 1328 to 1708. They also ruled Monferrato in Piedmont and Nevers in France, as well as many other lesser fiefs throughout Europe. Federico II Gonzaga’s great-grandfather, Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga (1395 – 1444), became a famous general and was rewarded in 1432 for his services to Emperor Sigismund with the title of marquess of Mantua for himself and his descendants, an investiture that legitimatized the usurpations of the house of Gonzaga. Under Gianfrancesco, the first school inspired by humanistic principles was founded in 1423 in one of the family’s villas near Mantua by Vittorino de Feltre. Artists also found their way to Mantua, notably Andrea Mantegna and Leon Battista Alberti, and during the fifteenth century the capital city and its dependencies were embellished and transformed.

Genealogy of the House of Gonzaga

• Ludovico II Gonzaga + lda (d. of Obizzo III d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara)

  • Francesco I Gonzaga + Margherita Malatesta

    • Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua (first Gonzaga to bear the title of marquess, which he obtained from Emperor Sigismund) + Paola Malatesta

      • Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua + Barbara of Brandenburg (niece of Emperor Sigismund)

        • Federico I Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua + Margaret of Bavaria (d. of Albert III, Duke of Bavaria)

          • Clara Gonzaga + Gilbert, Count of Montpensier

            • CHARLES III, DUKE OF BOURBON (Grand Master of the PRIORY OF SION, ORDER OF THE FLEUR DE LYS)

            • Renée de Bourbon + Antoine, Duke of Lorraine (see below)

            • Louise de Bourbon + Louis, Prince of La Roche-sur-Yon

              • Louis, Duke of Montpensier + Jacqueline de Longwy

                • Charlotte of Bourbon + William the Silent of Orange

                  • Countess Louise Juliana of Nassau + Frederick IV, Elector Palatine

                    • Frederick V of the Palatinate + Elizabeth Stuart (see below)

          • Francesco II Gonzaga + Isabella d’Este

            • Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua + Margaret Paleologa (see below)

              • LUDOVICO GONZAGA, DUKE OF NEVERS (Grand Master of the PRIORY OF SION)

              • Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua + Eleanor, Duchess of Mantua (see below)

            • FERRANTE GONZAGA (Grand Master of the PRIORY OF SION, ORDER OF THE FLEUR DE LYS)

Gianfrancesco’s son, Ludovico III Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantu (1412 – 1478), married Barbara of Brandenburg, a niece of Emperor Sigismund. Their son, Federico I Gonzaga, Marquess of Mantua (1441 – 1484), married Margaret of Bavaria, the daughter of Albert III, Duke of Bavaria, the son of Ernest, Duke of Bavaria (1373 –1438) and Elisabetta Visconti. As ally of the House of Luxembourg, Ernest backed his deposed brother-in-law Wenceslaus, Sigismund’s brother, against Rupert of the Palatinate, as well as Sigismund in his wars against the supporters of Jan Hus. Federico I’s daughter Clara Gonzaga married Gilbert, Count of Montpensier, and was the mother of Charles III, Duke of Bourbon (1490 – 1527), a purported Grand Master of the Priory of Sion.

Clara’s brother, Francesco II Gonzaga (1466 – 1519) married Isabella d’Este, the sister of Alfonso I d’Este, and fathered Federico II Gonzaga. Isabella and Francesco II’s son, Ferrante Gonzaga (1507 – 1557), was a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece and listed as a purported Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, after his first cousin Charles III, Duke of Bourbon and Leonardo da Vinci. Charles III was the second son of Count Gilbert of Montpensier by his wife Clara Gonzaga, the sister of Ferrante’s father Francesco II Gonzaga. Ferrante was one of da Vinci’s most zealous patrons. At the age of sixteen, Ferrante was sent to the court of Spain as a page to the future emperor Charles V, Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece, to whom Ferrante remained faithful for his whole life.

A cadet branch of the Gonzagas of Mantua became dukes of Nevers and Rethel in France when Louis Gonzaga, Duke of Nevers (1539 – 1595), Ferrante’s nephew and successor as Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, married the heiress. Louis was the third child of Federico II Gonzaga (1500 – 1540) and Margaret Palaeologina, the daughter of William IX of Montferrat and his wife Anne of Alençon. William IX was descended from the grandson of Theodore I, Marquess of Montferrat, Theodore II, Marquis of Montferrat (d. 1418), who married Joanna of Bar, the daughter of Robert of Bar and Marie of Valois. His son, John Jacob of Montferrat (1395 – 1445), who received the investiture as Marquis by Emperor Sigismund, married Joanna of Savoy, the daughter of Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy. William IX of Montferrat was John Jacob’s grandson. Anne of Alençon’s mother was the third child of René, Duke of Alençon and his second wife Margaret of Lorraine, daughter of Ferry II of Vaudémont and Yolande of Bar.

Da Vinci Code

Isabella d’Este was a renowned patron and collector who supported artists such Andrea Mantegna, Titian and Leonardo da Vinci, who supposedly preceded Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, as Grand Master of the Priory of Sion. Isabella has been proposed as a plausible candidate for da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Evidence in favor of Isabella as the subject of the famous work includes Leonardo’s drawing “Isabella d’Este” from 1499 and her letters of 1501–1506 requesting the promised painted portrait.[38] Isabella was also an innovator of new dances, having been instructed in the art by Ambrogio, a Jewish dancing master.[39] The marriage of Isabella’s sister Beatrice d’Este to Francesco I Sforza’s son, Ludovico Sforza (1452 – 1508), was a double-wedding, with Alfonso I d’Este and Anna Sforza, orchestrated by Leonardo da Vinci.

Ludovico, da Vinci’s chief patron, was known to history as Il Moro, literally meaning “The Moor,” an epithet said by Francesco Guicciardini, a friend and critic of Machiavelli, to have been given to Ludovico because of his dark complexion. Ludovico was famed as a patron of da Vinci and other artists, and is probably best known as the man who commissioned da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Ludovico’s nephew and Anna Sforza’s btother, Gian Galeazzo Sforza (1469 – 1494), married Isabella of Naples (1470 – 1524), the granddaughter of Ferdinand I of Naples. At Gian and Isabella’s wedding, a masque or operetta was held, entitled Il Paradiso, with words by Isabella’s cousin, Bernardo Bellincioni (1452 – 1492), and sets and costumes by da Vinci. Bellincioni, who had begun his career in the court of Lorenzo the Magnificent in Florence, was also a court poet of Ludovico Sforza.

Da Vinci visited the home of the Medici and through them came to know Marsilio Ficino. Also associated with the Platonic Academy of the Medici was Leonardo’s contemporary, the Christian Kabbalist Pico della Mirandola. Da Vinci was often called “the magician of the Renaissance.”[40] In 1480, da Vinci was living with the Medici and working in the Garden of the Piazza San Marco in Florence, a Neoplatonic academy of artists, poets and philosophers that the Medici had established. In The Last Supper, da Vinci portrays the twelve apostles in four groups of three, corresponding to the signs of the zodiac, organized into four seasons. In the center is Jesus as the sun. The disciples seated at The Last Supper, which is the central theme of Dan Brown’s novel, are grouped in four groups of three, talking only among themselves, corresponding to the four elements in the Zodiac, with Christ in the middle, as the Sun.

According to Keith Stern, after da Vinci’s death, it was commonly accepted that he had been a homosexual. Freud, in his Leonardo da Vinci, A Memory of His Childhood, stated that it was doubtful whether Leonardo ever embraced a woman in passion. Court records of 1476, when da Vinci was aged twenty-four, show that he and three other young men were charged with sodomy with a well-known male prostitute. The charges were dismissed for lack of evidence. There is speculation that since one of the accused, Lionardo de Tornabuoni, was related to Lorenzo de Medici, the family exerted its influence to secure the dismissal.[41]

Much has been written about da Vinci’s supposed homosexuality, and its influence on his art, particularly in the androgyny and eroticism evident in depictions of Saint John the Baptist and Bacchus and more explicitly in a number of erotic drawings.[42] Da Vinci’s model for these works is suspected to have been Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno, who is thought to have been his lover. He is better known by his name given to him by da Vinci, Salai, Tuscan slang for “devil.” Vasari described Salai as “a graceful and beautiful youth with curly hair, in which Leonardo greatly delighted,” and although da Vinci referred to him as “a liar, a thief, stubborn and a glutton,” and claimed that he stole from him on at least five occasions, he kept him in his household for more than twenty-five years.[43] A number of drawings among the works of da Vinci’s and his pupils make reference to Salai’s sexuality. There is a drawing modelled on da Vinci’s painting John the Baptist and called The Angel Incarnate, appearing to represent Salai with an erect phallus. A folio by da Vinci’s includes a page of drawings by a hand other than his, one of which is a crudely drawn doodle depicting an anus, identified as “Salai’s bum,” being pursued by penises on legs.[44]

Purportedly, da Vinci had succeeded as Grand Master of the Priory of Sion after Sandro Botticelli, Yolande de Bar and her father René of Anjou. Botticelli’s chief patron was Lorenzo de Medici, along with the Este, the Gonzaga families. Botticelli himself studied under Filippo Lippi (c. 1406 – 1469) and Mantegna, both of whom had been patronized by René of Anjou. According to Giorgio Vasari (1511 – 1574) the first art historian of the Renaissance, Botticelli became a follower of Savonarola, who preached in Florence from 1490 until his execution in 1498.[45] In late 1502, four years after Savonarola’s death, Isabella d’Este wanted a painting created in Florence. Her agent Francesco Malatesta informed her that her first choice, Perugino, was away, Filippino Lippi fully booked, but Botticelli was willing and available. Isabella however preferred to wait for Perugino’s return.[46]

In 1516, Titian (c. 1488/90 – 1576) made contact with Isabella’s brother Alfonso I d'Este, for whom he was to work for a decade on paintings destined for the Camerino d’Alabastro (“Alabaster Chamber”), in the ducal palace. In this period he produce a series of paintings of Dionysian themes: the Worship of Venus, the Bacchanal of the Andrians, and Bacchus and Ariadne. The Worship of Venus is based on a description by the late antique writer Philostratus, in his Imagines, of a painting of cupids gathering apples in the presence of Venus amid a tree-girt landscape. In the Bacchanal of the Andrians, which is set on the island of Andros, a sleeping nymph and a urinating boy are seen in the lower right foreground while men and women celebrate with jugs of wine. Bacchus and Ariadne, considered “perhaps the most brilliant productions of the neo-pagan culture or ‘Alexandrianism’ of the Renaissance, many times imitated but never surpassed even by Rubens himself.”[47] The painting depicts Theseus, whose ship is shown in the distance and who has just left Ariadne at Naxos, when Bacchus arrives, jumping from his chariot, drawn by two cheetahs. Having fallen in love with Ariadne, Bacchus asked her to marry him, offering her the sky as a wedding gift, in which one day she would become a constellation. Her constellation is shown in the sky.

In 1584, Caravaggio (1571 – 1610) began his four-year apprenticeship to the Milanese painter Simone Peterzano, described in the contract of apprenticeship as a pupil of Titian. Throughout his life, Caravaggio was to receive help from various members of the Sforza-Colonna family, particularly from Costanza Colonna. The Colonna family is a branch of the Counts of Tusculum, who are traced back to Peter de Columpna (1099 – 1151), a descendant of Alberic II of Spoleto, the son of Marozia. Costanza Colonna was the widow of Francesco I Sforza di Caravaggio (d. 1576), the great-grandson of Ludovico Sforza and his mistress Lucrezia Crivelli. Caravaggio’s connections with the Colonnas led to a stream of important church commissions, including the Madonna of the Rosary, and The Seven Works of Mercy. The commissioner of the Madonna of the Rosary is uncertain, but one possibility is that it was Cesare d’Este.[48] After being offered to Vincenzo I Gonzaga (1562 – 1612), the painting was offered to the Dominican church in Antwerp.[49] Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, was a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and nephew of Louis Gonzaga, another purported Grand Master of the Priory of Sion.

The Fortune Teller shows a boy having his palm read by a Gypsy girl, who is stealthily removing his ring as she strokes his hand. The work attracted the patronage of Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte (1549 – 1627), one of the leading connoisseurs in Rome. Del Monte was appointed as auditor for Cardinal Alessandro Sforza, before being finally admitted into the court of Cardinal Ferdinando de Medici (1549 – 1609), the son of Cosimo I de Medici. Del Monte’s interests also included alchemy.[50] Caravaggio executed his only known fresco on the vaulted ceiling of Del Monte’s own alchemy laboratory in the Villa Ludovisi, depicting an allegory of the alchemical triad of Paracelsus: Jupiter for sulphur and air, Neptune for mercury and water, and Pluto for salt and earth. Each figure is identified by his beast: Jupiter by the eagle, Neptune by the hippocamp, and Pluto by the three-headed dog Cerberus. Jupiter is reaching out to move the celestial sphere in which the Sun revolves around the Earth. Galileo was a friend of Del Monte but had yet to advance his new cosmology.

Academics such as Posner, Frommel and Hibbard have drawn upon extant documents that suggest the strong likelihood that de Monte was homosexual. For Del Monte and his wealthy art-loving circle, Caravaggio executed a number of intimate chamber-pieces—The Musicians, The Lute Player, Bacchus, an allegorical but realistic Boy Bitten by a Lizard—featuring Caravaggio’s student and lover, Mario Minniti, and other adolescent models. Scholars and historians have also debated the source of the evident homoeroticism in Caravaggio’s works. Caravaggio never married and had no known children, and Howard Hibbard observed the absence of erotic female figures in the artist’s work, while Louis Crompton observed that the cabinet-pieces from the Del Monte period are replete with “full-lipped, languorous boys ... who seem to solicit the onlooker with their offers of fruit, wine, flowers—and themselves” suggesting an erotic interest in the male form.[51] In a libel trial brought in 1603, Giovanni Baglione accused Caravaggio and his friends of attacking him in pamphlets distributed by a certain Giovanni Battista, a bardassa, or boy prostitute, shared by Caravaggio and his friend Onorio Longhi.[52] Caravaggio was also rumored to be madly in love with Fillide Melandroni, a well-known Roman prostitute who modeled for him in several important paintings.[53]

Italian Wars

In 1465, Louis XI of France granted Piero de Medici (1416 – 1469), son Cosimo de Medici the elder, the French fleur-de-lis as an addition to the family blason. Louis XI’s father was Charles VII of France, the son of Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria, the daughter of Stephen III, Duke of Bavaria and Taddea Visconti. Taddea’s sister was Viridis Visconti, whose son Ernest the Iron, a member of the Order of the Dragon, was the father of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, the first Habsburg emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, who succeeded Sigismund. Frederick III’s imperial coat of arms featured the double-headed eagle, that would become the standard of the Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburg dynasty. Frederick III married Eleanor of Portugal, the daughter of Edward of Portugal, and Manuel I’s aunt. Their son, Maximilian I, also Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece, married Mary of Burgundy, granddaughter of Philip the Good, after which the Habsburgs would come to dominate the order. Mary would be the last ruler of the House of Valois-Burgundy, which began with her great-great-grandfather Philip the Bold. Her lands outside of France passed to her eldest son by Maximilian I, Philip I of Castile, to become the Habsburg Netherlands, while the Duchy of Burgundy itself returned to the kingdom of France. The Habsburg Netherlands covered the whole of the Low Countries, including the present-day Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and parts of Northern France.

Philip I married Juana of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella and sister of Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII of England, a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The son of Philip and Joanna would become Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece, eventually united the Habsburg, Burgundian, Castilian, and Aragonese inheritances, controlling a Habsburg empire “on which the Sun never sets.” Charles V was Archduke of Austria, and Lord of the Netherlands as titular Duke of Burgundy and King of a unified Spain with its southern Italian kingdoms of Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia. Charles V spent most of his reign defending the Holy Roman Empire from the Protestant Reformation, the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, and a series of wars with France.

 Louis XI’s mother was Marie of Anjou, the sister of René of Anjou. Upon his death in 1480, René of Anjou transferred his claim to his nephew, Charles IV of Anjou (1446 – 1481). Charles IV died in 1481 and willed his claim to his cousin Louis XI of France. The marriage in 1451 between Louis XI and Charlotte of Savoy, the sister of Philip II, Duke of Savoy, had marked the beginning of French involvement in the affairs of Italy. Louis XI married Charlotte of Savoy, the sister of Philip II, Duke of Savoy, against the wishes of his father Charles VII, who sent an army to compel his son to his will, but Louis fled to Burgundy, where he was hosted by Philip the Good, Charles VI’s greatest enemy.

The marriage in 1451 between Louis XI and Charlotte marked the beginning of French involvement in the affairs of Italy. French involvement in Italy would be carried to new levels by Louis XI's son Charles VIII (1470 – 1498) in 1493, when he answered an appeal for help from Ludovico Sforza, that lead to an invasion of Italy, which become a significant turning point in Italian political history.[54] In 1478, when Pope Sixtus IV threatened war against Florence, ruled by Piero de Medici’s son Lorenzo the Magnificent, letters of support from Louis XI fueled the defiance of the leadership of Florence, which responded to the Pope that the city was “especially trusting in the most Christian King, Louis of France, who has ever been the patron and protector of the Florentine State.”[55]

In a vision of the Virgin Mary, Savonarola learned that the punishment for the people of Florence for their vanities would be the coming of a conqueror from across the Alps. When Charles VIII of France engaged upon the conquest of Naples in 1494, Savonarola declared him the foretold avenger revealed to him.[56] Charles VIII’s invasion would become a significant turning point in Italian political history, known as the Italian Wars, sometimes called the Habsburg–Valois Wars. Pope Alexander VI and other Italian rulers, even Ludovico Sforza, now frightened at the speed of Charles VIII’s advance, formed the League of Venice in 1495, which included the northern Italian states of Duchy of Milan, the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Mantua, and the Republic of Florence in addition to the Kingdom of Spain, the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of Naples. Although the League was unable to stop Charles VIII from marching his army out of Italy, he lost all the gains that he had made in the process. An important consequence of the League of Venice was the political marriage arranged by Emperor Maximilian I for Philip I of Castile, the son he had with Mary of Burgundy, which resulted in the Habsburgs appropriating control over the Order of the Golden Fleece. Philip was married to Joanna, the second daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, reinforcing the alliance between Austria and Spain against the French.

When Charles VIII died without direct heirs in 1498, he was succeeded by his second cousin once removed, Louis XII (1462 – 1515), who initiated a second campaign against Naples inn 1499, by first taking control of the Duchy of Milan from Ludovico Sforza, thanks to Cesare Borgia, his condottiero. Louis XII justified his claim to the Duchy of Milan by right of his paternal grandmother, Valentina Visconti, the step-sister of Filippo Maria Visconti, who married Louis XII’s grandfather, the brother of Charles VI of France. Valentina’s mother was Isabelle of Valois, sister of Marie de Valois, John, Duke of Berry and Philip the Bold. Louis XII was the son of Charles, Duke of Orléans (1394 – 1465), a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and Marie of Cleves. Marie’s mother, Catherine of Cleves, was the daughter of Adolph I, Duke of Cleves (1373 – 1448), and Mary of Burgundy, Duchess of Cleves, sister of Philip the Good. Adolph I was raised by Emperor Sigismund as duke and a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire in 1417. The Dukes of Cleves resided in Schwanenburg Castle, in North Rhine-Westphalia, which is associated in legend with the Knight of the Swan, immortalized in Wagner’s Lohengrin.

The second war ended with the treaties of Blois and Lyon in 1504, and Emperor Maximilian I invested Louis XII with the Duchy of Milan, while Ferdinand of Spain captured the Kingdom of Naples from the French. The peace treaties established that the title of King of Naples was reserved for Ferdinand's grandson, the future Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. The new pope, Julius II (1503-1513), reversed the policies of the Borgias and exiled Cesare. Machiavelli cites Cesare’s dependence on the good will of the Papacy, under the control of his father Alexander VI, as being the principal disadvantage of his rule. Machiavelli argued that, had Cesare been able to win the favor of Julius II, he would have been a very successful ruler.

In 1499, Louis XII married Anne, Duchess of Brittany, who had first been married to Maximilian I and then Charles VIII of France. Louis XII and Anne’s daughter, Claude, Duchess of Brittany, married his first cousin and successor, Francis I of France (1494 – 1547), a knight of the Order of the Garter and the Order of the Golden Fleece, and one of Europe’s two most powerful kings, along with Emperor Charles V. Francis I was the son Charles d’Orléans, Count of Angoulême (1459 – 1496), brother of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Louise, a daughter of Philip II of Savoy and Margaret of Bourbon. A prodigious patron of the arts, Francis promoted the emerging French Renaissance by attracting many Italian artists to work for him, including Leonardo da Vinci, who brought the Mona Lisa with him, which Francis had acquired.

In 1515, as part of his efforts to gain power in Italy, Francis I and Pope Leo X met and signed an agreement of friendship, whereby Francis agreed to ensure the Vatican’s authority over the Catholic Church in France, and Leo promised to support Francis’ claim to the throne of Naples. Leo X’s nephew Lorenzo II de Medici (1492 – 1519), grandson of Lorenzo the Magnificent, would become the leader of the Republic of Florence in 1516. Famously, Machiavelli dedicated his political treatise The Prince to Lorenzo II to inform him of tactics to use maintaining his authority. As part of the arrangement, Leo X would be godfather to the heir to the French throne, and Lorenzo would marry a French princess, a wealthy and distant relative of Francis I, the sixteen-year-old Madeleine de la Tour.

In 1519, Charles V was elected to succeed his grandfather Maximilian I as emperor. Charles V had already inherited the Low Countries from his father, Philip I of Castile, and the Spanish kingdoms of his maternal grandparents, Ferdinand and Isabella. The Italian Wars resumed in 1521 as Pope Leo X and Charles V expelled French forces from Milan. Francis I reacted by descending in Italy and fighting Imperial forces at the Battle of Pavia (1525), where he was captured and forced to give French territory to the Habsburg Netherlands of Charles V. Francis I’s mother, Louise of Savoy, who had remained as regent in France during her son's absence, sent a special French mission to the court of Suleiman the Magnificent, initiating the first phase of the Franco-Ottoman alliance. Suleiman wrote an ultimatum to Charles V, asking for the immediate release of Francis. When that failed, the Ottomans invaded Hungary in 1526, aiming ultimately towards Vienna. Despite these efforts, in 1526, the Treaty of Madrid was signed, by which the Francis I renounced all his claims in Italy, Flanders, and Artois, surrendered Burgundy to Charles V.

Leo X had died in 1522 and was replaced by Adrian VI who died in 1523 and was succeeded by Leo X’s cousin, Clement VII (1478 – 1534), born Giulio de Medici. Clement VII left a significant cultural legacy in the Medici tradition, having commissioned iconic artworks of the Renaissance by Raphael, and Michelangelo, including The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel. However, Clement VII, shocked by the defeat of France, perceived Charles V’s growing power as an attempt to dominate the Catholic Church and Italy, and formed an alliance with Francis I, which came to be known as the League of Cognac, with Henry VIII of England, the Republic of Venice, Republic of Florence, and the Sforza of Milan. The army of Charles V, led by Charles III, Duke of Bourbon and Constable of France—purported Grand Master of the Priory of Sion—defeated the French army in Italy, but as funds were not available to pay the soldiers, the imperial troops, among them followers of Martin Luther, mutinied and forced their commander to lead them in the Sack of Rome in 1527 and expelling the Medici from Florence.

The sack has traditionally been viewed as a turning point in the history of Papacy in Rome and in Renaissance culture.[57] Following the defeat of his armies, Francis I sought peace with Charles. Negotiations, which began in 1529 in city of Cambrai, were conducted primarily between Francis I’s mother Louise of Savoy and her sister-in-law Margaret of Austria for her nephew the Charles V, leading to it to being known as the Paix des Dames (“Peace of the Ladies”). The final Treaty of Cambrai removed France from the war, leaving Venice, the Medici of Florence, and Clement VII alone against the emperor. With Clement VII imprisoned, Charles attempted to mold the Church in his own image.[58] Clement put through Charles V’s demands, including naming cardinals nominated by him, crowning him Holy Roman Emperor at Bologna in 1530, and refusing to annul the marriage of Charles’ aunt, Catherine of Aragon, to King Henry VIII of England, which resulted in the foundation of the breakaway Church of England. After ordering the retreat of Imperial troops from the Papal States, Charles V restored the French territory occupied by Habsburg Netherlands to Francis I, on the condition that France abandon northern Italy. At the Congress of Bologna in 1530, Charles V received the Imperial title of King of Italy by Clement VII. In exchange, the Pope obtained the restoration of Florence to the Medici family. Alessandro de Medici (1510 – 1537), the only son of Lorenzo II, was installed as Duke of Florence. A few believed Alessandro to be the illegitimate son Clement VII.[59]

The third ward between Charles V and Francis I began in 1536 upon the death of Francesco II Sforza (1495 – 1535), the second son of Ludovico Sforza and Beatrice d’Este. Because Francesco II had no heirs, his dynasty was brought to an end by Charles V, whose niece, Christina of Denmark, was Francesco II’s wife. Christina was the daughter of Christian II of Denmark, great-grandson of Albert III, Duke of Bavaria, the son of Ernest, Duke of Bavaria and Viridis and Taddea Visconti’s sister Elisabetta. When Charles’ son Philip II of Spain inherited the duchy of Milan, Francis I again invaded Italy, secured by an alliance with the Ottoman Empire. With Charles V unsuccessful in battle and squeezed between the French invaders and the Ottomans, Francis I and Charles V ultimately made peace at the Truce of Nice in 1538, which left Turin in French hands, but overall leaving Spain in significant control over most of Italy. The treaty was mediated by Clement VII’s successor, Pope Paul III, born Alessandro Farnese.

Francis I, who continued to harbor a desire for the Duchy of Milan, to which he held a dynastic claim, himself again with the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and declared war on the Holy Roman Empire and Henry VIII of England in 1542. The course of the war saw extensive fighting in Italy, France, and the Low Countries, as well as attempted invasions of Spain and England. A Franco-Ottoman fleet under the command of Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa (1466/1478 – 1546) captured the city of Nice in 1543, and laid siege to the citadel. Charles V and Henry VIII then proceeded to invade France. Although Charles V came to terms with Francis I by the Treaty of Crépy in 1544, Henry VIII continued to fight until 1546, when the Treaty of Ardres finally established peace between France and England.

In 1547, Francis I died and was succeeded by his son, Henry II of France (1519 – 1559), who was married to Catherine de Medici, the daughter of Lorenzo II de Medici and Madeleine. Among her suitors had been James V of Scotland. Catherine’s marriage to Henry II was arranged by her uncle Pope Clement VII to further ally the House of Medici with the French royal family. Clement called their betrothal “the greatest match in the world.” Henry II sealed a treaty with Suleiman the Magnificent and declared war against Charles V with the intent of recapturing Italy and ensuring French domination of European affairs. Charles V, facing the threat of an alliance between all of his enemies, signed the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 with the Schmalkaldic League, and undertook a series of abdication that divided the Habsburg Monarchy between the Spanish Habsburgs headed by his son Philip II of Spain, and the Austrian Habsburgs headed by his brother Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, who inherited all of southern Italy and Milan.

Ferdinand I, a Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Fleece, married Anna Jagellonica, the great-great-granddaughter of Emperor Sigismund. Their children included Emperor Maximilian II and Joanna of Austria. Philip II was a knight of the Order of the Garter, and Grand Master of the orders of Santiago, Montesa and Calatrava, and the Order of the Golden Fleece. Philip II's father ceded to him the crown of Naples, as well as his claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and arranged his marriage to Queen Mary I of England, known as “Bloody Mary,” the daughter of Henry VII and Catherine of Aragon, and Charles V’s maternal first cousin. Mary is best known for her forceful attempts to reverse the English Reformation, which had begun during the reign of her father, Henry VIII. Philip persuaded the English Parliament to repeal Henry VIII’s religious laws, returning the Church of England to Roman jurisdiction. Mary over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions, that punished anyone judged guilty of heresy against Catholicism.

War continued between the Habsburgs and France, with France being defeated in 1557 at the Battle of St. Quentin by a Spanish-Imperial army led by Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy (1528 – 1580), the son of Charles III of Savoy and Beatrice of Portugal. When Emmanuel Philibert, also a knight of the Order of the Garter, and a claimant of the kingdom of Jerusalem—came to power in 1553 most of his family’s territories were in French hands, so he had offered to serve France’s leading enemy the House of Habsburg, in the hope of recovering his them. He served Philip II as Governor of the Netherlands from 1555 to 1559.

Nevertheless, the French recovered and the conflict was prolonged until the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis in 1559. It consisted of two treaties, the first being signed between Henri II and Elizabeth I of England, and a second between Henri II and Philip II of Spain. The two treaties also marked the end of the wars between France and the Holy Roman Empire, and therefore the end of the Habsburg-Valois conflict as a whole, with the approval of Emperor Ferdinand I. Henry II of France renounced his hereditary claim to the Duchy of Milan and recognized Spanish control over the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of Sicily, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The duchy of Savoy was restored to Emmanuel Philibert and married Henry II’s sister Margherita of Valois, Duchess of Berry. Philip II of Spain married Elisabeth, the daughter of Henry II of France. The March of Montferrat was given back to Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (1538 – 1587), brother of the purported Grand Master of the Priory of Sion, Ludovico Gonzaga. Guglielmo married Eleonora of Austria, the sixth daughter of Emperor Ferdinand I. The Republic of Florence, which was allied with Spain, absorbed the Republic of Siena, an ally of France, into what became the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Having brought nearly all Tuscany under his control after conquering the Republic of Siena with the support of Charles V, Cosimo I de Medici was elevated by a papal bull of Pope Pius V–notable for his role in the Council of Trent—to Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1569. Henri II of France and Philip II agreed in the treaty to ask Pope Pius IV (1499 – 1565), born Giovanni Angelo Medici, and Emperor Ferdinand I to reconvene the Council of Trent. Together with Carlo Borromeo (1538 – 1584), a member of the Milan branch of the House of Medici, Pius IV and Carlo Borromeo would complete it in 1563, initiating the Catholic Reformation and Baroque period of Italy.

House of Bourbon

Catherine de Medici, who had been educated in astrology and astronomy, has been labeled a “sinister Queen… noted for her interest in the occult arts.”[60] According to Jean Bodin (1530 – 1596) in his book De la démonomanie des sorciers, Catherine was the creator of the Black Mass, a Satanic inversion of the traditional Catholic Mass. It has been suggested that Catherine educated her son Henry III of France (1551 – 1589) in the dark arts, and that “the two devoted themselves to sorceries that were scandals of the age.”[61] Catherine also gave patronage to the Ruggeri brothers, who were renowned astrologers, but were also known for their involvement in necromancy and the black arts. Cosimo Ruggeri (d. 1615), who was reputed as a master of the occult, black magic and witchcraft during his lifetime, was believed to be Catherine’s own “trusted necromancer, and specialist in the dark arts.”[62]

Upon Henry II’s death in 1559, Catherine de Medici became regent of their sons in succession, Francis II, and King Charles IX, and she played a key role in the reign of her third son, Henry III. Henry III’s sister Claude of France married Charles III, Duke of Lorraine, great-grandson of René II, Duke of Lorraine. Their son, Henry II, Duke of Lorraine (1563 –1624), married Margherita Gonzaga, daughter of Vincenzo I Gonzaga. Vincenzo was the nephew of Louis Gonzaga, who married Henriette of Cleves, heiress to the Duchies of Nevers and Rethel, and a lady-in-waiting of Catherine de Medici. Henriette was a descendant of John II, Count of Nevers (1415 – 1491)—the son of Catherine of Cleve’s brother John I, Duke of Cleves—who fought in the army of his stepfather Philip the Good.

In 1589, at the death of Henry III of France, the House of Valois became extinct in the male line, which passed to the House of Bourbon. The royal Bourbons, who originated in 1272, when the youngest son of Louis IX of France married the heiress of the lordship of Bourbon, had continued for three centuries as a cadet branch, serving as nobles under the Direct Capetian and Valois kings. The senior line of the House of Bourbon became extinct in the male line in 1527 with the death of Charles III, Duke of Bourbon, when he was killed commanding the troops of Emperor Charles V in the Sack of Rome. This made the junior Bourbon-Vendôme branch the genealogically senior branch of the House of Bourbon. In 1514, the county of Vendôme was raised to a duchy-peerage in favor of Charles de Bourbon (1489 – 1537), the son Francis de Bourbon, Count of Vendôme and Marie of Luxembourg, the daughter of Peter II of Luxembourg, a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and great-great-grandson of Marie of Valois and Robert I, Duke of Bar. Peter II’s sister was Jacquetta of Luxembourg, mother of Elizabeth Woodville, the wife of Edward IV of England, who was accused of witchcraft, and grandmother of Henry VIII.

Charles’ son Antoine (1518 – 1562) became King of Navarre in 1555, by marriage to Jeanne III, Queen of Navarre, daughter of Francis I’s sister, Marguerite of Navarre.  Marguerite was a poet, novelist, and also an important sponsor of the French Renaissance, gathering around her a protected a circle of poets and writers, including François Rabelais. Marguerite’s most notable works are a classic collection of short stories, the Heptameron, and a controversial religious poem, Miroir de l'âme pécheresse (“Mirror of the Sinful Soul”), a mystical narrative of the soul as a yearning woman calling out to Christ as her father, brother and lover. As explained by Christopher Prendergast, “It derives directly from the series of erotic love songs exchanged by a bridegroom and his bride in the Song of Songs, interpreted since the twelfth century as an allegorical expression of the love between Christ and the individual believer.”[63] The theologians of the University of Sorbonne condemned her work as heresy and ordered copies to be burned. A monk said Marguerite should be sewn into a sack and thrown into the Seine. Students at the Collège de Navarre satirized her in a play as “a Fury from Hell.” However, Francis I forced the charges to be dropped and obtained an apology from the Sorbonne.[64]

Antoine’s son Henry IV of France (1553 – 1610) succeeded to the French throne as the first of the Bourbon kings of France. Henry IV converted to Catholicism, after his marriage to Henry II’s daughter Margaret of Valois was annulled in 1599, a year later he married Marie de Medici, the daughter of Francesco I de Medici and Joanna of Austria. Francesco I de Medici, also a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, became the second Grand Duke of Tuscany, ruling from 1574 until his death in 1587. Francesco I was also passionately interested in alchemy and spent many hours in his private laboratory, the Studiolo in the Palazzo Vecchio, which held his collections small, precious, unusual or rare objects and where he conducted alchemical experiments. The Studiolo was completed from 1570-1572, by teams of artists under the supervision of Vasari and the scholars Giovanni Batista Adriani and Vincenzo Borghini. The walls were covered with paintings representing mythological themes or representing trades. In the center is a fresco of Prometheus receiving jewels from nature. Cosimo Ruggeri, who had been the trusted sorcerer of Catherine de Medici, was a personal friend of Marie de Medici’s favorites, Concino Concini (1569 – 1617) and his wife Leonora Dori, who was later burned at the stake for witchcraft.[64]

Nostradamus

The famous mystic Nostradamus (1503 – 1566) worked as an astrologer for various wealthy patrons, including Catherine de Medici, who summoned him to Paris to explain his predictions and draw up horoscopes for her sons, and who became one of his most ardent supporters. Michel de Nostredame, usually Latinized as Nostradamus, was a French physician and reputed seer. Nostradamus’ family was originally Jewish, but had converted to Catholicism before he was born.[66] According to some accounts, Nostradamus’ grandfather was Jean de Saint-Remy, a Jewish Kabbalist at the court of René of Anjou.[67] Nostradamus is best known for his book Les Propheties, a collection of predictions of future events, first published in 1555. Joachim of Fiore and Savonarola and others were major sources for his prophecies.[68]

Nostradamus’ Aristocratic Relationship

• Mary of Burgundy + Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy (antipope Felix V, elevated duke of Savoy by Emperor Sigismund, founder of the Order of the Dragon)

  • Louis, Duke of Savoy + Anne of Cyprus (of the Poitiers-Lusignan dynasty)

    • Philip II, Duke of Savoy + Margaret of Bourbon

      • Philibert II + Yolande Louise of Savoy

      • Louise of Savoy + Charles, Count of Angoulême

        • Francis I of France (sponsor of Guillaume Postel, who prophesied coming of Alias Artista) + Claude, Duchess of Brittany

          • Margaret of Valois + Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy (see below)

          • Henry II of France + Catherine de Medici (sponsor of NOSTRADAMUS and creator of the Black Mass)

            • Claude of France + Charles III, Duke of Lorraine

            • Henry III of France (educated in Black Arts by his mother) + Louise of Lorraine

        • Marguerite de Navarre (author of Mirror of the Sinful Soul) + Henry II of Navarre

          • Jeanne III of Navarre + Antoine of Navarre

            • Henry IV of France (first King of France of the House of Bourbon) + Marie de Medici (Cosimo Ruggeri, who had been the trusted sorcerer of Catherine de Medici, was a personal friend of Marie de Medici’s favorites, Concino Concini and his wife Leonora Dori, who was later burned at the stake for witchcraft)

    • Philip II, Duke of Savoy + Claudine de Brosse of Brittany

      • Charles III, Duke of Savoy + Beatrice of Portugal (d. Manuel I of Portugal, Grand Master of the Order of Christ) + Maria of Aragon)

        • Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy + Margaret of Valois (asked NOSTRADAMUS’ help to produce an heir)

          • Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy (birth prophesied by NOSTRADAMUS) + Catherina Micaela of Spain

Nostradamus claimed to base his published predictions on judicial astrology, the art of forecasting events by calculation of the planetary and stellar bodies and their relationship to the Earth. The term “judicial astrology” was mainly used in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance to refer to types of astrology that were considered heretical by the Catholic church, distinguished from the “natural astrology,” such as medical astrology and meteorological astrology, which were seen as acceptable because they were a part of the natural sciences of the time. Research suggests that much of Nostradamus’ prophetic work paraphrases collections of ancient end-times prophecies, supplemented with references to historical events and anthologies of omen reports. Nostradamus’ historical sources include passages from Livy, Suetonius’ The Twelve Caesars, Plutarch and other classical historians, as well as from medieval chroniclers such as Geoffrey of Villehardouin and Jean Froissart. Many of his astrological references are taken almost word for word from Richard Roussat’s Livre de l’estat et mutations des temps of 1549–50. Among his major prophetic sources was the Mirabilis Liber of 1522, which contained a range of prophecies by Pseudo-Methodius, the Tiburtine Sibyl, Joachim of Fiore, Savonarola and others. Further material was gleaned from the De honesta disciplina of 1504 by Petrus Crinitus, which included extracts from Michael Psellos’ De daemonibus, and Iamblichus’ De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum.

According to an undated letter from Pierre Boursier, former secretary of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy (1562 – 1630), to the historian and genealogist Samuel Guichenon (1607 – 1664), Nostradamus came to Turin in 1556 under the request of Charles Emmanuel I’s parents, Emmanuel Philibert and Margherita of Valois, who remained childless. The Savoy family is said to have been quite interested in alchemy. Emmanuel Philibert moved the capital of the recovered Savoyard state to Turin, which is associated with numerous occult legends. It is said that Apollonius of Tyana hid one of his powerful talismans in the most secret of three secret caves. The caves are said to exist in an underground labyrinth in the vicinity of Palazzo Madama and Piazza Castello, where the Savoy family allowed alchemists to undertake secret experiments. Palazzo Madama was begun at the end of the fifteenth century and completed in 1505, for the Medici family. It housed two Medici cardinals and cousins, Giovanni and Giulio, who both later became popes as Leo X and Clement VII. Catherine de Medici also lived here before she was married to Henry II. Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte, patron of Caravaggio with an interest in alchemy, lived there until his death in 1627.

When Emmanuel Philibert and Margherita asked Nostradamus’ help to produce an heir for the throne, he assured the princess to rejoice, because the child with whom she was pregnant, “Would be a Son, who would be called Charles, and who would become the greatest Captain of his century.”[69] Charles Emmanuel I, known as the Great, was Marquis of Saluzzo, Duke of Savoy, Prince of Piedmont and Count of Aosta, Moriana and Nice and also Titular King of Cyprus and Jerusalem. He married Catherine Micaela of Spain, the daughter of Philip II of Spain. From Charles Emmanuel I and Catherine’s son was Thomas Francis of Savoy, Prince of Carignano (1596 – 1656), from whom descend the junior branch of Savoy-Carignano. Charles Emmanuel’s son, Victor Amadeus I, Duke of Savoy (1587 – 1637) married Princess Christine Marie of France, the daughter of Henry IV of France and Marie de Medici. According to legend, Christine Marie herself was interested in the occult, and rebuilt Palazzo Madama, following the advice of master alchemists. Apparently, when she became regent after Victor Amadeus I’s death in 1637, the alchemists divulged the secret of the locations of the cave entrances to her.[70]

[1] Stefanie Beth Siegmund. The Medici State and the Ghetto of Florence: The Construction of an Early Modern Jewish Community (Stanford University Press, 2006), p. 446 n. 37.

[2] Ian Mladjov. “Reconsidering Agatha, Wife of Eadward the Exile,” in The Plantagenet Connection, vol. 11, Summer/Winter 2003, pp. 1-85. See also a summary in “The Bulgarian Descent of HM Simeon II,” in Sega: April 13, 2002, see also http://www-personal.umich.edu/~imladjov/SIMEONII.doc; Nicholas Adontz (1938). “Samuel l'Armenien, roi des Bulgares,” MAR Bclsmp (in French) (39): 37; David Marshall Lang. The Bulgarians: from pagan times to the Ottoman conquest (Westview Press, 1976), p. 67; Tom Winnifrith. Badlands, Borderlands: A History of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania (Duckworth, 2002), p. 83. Richard Gottheil, Herman Rosenthal. “BAGRATUNI (also called Bagarat).” Jewish Encyclopedia.

[3] Thorkild Jacobsen. “The Battle between Marduk and Tiamat.” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 88.1 (January–March 1968), pp 104–108.

[4] Chronicle of the Deeds of the Hungarians from the Fourteenth-Century Illuminated Codex. Translated by János M. Bak & László Veszprémy (Budapest: CEU Press, 2018), p. 35.

[5] Brian A. Pavlac & Elizabeth S. Lott. The Holy Roman Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia [2 volumes]. (ABC-CLIO, 2019), p. 199.

[6] Brian A. Pavlac & Elizabeth S. Lott. The Holy Roman Empire: A Historical Encyclopedia [2 volumes]. (ABC-CLIO, 2019), p. 199.

[7] “Order of the Dragon.” Retrieved from Ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/dragon.html

[8] J. Corominas y J.A. Pascual. Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (Gredos, 1983).

[9] D'Arcy Jonathan Dacre Boulton. The Knights of the Crown: The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Later Medieval Europe, 1325–1520 (Boydell, 2000), pp. 330ff.

[10] “Rene I King of Jerusalem and the 2 Sicilies.” The Order of the Fleur de Lys. Retrieved from https://www.orderofthefleurdelys.org.uk/order-history/rene-i-king-of-jerusalem-and-the-2-sicilies/

[11] “Rene I King of Jerusalem and the 2 Sicilies.” The Order of the Fleur de Lys. Retrieved from https://www.orderofthefleurdelys.org.uk/order-history/rene-i-king-of-jerusalem-and-the-2-sicilies/

[12] Ian Mladjov. “Reconsidering Agatha, Wife of Eadward the Exile,” in The Plantagenet Connection, vol. 11, Summer/Winter 2003, pp. 1-85. See also a summary in “The Bulgarian Descent of HM Simeon II,” in Sega: April 13, 2002, see also http://www-personal.umich.edu/~imladjov/SIMEONII.doc; Nicholas Adontz (1938). “Samuel l'Armenien, roi des Bulgares,” MAR Bclsmp (in French) (39): 37; David Marshall Lang. The Bulgarians: from pagan times to the Ottoman conquest (Westview Press, 1976), p. 67; Tom Winnifrith. Badlands, Borderlands: A History of Northern Epirus/Southern Albania (Duckworth, 2002), p. 83. Richard Gottheil, Herman Rosenthal. “BAGRATUNI (also called Bagarat).” Jewish Encyclopedia.

[13] “Byzantine Double Headed Eagle.” Retrieved from http://byzantineempires.org/byzantine-double-headed-eagle.html

[14] Eugene L. Cox. The Eagles of Savoy: The House of Savoy in Thirteenth-Century Europe (Princeton University Press, 2015), p. 7.

[15] Henry Hopwood-Phillips. “Did Byzantine Heraldry Exist?” (March 12, 2020). Retrieved from https://www.byzantineambassador.com/post/did-byzantine-heraldry-exist

[16] Franco Pratesi. “Italian Cards - New Discoveries.” The Playing-Card, 18, 1, 2 (1989), pp. 28–32, 33–38.

[17] Gertrude Moakley. The Tarot Cards (The New York Public Library, 1966).

[18] Michael A. E. Dummett & Sylvia Mann. The game of Tarot: From Ferrara to Salt Lake City (Duckwor

[19] Mario Alinei. “L’etimologia di it. minchione, it. mer. minchia e lat. mentula.” Quaderni di Semantica (in Italian). Il Mulino, 1 (2015), pp. 407–415

[20] Meredith K. Ray. Daughters of Alchemy: Women and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy (Harvard University Press, 2015).

[21] Julia L. Hairston. “Skirting the Issue: Machiavelli's Caterina Sforza.” Renaissance Quarterly. 53, 3 (Autumn 2000), pp. 687–712.

[22] “Caterina Sforza’s Experimenti.” Making Up the Renaissance. Retrieved from https://sites.eca.ed.ac.uk/renaissancecosmetics/cosmetics-recipes/caterina-sforzas-experimenti/

[23] Edward Gelles. The Jewish Journey: A Passage through European History (The Radcliffe Press, 2016), p. 154.

[24] Patrick Macey. Bonfire Songs: Savonarola's Musical Legacy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), p. 186.

[25] Patrick Macey. Bonfire Songs: Savonarola's Musical Legacy (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), p. 184ff.

[26] Patrick Macey, Noble Jeremy, Dean Jeffrey, Gustave Reese & Dean Roote (ed.). “Josquin des Prez.” Grove Music Online. Retrieved from https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/abstract/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000014497

[27] Richard Gottheil, Isaac Broydé. “Jehiel of Pisa.” Jewish Encyclopedia.

[28] Stefanie Beth Siegmund. The Medici State and the Ghetto of Florence: The Construction of an Early Modern Jewish Community (Stanford University Press, 2006), p. 446 n. 37.

[29] Norman Roth. Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (Univ of Wisconsin Press, 2002).

[30] “Ferrara.” Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved from https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ferrara

[31] “Ferrara.” Guide Europe. Retrieved from https://jguideeurope.org/en/region/italy/emilia-romagna/ferrara/

[32] Meredith K. Ray. Daughters of Alchemy: Women and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy (Harvard University Press, 2015).

[33] Giorgio Vasari. Ragionamenti di Giorgio Vasari sopra le invenzioni da lui dipinte in Firenze nel Palazzo di loro Altezze Serenissime con lo Illustrissimo ed Eccellentissimo Don Francesco de' Medici.

[34] Vasari. Ragionamenti.

[35] Josclyn Godwin. The Pagan Dream of the Renaissance (York Beach, ME: Red Wheel/Weiser).

[36] Mario Biagioli. “Galileo the Emblem Maker.” Isis, Vol. 81, No. 2 (June, 1990), pp. 234.

[37] Henry Hopwood-Phillips. “Did Byzantine Heraldry Exist?” (March 12, 2020). Retrieved from https://www.byzantineambassador.com/post/did-byzantine-heraldry-exist

[38] Francis-Ames Lewis. Isabella and Leonardo (Yale University Press, 2012), Appendix Letters pp. 223–240.

[39] George R. Marek. The Bed and the Throne: The Life of Isabella d'Este (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1976), pp.16–17.

[40] Lynn Thorndike. History of Magic and Experimental Science, vol. I-VII (New York: Columbia University Press, 1941), p. 32.

[41] Walter Isaacson. Leonardo da Vinci (New York City, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017).

[42] Michael Rocke. Forbidden Friendships epigraph, p. 148 & N120 p. 298

[43] Keith Stern. Queers in History: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals (BenBella Books, 2009), p. 276.

[44] Ibid.

[45] Vasari, selected & ed. George Bull. Artists of the Renaissance (Penguin 1965).

[46] Ronald Lightbown. Sandro Botticelli: Life and Work (Thames and Hudson, 1989), p. 302.

[47] Louis Gillet. “Titian.” In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1913).

[48] Antonio Ernesto Denunzio. “New data and some hypotheses on Caravaggio's stays in Naples.” In Silvia Cassani & Maria Sapio, (eds.). Caravaggio: The final years 1606-1610 (Napoli: Electra Napoli, 2005), pp. 57–69.

[49] Helen Langdon. Caravaggio: A Life (Westview Press, 2000).

[50] Franca Trinchieri Camiz. “Music and Painting in Cardinal Del Monte's Household.” Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 26 (1991), pp. 214.

[51] Howard Hibbard. Caravaggio (London: Thames and Hudson, 1983), p. 97; Louis Crompton. Homosexuality and Civilization (Harvard, 2006) p. 288.

[52] Walter Friedlander. Caravaggio Studies (Princeton, 1955, revised ed. 1969).

[53] Andrew Graham-Dixon. Caravaggio: A life sacred and profane (Penguin, 2011).

[54] Robert S. Hoyt & Stanley Chodorow. Europe in the Middle Ages (Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, Inc., 1976), p. 619.

[55] Cited in Sara Sturm-Maddox. “Catherine de Medici and the Two Lilies.” The Court Historian, 10, 1 (2005), p. 26.

[56] Cited in Sara Sturm-Maddox. “Catherine de Medici and the Two Lilies.” The Court Historian, 10, 1 (2005), p. 26.

[57] “Rome, Sack of.” Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved from https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/modern-europe/wars-and-battles/sack-rome

[58] Andre Chastel. The Sack of Rome, 1527 (Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1983), p. 73.

[59] Catherine Fletcher. The Black Prince of Florence: The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de’ Medici (London: Bodley Head, 2016), pp. 16, 280–81.

[60] Gerald B. Gardner. The Meaning of Witchcraft. p. 91.

[61] Grillot de Givry. Witchcraft, Magic & Alchemy. p. 121.

[62] Leonie Frieda. Catherine de Medici (London: Phoenix, 2005).

[63] Christopher Prendergast. A History of Modern French Literature: From the Sixteenth Century to the Twentieth Century (Princeton University Press, 2017), p. 61.

[64] Percy W. Ames. The Mirror of the Sinful Soul (London: Asher & Co., 1897), p. 42.

[65] Eugène Defrance. Catherine de Médicis, ses astrologues et ses magiciens envoûteurs : Documents inédits sur la diplomatie et les sciences occultes du xvie siècle (Paris, Mercure de France, 1911), p. 311.

[66] Edgar Leroy. Nostradamus: Ses origines, sa vie, son oeuvre (Jeanne Laffitte, 1993), p. 24.

[67] Baigent, Leigh & Lincoln. Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

[68] Peter Lemesurier. Nostradamus: The Illustrated Prophecies (O Books, 2003).

[69] Samuel Guichenon. Histoire généalogique de la royale Maison de Savoie justifiée par Titres, Fondations de Monastères, Manuscripts, anciens Monuments, Histoires & autres preuves autentiques (Lyon, Guillaume Barbier, 1660), p. 708. Retrieved from http://cura.free.fr/dico3/1101cn135.html 

[70] Diana Zahuranec. “Turin Legends: Royal Alchemy.” (August 23, 2015). Retrieved from https://dianazahuranec.com/2015/08/23/turin-legends-royal-alchemy/

Volume One

Introduction

1. Babylon

2. Ancient Greece

3. The Hellenistic Age

4. The Book of Revelation

5. Gog and Magog

6. Eastern Mystics

7. Septimania

8. Princes' Crusade

9. The Reconquista

10. Ashkenazi Hasidim

11. The Holy Grail

12. Camelot

13. Perceval

14. The Champagne Fairs

15. Baphomet

16. The Order of Santiago

17. War of the Roses

18. The Age of Discovery

19. Renaissance & Reformation

20. Kings of Jerusalem

21. The Mason Word

22. The Order of the Dragon