Cosimo's legacy was to give Florence stability and prosperity it had not known in about half a century, but there is a much darker side to that legacy too.

Besides being a political reformer, Cosimo was also a master at using art and literature to glorify not only himself, but his ancestors.

Although kept on a leash by the Emperor Charles V, Cosimo I completes Florence's consolidation of the rest of Tuscany...except for one hold-out.

Now secure in his reign, Cosimo sets about building something like a modern state. But was he a reformer, a tyrant, or something in-between?

In the wake of Alessandro de' Medici's assassination, the Medici family's country cousin Cosimo becomes the new duke. Right away, he has to fight for his throne and prove that he is no pawn.

The Wars of Religion reaches its crescendo with a three-way struggle, and Catherine watches as her most beloved child makes a horrific and bloody mistake that would prove too much for her to bear.

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Henri tries to get comfortable as king surrounded by his minions and scholars while Catherine's problem son, François d'Alençon, helps cause the Wars of Religion to break out again.

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Support the podcast on Patreon. You can also drop some change in the tip jar and see my other work here.

With an atrocity between them, Catherine de' Medici's relationship with her son King Charles IX falls apart. She can take pride in her favorite son Henri's election as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, although unfortunately her beloved child decides he hates his new job.

Catherine de' Medici and King Charles IX lash out against perceived enemies only to release a horror beyond their control, one that will stain Catherine's image forever.

Catherine seems to have finally ended the religious civil war, a lasting peace that would be sealed with the marriage of her glamorous daughter Margot and the Protestant great hope Henri de Bourbon. But no one saw the storm that was coming...

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Support the podcast on Patreon.