Duke of Florence

Il Duca di Firenze, rendered in English as The Duke of Florence, was a title created in 1532 by Pope Clement VII. There were effectively only two dukes, Alessandro de' Medici and Cosimo de' Medici, the second duke being elevated to The Grand Duke of Tuscany, causing the Florentine title to become subordinate to the greater Tuscan title.

In 1532, Pope Clement VII, who was born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, appointed Alessandro de' Medici as duke over the Republic of Florence, the de' Medici family having acted as de facto rulers over the city of Florence since 1434 when Cosimo "Il Vecchio" de Medici (also known by his supporters as Pater Patriae, or "Father of his country"), returned to the city from his short-lived exile in the Republic of Venice by the Alberti and Strozzi families who were also political rivals of the Medici family. The duchy would bolster de' Medici power and influence in the region, which had just a few years prior been restored by Emperor Charles V after political upheaval against the de' Medici pope and de' Medici rulers of Florence in 1527. Alessandro is also believed by historians to have been the illegitimate son of either Pope Clement VII or Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino.

In 1535, a delegation of Florentine nobles, which included the Pazzi family who previously conspired to assassinate Lorenzo de' Medici and was headed by Alessandro’s cousin Ippolito de' Medici, sought to gain the assistance of Emperor Charles V & I to depose Alessandro. Charles rejected the delegations’ appeals, as Alessandro had been wedded to the emperor's daughter Margaret of Parma.

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