Medici, Isabella de (1542–1576)

Princess of Bracciano . Name variations: Isabella Orsini. Born in 1542; died in July 1576 by her husband's hand; daughter of Cosimo I de Medici (1519–1574), grand duke of Tuscany (r. 1569–1574), and Eleonora de Medici (1522–1562); married Paolo Giordano Orsini, prince of Bracciano or Brachiano, in 1558.

In 1558, 16-year-old Isabella de Medici married Paolo Giordano Orsini, prince of Bracciano, the most powerful prince in Rome. It was said that Isabella was highly accomplished, beautiful and kind. In the Origine e Descendenza de' Medici, a chronicler writes: "Wit, beauty, and talent made her conspicuous among all the ladies of the day, and she captivated every heart but her husband's. Speaking French, Spanish, and Latin fluently, a perfect musician, singing beautifully, a poetess and improvisatrice by nature, Isabella was the soul of all around her, and the fairest star of the Medici." Her fate would bring down the house of Orsini.

After 18 years of marriage, Isabella was residing predominantly in Florence while her husband dallied with the married Vittoria Accoramboni in Rome. Orsini, corrupted by his enormous power and spurred on by his lover, decided to kill his wife Isabella and Vittoria's husband Francesco Peretti in order to wed Vittoria. Isabella, aware she was in danger, wrote to Catherine de Medici in France, requesting asylum. Catherine agreed and hastened to make arrangements, but she would be too late. On July 16, 1576, after her husband had unexpectedly arrived in Florence, Isabella accompanied him at his request to their villa of Cerreto Guidi, near Empoli. On the way, Isabella once more confessed her misgivings, this time to her traveling companion, Lucrezia Frescobaldi .

In one historian's version, Orsini had made elaborate preparations for what would follow. A hole had been cut into the ceiling above the bedroom chamber where four men were stationed; a noose had been fed down through the hole and dangled behind a window curtain. That night as Orsini and his wife Isabella retired to the darkened room, he slipped the noose around her neck while kissing her, and, after a violent struggle, she was strangled. Orsini claimed that she had died of apoplexy while "bathing her head," then sent his soldiers to the Villa Negroni in Rome where they killed Francesco Peretti.

Pope Gregory XIII, convinced of foul play, refused to let the widowed Orsini marry the widowed Accoramboni. In defiance, the couple entered into a mock marriage, and for the next four years Orsini and Accoramboni were locked into a struggle with the pope. Then Gregory died and Sixtus V, the uncle of the murdered Francesco Peretti, was elected pope. Accoramboni fled to Padua; Orsini was exiled to Venice. He died there and left his estate to Vittoria. Furious at that turn of events, his nearest relation, Ludovico Orsini, stabbed Vittoria to death. When Ludovico was arrested and put to death, the house of Orsini was ruined and never regained power.