Forensic scientists who exhumed the bodies of several members of the Medici dynasty have solved a 400-year mystery surrounding the deaths of Francesco I de’ Medici and his second wife, reports Discovery News.
In October 1587 Francesco I de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany [1541 – 1587] and his second wife, Bianca Cappello [1548 – 1587] died within a day of one another, giving rise to speculation that they might have been poisoned although their death certificates gave tertian malarial fever as the cause of death.
Suspicion fell upon Francesco’s brother, Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici [1549 – 1609] who could not accept Bianca, his brother’s former mistress, as Grand Duchess. He may also have feared that, if Bianca had children by Francesco, he himself would have been excluded from the succession.
In 2006 toxicologists suggested arsenic poisoning as the cause of Francesco’s death but now Professor Gino Fornaciari of Pisa University and his team have found evidence, in tests on Francesco’s bones, that he died of malaria after all.
Tests could not be carried out on Bianca’s body as her burial place is unknown but the researchers examined bones belonging to Francesco’s father, Cosimo I de’ Medici and Francesco’s first wife, Joan of Austria. These bones produced negative results when tested for malaria.
Professor Forniciari is calling for Ferdinando, who, as , Grand Duke of Tuscany, ruled wisely and well, to be exonerated.
