Duke of the Florentine Republic

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.

[2][3] 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 to depose Alessandro.

Charles rejected the delegations’ appeals, as Alessandro had been wedded to the emperor's daughter Margaret of Parma.

With no legitimate issue, Cosimo de' Medici was chosen to succeed his distant relative by Florentine officials.

Philip II of Spain bestowed the territory on Cosimo as a hereditary fiefdom in July 1557.

The ducal coronet used by the Italian states.
The heraldic achievement of the Medici, the family to which the two Dukes of the Florentine Republic belonged.