His reign was marked by the reversal of his predecessor's conservative policy; he abolished taxes for poorer people, repealed penal laws which restricted Jews and discontinued public executions.

However, Spain, Great Britain, Austria and the Dutch Republic disregarded Cosimo's plan and appointed Charles of Spain—whose mother, Elisabeth Farnese, was a great-granddaughter of Margherita de' Medici—Gian Gastone's heir.

[6] On 24 May 1671, the first anniversary of his grandfather Ferdinando II's death, Giovanni Battista Gastone de' Medici was born in Florence to Grand Duke Cosimo III and Marguerite Louise d'Orléans.

When he arrived there, an enraged Cosimo, who had explicitly told his son not to leave Anna Maria Franziksa without his prior consent,[18] ordered him back to Reichstadt.

[19] Anna Maria Franziska made an effort to welcome him back; however, her mood turned sour when Gian Gastone brought up the prospect of wintering in Prague.

Gian Gastone replied to Cosimo's ensuing admonishments with an account of his married life, blaming Anna Maria Franziska's "capriciousness, peevish faces and sharp words" for his desperate conduct.

[30] Ferdinando, nonetheless, was not alone in his suffering: Guyot de Merville, a French adventurer, took note of Gian Gastone's mental decline: "He carries [apathy] so far that it is said he never opens a letter, to avoid having to answer.

"[31] Additionally, Gian Gastone's fragile temperament required long periods of isolation; he spent several hours alone each night, drinking and staring up at the moon.

[32] Cosimo III deposited a bill in the Tuscan senate, the nominal legislature, provisioning for a male line succession failure by making the Electress Palatine Gian Gastone's heiress.

[35] Violante Beatrice of Bavaria, to whom Gian Gastone had become quite attached, disliked the Electress and therefore left the grand ducal court for the position of governor of the town of Siena.

[36] The Electress, now the First Lady of Tuscany, and Gian Gastone were not on good terms: he scorned her for marrying him to Anna Maria Franziska, who, for eleven years, made his life unbearable.

[38] All his ambitions in regards to the succession being thwarted, Cosimo III distributed one final proclamation shortly before his death, on 31 October 1723, decreeing that the Electress should succeed Gian Gastone.

[40][41] The ramshackle condition of the capital was noted by philosopher Montesquieu five years into Gian Gastone's reign: "There is no town where men live in less luxury than Florence".

Despite these hindrances, Gian Gastone, aged 52, commenced his reign with a burst of ebullience, releasing prisoners, abolishing exorbitant taxes, "Pensions on the Creed" (monies paid to converts to Christianity) and public executions.

[31][42][43] Gian Gastone recalled Violante Beatrice to the royal court and banished his sister, the Dowager Electress, to the Villa La Quiete.

[44] The Governor reigned supreme over Tuscan society, and Gian Gastone delegated most of his public duties to her, and chose to spend most of his time in bed.

[44] Here, Gian Gastone was entertained by the Ruspanti, a team of poor, handsome young men assembled by Dami, who performed sexual acts for and with the Grand Duke.

A contemporary dubbed the head of the Ruspanti, Giuliano Dami, "the despot of Gian Gastone's court"; he exploited his influence with the Grand Duke by offering anybody who was willing to bribe him an audience with their monarch.

[48] Governor Violante Beatrice and the Dowager Electress, following the former's sojourn in Rome, in spite of their mutual dislike of each other, attempted to ameliorate Gian Gastone's decadent public image together.

[6] An alcoholic, Gian Gastone drank too much before the ceremony and vomited repeatedly throughout; he had to be carried unconscious back to the Palazzo Pitti, the royal palace, on a litter.

[50] The "Tuscan question" finally seemed resolved by the Treaty of Vienna (1731): in exchange for Spain and its allies' recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, Austria confirmed Infante Charles as Gian Gastone's heir—the Grand Duke wasn't consulted.

[54] He even went so far as to have the Duke created Grand Prince of Tuscany, the title borne by the Tuscan heir-apparent, against the wishes of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI; however, the latter soon had the grant revoked.

[55] After the War of the Polish Succession broke out in 1733, Charles marched a Spanish army south and defeated the Austrians holding the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily.

Pursuant to preliminary peace terms negotiated in 1735 (but not finalized until after Gian Gastone's death with the 1738 Treaty of Vienna), Charles surrendered Parma and the claim to the Tuscan throne to Francis III of Lorraine in exchange for being crowned king of Naples and Sicily.

Gian Gastone gave his all in reforming his realm, purging corrupt churchmen from government, reversing Cosimo III's ban of teaching "new ideas", i.e. the philosophy of Galileo et al., in the University of Pisa and abolishing the burdensome income taxes.

[58] Charles de Brosses, a French politician and writer, wrote, in 1739, "The Tuscans would give two-thirds of their property to have the Medici back, and the other third to get rid of the Lorrainers.

His corpse was dressed in "black velvet", according to Official Report on the Examination of the Tombs in the Medici Mausoleum of 1857, "with, over this, the great cloak of Grand Master of the Order of Saint Stephen.