Taddea Malaspina

A scion of the Massa branch of the ancient Malaspina family, she was the mistress of Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence, from the early 1530s to about 1537 and was likely the mother of at least two of his children, Giulio and Giulia de' Medici.

[2] Taddea was born as the youngest daughter of Antonio Alberico II Malaspina [it], sovereign Marquis of Massa,[3] and his wife, Lucrezia d'Este,[4] who fathered no sons.

Her elder sister Ricciarda, who had shrewdly managed to retain their father's feudal titles in defiance of the Salic law, lived for long periods with Taddea and their mother: the three enjoyed a dubious reputation as "the marquises of Massa" and were also joined by Ricciarda's siblings-in-law, Cardinal Innocenzo Cybo (also her lover en titre and father of several of her children, probably including her heir Alberico)[6] and Caterina Cybo, former Duchess of Camerino, in whose family's Florentine residences they used to dwell.

[2][7] In a portrait of Alessandro by Pontormo, dated to about 1534, the Duke, dressed in black, draws the profile of a woman in silverpoint.

[8] The Chiesa della Madonna del Carmine and the adjoining Santa Chiara monastic complex in Massa were built at Taddea Malaspina's behest in 1554; they still stand.