udies, it is because
it shows the Spirit of a Time, and because we may clearly see in it the
influence of thought.

But before entering the political arena, where Catherine will be seen
facing the two great difficulties of her career, it is necessary to
give a succinct account of her preceding life, from the point of view
of impartial criticism, in order to take in as much as possible of this
vast and regal existence up to the moment when the first part of the
present Study begins.

Never was there any period, in any land, in any sovereign family, a
greater contempt for legitimacy than in the famous house of the Medici.
On the subject of power they held the same doctrine now professed by
Russia, namely: to whichever head the crown goes, he is the true, the
legitimate sovereign. Mirabeau had reason to say: "There has been but
one mesalliance in my family,--that of the Medici"; for in spite of
the paid efforts of genealogists, it is certain that the Medici, before
Everardo de' Medici, _gonfaloniero_ of Florence in 1314, were simple
Florentine merchants who became very rich. The first personage in this
family who occupies an important place in the history of the famous
Tuscan republic is Silvestro de' Medici, _gonfaloniero_ in 1378. This
Silvestro had two sons, Cosmo and Lorenzo de' Medici.

From Cosmo are descended Lorenzo the Magnificent, the Duc de Nemours,
the Duc d'Urbino, father of Catherine, Pope Leo X., Pope Clement VII.,
and Alessandro, not Duke of Florence, as historians call him, but
Duke _della citta di Penna_, a title given by Pope Clement VII., as a
half-way station to that of Grand-duke of Tuscany.

From Lorenzo are descended the Florentine Brutus Lorenzino, who killed
Alessandro, Cosmo, the first grand-duke, and all the sovereigns of
Tuscany till 1737, at which period the house became extinct.

But neither of the two branches--the branch Cosmo and the branch
Lorenzo--reigned through their direct and legitimate lines until the
close of the sixteenth century, when the grand-dukes of Tuscany began
to succeed each other peacefully. Alessandro de' Medici, he to whom the
title of Duke _della citta di Penna_ was given, was the son of the
Duke d'Urbino, Catherine's father, by a Moorish slave. For this reason
Lorenzino claimed a double right to kill Alessandro,--as a usurper in
his house, as well as an oppressor of the city. Some historians believe
that Alessandro was the son of Clement VII. The fact that led t