Medici, Lorenzino de'

Medici, Lorenzino de' lōrāntsē´nō dā mĕ´dĭchē, Ital. mā´dēchē [key], 1515–47, member of the cadet branch of the Medici family. A boon companion of Alessandro de'Medici, he secretly plotted the duke's murder—possibly out of republican convictions. With a hired assassin, he stabbed Alessandro to death (1537) and fled to Venice, where he was eventually assassinated on the orders of Cosimo I de'Medici, the successor to Alessandro. He is the hero of Alfred de Musset's drama,Lorenzaccio(1833).

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