First Life
Today, 16 July 1576, was the last day of my First Life. My resurrection, or “Second Life” won’t come for another 438 years.
Dad
As long as my dad, Cosimo I de’ Medici (12 June 1519 – 21 April 1574), Duke of Florence and Grand-Duke of Tuscany, was alive, I had a good life. Once dad was gone, things went south pretty quickly. Two years after dad’s passing, and just two weeks after the murder of my beloved cousin, my brother ordered my husband, Paolo Giordano Orsini to murder me.
Two weeks after my murder, on 29 July 1576, Ercole Cortile, the Ferrarese ambassador to the Florentine court described my death in a letter to his patron Alfonso II d’Este:
The Lady Isabella was strangled, having been called by Lord Paolo when she, the poor woman, was in bed. She arose immediately, and as she was in a nightgown, drew a robe about her, and went to his room, passing through a room in which the priest known as Elicona was with several other servants; they say that her face and the set of her shoulders told that she may have known what was in store for her.
Morgante and his wife were in his chamber, and Lord Paolo hunted them out and bolted the door with great fury. Hidden under the bed was a Roman Knight of Malta, Massimo, who helped to kill the lady. He did not remain more than a quarter of an hour locked in the room before Paolo called for a woman, Donna Lucrezia Frescobaldi, telling her to bring vinegar because the lady had fainted. Once she had entered, followed immediately by Morgante, she saw the poor lady on the ground and propped against the bed, and overcome by her love for her, said, ‘Oh, you have killed her! What need have you of vinegar or anything else?’ Lord Paolo threatened her and [urged her to] hold her tongue or he would kill her.
Like the Lady Eleonora [Dianora], the lady was placed in a coffin already prepared for this purpose, and this was taken at night to Florence and placed in the Church of the Carmine and was forced open for anyone who wished to see.
1542 – 1576 – 2014. Having your brother order your husband to murder you is a lot. If anyone needed a reboot, it was me. In SL I’m all about education: body, mind, soul.
