Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance

¶ … Middle Ages and the Renaissance

The Medici Family was the most powerful and influential Florentine family from the 13th through the 17th century (Medici pp). This family produced three popes, numerous rulers of Florence, and eventually members of the French royalty (Medici pp).

From humble beginnings, the family achieved power through banking, in fact the Medici Bank was one of the most prosperous and respected banking institution in Europe, and it is from this base, that the family acquired political power, first in Florence, and then later throughout Italy and the rest of Europe (Medici pp).

Cosimo de Medici is considered to be the real founder of the family's fortune and in 1434, he controlled the government in Florence, and for the next sixty years ruled Florence although he had no official title (Medici1 pp). His son, Lorenzo, was also a powerful influence in Italian politics, yet like his father, held no official post (Medici1 pp). He was a poet, writer, philosopher, statesman, politician, banker, and patron of the artists, often funding artists' education and supplying them with homes by buying their work (Medici1 pp).

The Medici family is often referred to as the godfather of the Renaissance, for they not only made Florence the most powerful state in Italy, they made it the world's most beautiful city (Medici1 pp). Florence became the cultural center of Europe and became known as an art center and cradle of New Humanism (Medici1 pp). They built the largest library in Europe, and they founded the Platonic Academy and supported artists such as Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael (Medici1 pp).

The Kennedys have always been regarded as America's royal family. Joseph Patrick Kennedy was born in Boston in 1888 to saloon owner and local politician Patrick Joseph Kennedy and Mary Augusta Hickey, daughter of an affluent Boston family (Kennedys pp). P.J. Kennedy was instrumental in organizing Boston's only Irish owned bank, the Columbia Trust Company, where Joseph Patrick became president of the bank at age 25 (Kennedys pp). In 1914, he married Rose Fitzgerald, daughter of a Boston politician, and they eventually had nine children, of whom three entered the political arena, and one became the youngest President of the United States (Kennedys pp). Joseph used his relationship with President Roosevelt to secure lucrative liquor distribution licenses in Great Britain, and later was appointed chairman of the new Securities and Exchange Commission, and then headed the newly established U.S. Maritime Commission (Kennedys pp).

Although the Kennedys did not have quite the influence of the Medici family, they represented the essence of America. They were Irish immigrants who rose to the most powerful position in the United States, which in turn was the most powerful country in the world.