OOBKO I. 



COSWAY, RICHARD, R.A. 



400 



or influence of the rider branch. Thai branch became extinct by 

 th death ia 1619 of Lomuo de Medici, duke of Urbino, the only 

 WyiUm.u. trandeun ->f borenxo the Mapiifioent, which wu followed 

 ooaVu-r by UM death of bis uncle. Co,* Leo X. The Duke of 

 TJrMno left u illegitimate eon. Alca-nn.in', who was made Duke of 

 Florae* after the surrender of that city to the allied arms of 

 Charles V. and of Pope Clement VII., in 1S30. Alessandro WM a 

 profligate priner, and after several yean of tyranny was murdered by 

 hi* relative Ixirmnno, who belonged to the junior bnnch of (lie 

 Medici, ia 1537. Upon perpetrating thin murder, I^orrozino fled to 

 V. nior. The fiwndt acd councillor* of the late duke, with Giiicciar- 

 diui the butorian at their head, proposed to ap|>oint young Cosmo, 

 of the younger branch of the Medici, at successor to Alessandro. 

 Coatno bad against him a number of emigrant*, some of the fint 

 families of Florence, who were toitil- to the Medici, noiiie through 

 jeslinnj and rhral ambition, and other* beoatise they wished to 

 re-eatoblUh the republic. Theae cuiigranU were scattered about the 

 diflisrent Italian oitiea, and were encouraged and lupportcd by Pope 

 Paul 11 1., by Count IVpoli of Bologna, and others. They aim) relied 

 on the protection of Francis I. of France, while Cosmo on bin eide 

 waa protected by the emperor Charles V., who acknowledged him an 

 Doke of Florence. The emigrant*, baring collected a few thousand 

 men. invaded the Florentine territory, but were defeated by the troops 

 wf Cosmo at Montemurlo ; ami their leaders Albizzi, Valori, and 

 Filippo Stroxzi, were taken prisoners and put to death. From that 

 time Cosmo reigned absolute lord of Florence. He extinguished nil 

 remains of popular liberty, and he established a system of inquisitorial 

 polio* by tueans of numerous informers. Persons accused of any 

 cUatana against the government were tortured, anil often put to drain. 

 He bad ageuU alo in various parts of Italy to watch the conduct of 

 the Florentine emigrant*, and in some instances to get rid of the most 

 dangerous by neiaeiiiiiliiiii i>r poison, as in the case of Lorenzino, who 

 was murdered at Venice by his oidur, in 1548. He effected a striking 

 change in the manners of the Florentine people, who wore before 

 noted for their garrulity and lightness of conversation ; they became 

 henceforth taciturn an<l cautious, and spoke in half sentences. In 

 other ro-pccts the administration of Cosmo was orderly and wise ; he 

 waa attentive to buaiue**, and looked lamst-lf into all public affair*. 

 Ho had considerable abilities; and if he rendered Florence and 

 Tuscany entirely dependent on his will, he at the same time suc- 

 ceeded by consummate political skill in keeping his state independent 

 of all foreign powers. LK t- rmined to be master at home, he freed his 

 town* from the imperial garrisons, and resisted several attempts at 

 encroachment from the court of Rome. He was the first to establish 

 UM unity and independence of Tuscany as a political stst. He formed 

 native militia of the peasantry, well exercised and disciplined by 

 experienced officers, so that at three days' notice ho could collect 

 12.000 men in any particular point, besides the regular regiments 

 which he kept in the towns. His finances were in good condition, and 

 his treasury always well supplied with money. 



Como poearisel at first the territories of the two republics of 

 Florence and Pisa, the latter of which had been conquered by the 

 Florentine* before his time. lu 1552 lie added to hi* dominions, by 

 an agreement with Jaoopo d'Appiano, lord of I'iombono, that princi- 

 pality, and also the island of Elba, when he fortified Porto Ferraj.i, 

 and unproved it* harbour. But a more important acquisition was that 

 a. That republic had survived the freedom of Florence, and 

 had retained its independence under HIM protection of Charles V. 

 But in 15S2 civil factious having broken out among the citizens, who 

 were excited also by the Florentine refugee*, they drove away fie 

 Spanish garrison and admitted a French auxiliary force. In the fol- 

 lowing year Charles V. tent troops to reduce Siena, and Cosmo joined 

 bis forces to th.no of the emporor. Not succeeding that year, the 

 emperor withdrew most of his troopi ; but at the beginning of 1551 

 Cosmo brought together a larger force, attacked Siena, ami occupied 

 it* territory. At the battle of Mardano, In Augtut of that year, the 

 Hisnnui and their French allies were defeated. After a long and 

 obstinate reaiatanoe, in which the women took part, Siena was com- 

 pelled by famine to surrender to Cosmo In April 1555. The coiulitinui 

 were not harsh. Siena retained hor municipal institutions under the 

 protection of UM emperor, who was to keep a garrinon in it ; but in 

 the meantime Cosmo placed a garrison in it himself. All those citi- 

 an* who eboae to emigrate were at liberty to do so. A great many 

 availed themselves of this stipulation, an<l retired to the town of 

 Mootaldoo, when they kept up the semblance of a republic a little 

 loafer. Of 40,000 inhabitant* which Si-na had previous to the siege, 

 unly 0000 remained ; the re-t h id either died or emigrated. In July 

 1557. Cono raceive-l of 1'i.ilip II., who bad succeeded Charles V., the 

 formal pnssMsinn of Sina and its territory, cxcluaire of the coast near 

 Moat* Arjeotaro, with the port* of < n l.;t- l'|... Telamone, S.mto Stefano, 

 and Port' Creole, which remained as a depend ncy of Spain, and were 

 afterwards annexed to the crown of Naples under the name of ' Stato 

 de" Praaidj. The Sienneee awora allegiance to Cosmo, who left to them 

 their municipal laws and magistrates. In August 1550 the small 

 re*idoe of the Swnneae rvp.ibli : at Montalcino surrendered to Cosmo. 

 All Tuscany waa now. for th- fint time since the fall of the Roman 

 empire, uuit d under one government 



Oimo married Leonora, UM daughter of Don Pedro do Toledo, 



Spanish viceroy at Naples, and ha-1 five sons by her. Two of these, 

 Giovanni, who had neen made a Car linn), anil Uarzia, died mddenly 

 towards the end of 1562, and their mother soon after followi-d them 

 to the grave. A report was spread and readily believed by the 

 numerous enemies of Cosmo, that Qiovanni had be-n killoil by his 

 brother, after which Cosmo, in his wrath, had killed Oarzia with his 

 own hand. Alfieri has made this the subject of a tragedy. Proba- 

 bilities however are against the tmth of this ana-it ion. (liotta, ' Storia 

 .' lib. xii.) Cosmos eldest son, Don Francesco, married the 

 archduchess Joanna, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian. In 1569 

 Pope Piun V., by a soli-ran bull dated 'JSth August, conferred upon 

 Cosmo and his successors the title of grand-duke of Tuscany, as 

 superior to all dukes and princes, and inferior in rank only to kings. 

 In the following year Cosmo went to Home to receive bit grand dtictl 

 crown from the hands of the pope. In his bull the pope ret forth t!io 

 merits of Cosmo towards the Holy See for having entered zealou-ly 

 into the war against the Turks, and founded the military order of St. 

 Stephen, in imitation of that of St. John of Jerusalem, for bavin); 

 given assistance to tho king of Franco against the Huguenots and 

 having prosecuted the heretic* in his own dominions : Cosmo had 

 permitted th Inquisition to be established in Tuscany, and several 

 persons had under its sentence sufferer! death for herey or blasphemy. 



Cosmo spent the latter years of his life chiefly at one or other of 

 his villas, having entrusted the cares of administration to his son 

 Francesco in 1561. Many things are said of the irregularity of hi* 

 life in his old age, and his sons Francesco and Pietro were worse than 

 their father in this particular. In 1570 he married Camilla Murt-dli, 

 a private lady of Florence. Cosmo died 21st April 1574, in th 

 1'itti palace, which had become the residence of the grand-dukes, and 

 waa succeeded by his son Francesco. 



Cosmo, though an unprincipled man, wag a very able state-man. In 

 the g'-neral breaking up of most of the Italian independent states in 

 the 16th tvntnry. he found means to create and consolidate a new and 

 considerable principality, which has remained ever since independent, 

 and h thus saved that fine country Tuscany from becoming a province 

 of Spain, like Naples Sicily, and Lombardy. He had the firmness to 

 refuse Philip ll.'s first offer of Sienna as a fief of the Spanish crown, 

 answering that he was an independent sovereign, and would not make 

 himself the vug-al of another. He refuse*) the crown of Corsica, whi h 

 was offered to him by the insurgents in 1564, because it would havo 

 embroiled him with other powers and endangered his own states. 

 Cosmo encouraged the arts and literature. He founded the Florentine 

 Academy, the Academy del Disezno, or of the fine arts; and he 

 restored the University of Pisa. "The Medici dynasty founded by 

 Cosmo became extinct ia 1737 by the death of tile grand-duke G ion 

 Qaatone. He was succeeded in his sovereignty by Francis duke of 

 Lorraine, the husband of Maria There-a of Austria. 



(Dot to, Storia d' Italia; GalluEzi, Storia del Gran Dticato di Totcana; 

 Amtnirato, Iitorie Florentine. <te.) 



COSTAUD. GEORGE, born about 1710. M.A. of Wadham College, 

 Oxford (of which he afterwards became fellow and tutor), in 

 rector of Twickenham in 1764, at which place he died, January 10, 

 1732. He was respectable both as a classical and oriental scholar and 

 as a mathematician ; an account of his miscellaneous writings may bo 

 found in Kippis's Biographia Britanuica.' He was the editor of tho 

 second edition of Hyde's work on the ' History of tho Persians,' but his 

 claim to notice is principally derived from his ' History of Astronomy," 

 Ac., London. 1757. This work appears to have obtained more reputation 

 abroad than at home, where it certainly is not appreciated. It is a 

 history of the rise and progress of the fundamental doctrines of 

 astronomy, mixed up with an elementary account of them, in order 

 of discovery, and accessible to a student who can use a common globe, 

 and has the first rudiments of geometry. In all matters of ancient 

 and oriental learning Costard frequently cites the passage mid always 

 the reference, which gives his work a lasting value. 



COSTER, LAWRENCE. [KosTEiu] 



CUSWAY, RICHARD, R.A., was born ia 1740 at Tiverton, in 

 Devonshire, where his family, originally Flemish, had been long 

 settled, and his father was matter of tho public school. Ho was 

 placed by his uncle, the mayor of Tiverton, with llud.'on, nnd after- 

 ward* at Shipley's drawing-school in the Strand. At this time Coway 

 was very diligent, and he obtained between the fourteenth and twenty- 

 fourth ye.* of his age five premiums from the Society of Arts. Hi.i 

 chief excellence ws in miniature-painting, for which be hod very great 

 ability, and in which professionally he was successful to the utmost 

 degree He was patronised by all the rank anil wealth of his time : 

 the Princo of Wales, afterwards George IV., was among his. fi 

 and patrons. He made a large income; but he was sumptuous and 

 hospitable in his habits, anil bis expenditure probably kept pace with 

 his income, 



Coeway was elected a member of t!ie Royal Academy in 1771, and 

 painted several fancy portraits for Us exhibitions. He exhiliit.il 

 'Rinaldo and Armida, 1 'Cupid,' 'St John/ 'Venus nii'l Cupid,' 

 'Madonna and Child,' and 'Psyche,' all of which were poi traits of 

 ome of his titled patrons, good likenesses, and successful works ia 

 their style. 



About this time he was married to Maria Hadfiel.l, though of 

 Knglish parentage, a native of Leghorn. She had been edm-ntod in a 



