In April 1533, the stern old villa echoed to the laughter of a bevy of young girls who went with Caterina de’ Medici, the only daughter of Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino,[14] then only fourteen years of age, to receive Margaret of Austria, the illegitimate daughter of Charles V. The poor child was but nine when she arrived in Tuscany as the affianced bride of Alessandro, Duke of Florence, whose mother was a negress, or some say a peasant woman from Collevecchio, the wife of a groom in the service of the Duke of Urbino. He was supposed to be the son either of Lorenzo himself or of the Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici (afterwards Clemente VII); and the interest taken in him by Pope Clemente, who warmly supported his election as Duke of Florence, rather points to the latter supposition. He is inscribed in the family tree as “of uncertain parentage.” Alessandro’s cruelty and licentiousness are matters of history; he left his mother to suffer dire poverty, and she is said to have died of poison administered by his orders, so that his murder by Lorenzino de’ Medici delivered the poor little Princess from a brutal husband. Lorenzino fled to Cafaggiuolo after murdering his cousin, and waited to know how the news was received in Florence. When he heard that messengers had arrived at Trebbio, another Medicean villa close to Cafaggiuolo, where Maria Salviati, widow of Giovanni de’ Medici (delle Bande Nere), and her son Cosimo lived, he left in hot haste for Venice. “It only needed that someone should begin a tumult,” writes Varchi, “when Signor Cosimo, who had been secretly warned by friends and summoned by many citizens, arrived in Florence with a small company; he being the son of Signor Giovanni, and of comely aspect, and having always shown himself of a pacific and kindly nature, it cannot be said, described, or imagined with what delight he was looked on by the people or how ardently they desired and hoped to see him Prince.”