Eleanor of Toledo

Eleanor of Toledo (Italian: Eleonora di Toledo, 11 January 1522 – 17 December 1562), born Doña Leonor Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel-Osorio, was a Spanish noblewoman and Duchess of Florence as the first wife of Cosimo I de' Medici. A keen businesswoman, she financed many of her husband's political campaigns and important buildings like the Pitti Palace. She ruled as regent of Florence during his frequent absences: Eleanor ruled during Cosimo's military campaigns in Genoa in 1541 and 1543, his illness from 1544 to 1545, and again at times when the war for the conquest of Siena (1551–1554). She founded many Jesuit churches. She is credited with being the first modern first lady or consort. Childhood Eleanor was born in Alba de Tormes, Salamanca, Spain, on 11 January 1522. She was the second daughter of Pedro Álvarez de Toledo, Viceroy of Naples, and Maria Osorio y Pimentel, 2nd Marquise of Villafranca. Her father was the lieutenant-governor of Emperor Charles V and the uncle of the Duke of Alba. On her paternal side, Eleanor was the third cousin of the Emperor since their great-grandmothers were daughters of Fadrique Enríquez de Mendoza, a great-grandson of King Alfonso XI of Castile. In May 1534, two years after her father's appointment as Viceroy of Naples, Eleanor, her mother, and siblings joined him in Italy. The children were brought up in the strict and closed surroundings of the Spanish viceregal court. 13-year-old Eleanor seems not to have attracted much attention, except for the furtive glances of the visiting page Cosimo de' Medici in 1535, when he accompanied his cousin Alessandro, Duke of Florence, on a visit to Naples.