1
00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:03,760
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in history class from how

2
00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:14,400
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

3
00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:17,640
Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowdy, and we finished

4
00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:20,200
Speaker 1: our Medici series a while back that we're still getting

5
00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:24,560
Speaker 1: mail about it, about this illustrious, scheming clan of bankers

6
00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:27,640
Speaker 1: and statesmen. You all really really love the Medici and

7
00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:30,560
Speaker 1: Helen and Mississippi sent us a note saying you might

8
00:00:30,640 --> 00:00:33,879
Speaker 1: be interested to hear that new Italian research published in

9
00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:36,600
Speaker 1: the American Journal of Medicine shows there were at least

10
00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:40,479
Speaker 1: two fewer violent deaths in the Medici family than previously thought.

11
00:00:40,920 --> 00:00:44,239
Speaker 1: Wait tell me more so. It's pretty awesome already, but

12
00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:47,160
Speaker 1: it gets better because the more we looked into those

13
00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:50,880
Speaker 1: two particular deaths, that of Grand Duke Francesco, the first

14
00:00:50,880 --> 00:00:53,960
Speaker 1: de Medici, and his wife, the Grand Duchess, the weirder

15
00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:57,440
Speaker 1: it all got. And despite dying more than four hundred

16
00:00:57,560 --> 00:01:01,160
Speaker 1: years ago, the couple was the subject of another recent

17
00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:04,919
Speaker 1: scientific paper, this one published in the British Medical Journal,

18
00:01:04,959 --> 00:01:08,280
Speaker 1: which also explored their cause of death, but came up

19
00:01:08,319 --> 00:01:11,800
Speaker 1: with a different answer. So we'll talk more about those

20
00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:16,200
Speaker 1: medical studies later, but first, because suspicious deaths are so

21
00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:20,360
Speaker 1: often preceded by controversial lives. Our story will start in

22
00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:25,679
Speaker 1: Venice with a beautiful young girl named Bianca. Bianca Capello

23
00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:29,560
Speaker 1: was born in fifty eight to a noble Venetian family.

24
00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:32,680
Speaker 1: She makes the first bold move of her life when

25
00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:36,840
Speaker 1: she elopes with Florentine Pietro Buonaventuri, and they have a

26
00:01:36,920 --> 00:01:40,480
Speaker 1: daughter together, Virginia. But she's not in Florence for long

27
00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:44,399
Speaker 1: before she becomes the mistress of Francesco the First, and

28
00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:47,199
Speaker 1: he is the son and heir of Cosimo the First,

29
00:01:47,280 --> 00:01:51,120
Speaker 1: which makes him heir to the Grand Dukedom of Tuscany.

30
00:01:51,160 --> 00:01:54,160
Speaker 1: But since Francesco doesn't want to do anything to mess

31
00:01:54,160 --> 00:01:57,840
Speaker 1: with his chances of becoming Grand Duke, he and Bianca

32
00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:01,440
Speaker 1: keep things on the downlow and he'll at least her

33
00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:06,920
Speaker 1: husband mysteriously dies in fiftie mysterious death number one. Keep

34
00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:10,160
Speaker 1: Jack of these guys. So really, people do not want

35
00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,560
Speaker 1: Francesco to be with Bianca though everyone is against it,

36
00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:17,120
Speaker 1: his family, his people, the Habsburg Emperor, and you might

37
00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:19,000
Speaker 1: be wondering, well, what does he have to do with it?

38
00:02:19,240 --> 00:02:23,399
Speaker 1: He actually should have some major sway since he's Francesco

39
00:02:23,520 --> 00:02:25,600
Speaker 1: is a good grand duke and should be a good

40
00:02:25,600 --> 00:02:28,960
Speaker 1: servant to the Emperor. It reminds me of Lola Montez,

41
00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:32,040
Speaker 1: how everyone was so and did not like the mistress,

42
00:02:32,240 --> 00:02:36,440
Speaker 1: but Francesco doesn't seem to care about anyone else's opinions.

43
00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:40,440
Speaker 1: He does marry Joanna of Austria and becomes grand Duke

44
00:02:40,520 --> 00:02:44,320
Speaker 1: in fifteen seventy four, but he sticks with Bianca. And

45
00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:47,720
Speaker 1: just to give you a little background on Francesco, He's

46
00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:51,519
Speaker 1: got this really, really weird family, but he's a pretty

47
00:02:51,520 --> 00:02:55,959
Speaker 1: smart guy. He's not terribly interested in politics, unlike most

48
00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:59,359
Speaker 1: medici we know, and he'd much prefer to be working

49
00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:03,560
Speaker 1: on out me or patronizing the arts. But in case

50
00:03:03,639 --> 00:03:07,160
Speaker 1: you think that they're very unpopular, relationship is the only

51
00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:10,280
Speaker 1: sketchy thing going on in this family, and it's not

52
00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:13,960
Speaker 1: at all. It's pretty tame, actually, because in fifteen seventy six,

53
00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:19,000
Speaker 1: Francesco's brother Pietro murders his wife the same year that

54
00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:22,720
Speaker 1: Francesco's sister is murdered by her husband. So, like we said,

55
00:03:22,800 --> 00:03:27,400
Speaker 1: this family is crazy, and who knows, maybe after a

56
00:03:27,440 --> 00:03:32,079
Speaker 1: few violent murders in his immediate family, Francesco is facing

57
00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:35,760
Speaker 1: his own mortality. He needs a male heir, and so

58
00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:38,880
Speaker 1: far his wife Joanna has only had girls. And we

59
00:03:38,920 --> 00:03:42,160
Speaker 1: have a little note we'd like to make here about

60
00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:46,120
Speaker 1: this being a choose your own ending podcast. Yeah, there's

61
00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:49,360
Speaker 1: so many different sources that say so many different things

62
00:03:49,360 --> 00:03:53,760
Speaker 1: about these people. It's really strange. It's kind of like exactly,

63
00:03:53,840 --> 00:03:56,000
Speaker 1: and I'll try to make it clear when there's a

64
00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:59,160
Speaker 1: lot of controversy, but this is actually one place. The

65
00:03:59,240 --> 00:04:02,080
Speaker 1: number of chill and that Francesco and Joanna have together,

66
00:04:02,440 --> 00:04:05,840
Speaker 1: as well as those children's sexes. For example, the excellent

67
00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:08,839
Speaker 1: Medici archive, which I would advise any of you big

68
00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:12,840
Speaker 1: Medici fans to check out for cool letters and such

69
00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:15,880
Speaker 1: written by the family. The Medici archive has them having

70
00:04:15,960 --> 00:04:19,839
Speaker 1: six girls, followed by one boy. Well, the American Medical

71
00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:23,360
Speaker 1: Journal article that we mentioned his seven sons, which seems

72
00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:25,560
Speaker 1: kind of unlikely since it would make the rest of

73
00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:29,839
Speaker 1: the story rather pointless. One offspring we should definitely all

74
00:04:29,880 --> 00:04:32,719
Speaker 1: make note of, though, is Murrie de Medici, who is

75
00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:36,919
Speaker 1: Joanna and Francesco's daughter, and she closed out our earlier

76
00:04:36,960 --> 00:04:39,440
Speaker 1: super series. She's kind of why these people are still

77
00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:42,760
Speaker 1: famous because she's pretty famous. But back to our story,

78
00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:47,640
Speaker 1: It's fifteen seventy six and Francesco needs a son, so

79
00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:51,680
Speaker 1: he makes an offer. His mistress can't refuse. Give him

80
00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:55,760
Speaker 1: a son, and when his sickly wife finally dies, he'll

81
00:04:55,800 --> 00:04:58,880
Speaker 1: marry her and make her Grand Duchess. And according to

82
00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:04,440
Speaker 1: Eleanor Herman very wonderful book Sex with Kings, the story

83
00:05:04,440 --> 00:05:08,960
Speaker 1: proceeds in a rather romantic comedy like fashion from there.

84
00:05:09,800 --> 00:05:12,560
Speaker 1: So Bianca knows that she won't get pregnant, or at

85
00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:15,840
Speaker 1: least she doesn't want to risk waiting, so she gets

86
00:05:15,839 --> 00:05:20,279
Speaker 1: an accomplice to pick out three impoverished, single pregnant women.

87
00:05:20,760 --> 00:05:24,680
Speaker 1: She houses and feeds them through their pregnancies, telling Francesco

88
00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:27,360
Speaker 1: she's pregnant, she's patting her clothes and for all you

89
00:05:27,880 --> 00:05:31,600
Speaker 1: arrested Development fans out there, we're thinking Maggie Lizar. Two

90
00:05:31,640 --> 00:05:33,320
Speaker 1: of the women end up having girls. We have to

91
00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:37,200
Speaker 1: imagine Bianco would be really getting a little nervous here,

92
00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:40,200
Speaker 1: but the third fortunately has a boy, which is quickly

93
00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:45,320
Speaker 1: whisked off to the palace where Bianca goes into labor. Yeah,

94
00:05:45,360 --> 00:05:48,320
Speaker 1: so they sneak the baby into the bed with the

95
00:05:48,440 --> 00:05:51,960
Speaker 1: Dramatically in labor, Bianca she was apparently very good at

96
00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:57,320
Speaker 1: faking it, and suddenly, look, Francesco, you have a male heir. Hooray,

97
00:05:57,360 --> 00:06:00,200
Speaker 1: And the proud parents name their baby in tone eo

98
00:06:00,440 --> 00:06:03,599
Speaker 1: and no one's really the wiser. But in a turn

99
00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:06,279
Speaker 1: that had to have shaken Bianca, who has gone to

100
00:06:06,440 --> 00:06:10,120
Speaker 1: all this trouble and probably considerable expense housing these women.

101
00:06:10,839 --> 00:06:15,320
Speaker 1: Not long after Antonio is born, Joanna finally has a son, Felippo.

102
00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:19,320
Speaker 1: But Joanna dies pretty soon after that, and Francesco at

103
00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:23,000
Speaker 1: last marries his mistress only two months after his wife dies.

104
00:06:23,120 --> 00:06:26,000
Speaker 1: Not a classy move. No in the secret ceremony, he

105
00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:28,680
Speaker 1: makes it public. A year later, he crowns her at

106
00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:31,880
Speaker 1: the Palazzo Vecchio. And the people didn't like this couple

107
00:06:31,920 --> 00:06:34,000
Speaker 1: when it was just a grand duke and his mistress.

108
00:06:34,200 --> 00:06:37,320
Speaker 1: They really really don't like that Bianca is now grand

109
00:06:37,400 --> 00:06:42,680
Speaker 1: Duchess and this may be the best part her position secure.

110
00:06:42,839 --> 00:06:47,719
Speaker 1: Bianca eventually fesses up to Francesco about this baby swap,

111
00:06:47,839 --> 00:06:51,320
Speaker 1: calling it a fun joke she's played on him. She's

112
00:06:51,480 --> 00:06:54,160
Speaker 1: like him, happy, not trying to deceive him or anything.

113
00:06:54,200 --> 00:06:57,280
Speaker 1: But isn't it hilarious ha ha? How we got this baby?

114
00:06:57,800 --> 00:07:00,280
Speaker 1: But surprisingly there isn't that big of a deal made

115
00:07:00,320 --> 00:07:03,479
Speaker 1: of it. He already has a son, But then his

116
00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:08,719
Speaker 1: son with Joanna dies and Francesco legitimizes his son with

117
00:07:08,839 --> 00:07:13,440
Speaker 1: Bianca on October nineteenth fifty three and starts paving the

118
00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:16,440
Speaker 1: way for him to become his heir. And again, the

119
00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:21,160
Speaker 1: seriously sounds like a romantic quick romantic comedy, So it's

120
00:07:21,200 --> 00:07:23,040
Speaker 1: not going to be a romantic comedy for the rest

121
00:07:23,040 --> 00:07:25,000
Speaker 1: of the story. Sorry, folks, it's time to get back

122
00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:29,920
Speaker 1: to the controver drama is a trauma. Ultimately, obviously Francesco's

123
00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:34,000
Speaker 1: real heir, who is his brother. Cardinal Ferdinando is not

124
00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:37,560
Speaker 1: so thrilled about this development, and he's not a fan

125
00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:40,760
Speaker 1: of Bianca. Pretty much no one is, and he doesn't

126
00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:45,000
Speaker 1: want this mistress's son taking his place. So when Ferdinando

127
00:07:45,280 --> 00:07:50,080
Speaker 1: visits the couple at the Medici villa at Poggio, the

128
00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:53,240
Speaker 1: couple falls ill only a few weeks later, and people

129
00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:57,360
Speaker 1: are kind of suspicious after all the Medici and then

130
00:07:57,400 --> 00:08:00,000
Speaker 1: the medicine, and they don't really like each other. Eleven

131
00:08:00,080 --> 00:08:04,360
Speaker 1: days later, Francesco and Bianca are both dead and Ferdinando

132
00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:08,520
Speaker 1: is the new grand Duke, not his young nephew Antonio.

133
00:08:09,800 --> 00:08:13,200
Speaker 1: But we have to go back to that amazing baby

134
00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:18,440
Speaker 1: swap story. There's another theory about that. Most sources agree

135
00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:21,360
Speaker 1: that Antonio was probably swapped as an infant and bore

136
00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:25,560
Speaker 1: no relation to either parents, so it's not terribly surprising

137
00:08:25,600 --> 00:08:28,160
Speaker 1: that he wasn't able to succeed his father's throne as

138
00:08:28,160 --> 00:08:32,920
Speaker 1: a boy. He's a commoner's bastard. But biographer Philipo Luti

139
00:08:33,320 --> 00:08:37,319
Speaker 1: challenges that story. He suggests that it was Ferdinando who

140
00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:39,880
Speaker 1: concocted the tail as a way to secure his own

141
00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:44,679
Speaker 1: hold on the throne. So he lied to little Antonio

142
00:08:44,840 --> 00:08:47,320
Speaker 1: and said that he was swapped as a baby, and

143
00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:50,600
Speaker 1: he wasn't the real heir, but perhaps he was, so

144
00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:55,520
Speaker 1: Lutie's theory goes like this, Worried that he had been supplanted,

145
00:08:55,559 --> 00:09:00,680
Speaker 1: his air Cardinal Fernando poisons Bianca. Immediately after Frencho goes death,

146
00:09:01,040 --> 00:09:04,480
Speaker 1: and he takes the grand ducal throne and persuades his

147
00:09:04,559 --> 00:09:07,920
Speaker 1: boy nephew that he's not really a medicie at all,

148
00:09:08,320 --> 00:09:11,199
Speaker 1: and to play NICs. He gives the child major properties,

149
00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:15,160
Speaker 1: convinces them to join the Knights of Malta, which, interestingly enough,

150
00:09:15,280 --> 00:09:18,680
Speaker 1: is a group where members are unable to form legal marriages,

151
00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:20,920
Speaker 1: so you would you wouldn't have to worry about him

152
00:09:20,960 --> 00:09:25,960
Speaker 1: having some descendants of his own. So this sounds pretty plausible,

153
00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:28,200
Speaker 1: I think. But on the other hand, so does the

154
00:09:28,200 --> 00:09:30,400
Speaker 1: story of the mistress who would try to pass off

155
00:09:30,400 --> 00:09:33,400
Speaker 1: a baby as her own to secure her position and

156
00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:36,679
Speaker 1: become Grand Duchess. And just to give you a little

157
00:09:36,679 --> 00:09:40,480
Speaker 1: more on Antonio's life, after fighting the Turks and Hungary,

158
00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:44,280
Speaker 1: he goes on to play medici patron in Florence, supporting

159
00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:48,840
Speaker 1: Galileo and eventually alienating himself from the court. So that's

160
00:09:48,840 --> 00:09:51,240
Speaker 1: the end of the story for our basket baby. But

161
00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:55,640
Speaker 1: we need to go back to Ferdinando, Francesco, and Bianca

162
00:09:55,920 --> 00:09:59,960
Speaker 1: and the medical controversy that surrounds their death. So Francesco

163
00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:04,400
Speaker 1: and Bianca die within hours of each other in October seven.

164
00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:07,959
Speaker 1: They have this agonizing illness that stretches on for days.

165
00:10:08,240 --> 00:10:12,120
Speaker 1: They undergo immediate autopsies, and the official cause of death

166
00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:17,160
Speaker 1: listed at the time it is malaria. So it's not

167
00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:21,600
Speaker 1: long before whisperings of poison start at court, especially considering

168
00:10:21,640 --> 00:10:25,840
Speaker 1: how much everyone knows Ferdinando dislikes Bianca and wants the

169
00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:29,000
Speaker 1: throne for himself. So this is an old theory, the

170
00:10:29,080 --> 00:10:32,120
Speaker 1: poison theory, and it's and then investigated in a lot

171
00:10:32,160 --> 00:10:35,280
Speaker 1: of different ways over the years. In two thousand six,

172
00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:38,720
Speaker 1: scientists at the University of Florence and the University of

173
00:10:38,840 --> 00:10:42,960
Speaker 1: Pavia published a paper for the British Medical Journal. It

174
00:10:43,040 --> 00:10:45,880
Speaker 1: said that malaria was not in fact the cause of

175
00:10:45,920 --> 00:10:49,319
Speaker 1: death and brought back this idea that the couple died

176
00:10:49,400 --> 00:10:55,000
Speaker 1: of acute arsenic poisoning. Their paper starts with some observational evidence.

177
00:10:55,160 --> 00:10:59,120
Speaker 1: Cardinal Ferdinando acted strangely while the couple was ill. He

178
00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:02,320
Speaker 1: dominated their medical care. He played down his brother's illness,

179
00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:05,400
Speaker 1: spinning it as the result of poor eating habits and

180
00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:09,000
Speaker 1: Bianca's as grief. He tried to isolate the couple and

181
00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:13,520
Speaker 1: ordered immediate autopsies, which was normal for someone in Francesco's position,

182
00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:16,520
Speaker 1: but not for Bianca. And they then move on to

183
00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:20,400
Speaker 1: the historical records of the illness and the autopsies and

184
00:11:20,440 --> 00:11:24,600
Speaker 1: the symptoms recorded by doctors sound a lot like arsenic poisoning.

185
00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:28,120
Speaker 1: They don't sound like malarial fever. According to the British

186
00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:31,960
Speaker 1: Medical Journal. The autopsies also look a lot like arsenic poisoning,

187
00:11:32,360 --> 00:11:36,400
Speaker 1: and they make note of Francesco's exhamation, which happened centuries

188
00:11:36,400 --> 00:11:39,120
Speaker 1: after his death. Is noted at the time how well

189
00:11:39,160 --> 00:11:43,400
Speaker 1: preserved his body was. Arsenic can desiccate the body before

190
00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:47,040
Speaker 1: and after death, setting it up for almost a state

191
00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:51,199
Speaker 1: of momification. And another thing of note, the most popular

192
00:11:51,320 --> 00:11:54,560
Speaker 1: poison in the medici era is white arsenic. I love

193
00:11:54,600 --> 00:11:57,240
Speaker 1: that this is even mentioned in a medical journal paper.

194
00:11:57,240 --> 00:12:00,880
Speaker 1: It's kind of great. But finally, after studying bone, hair,

195
00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:04,720
Speaker 1: and tissue samples from Francesco and tissue samples believed to

196
00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:07,959
Speaker 1: be from Bianca, Bianca didn't get a very well marked grave,

197
00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:12,280
Speaker 1: the Steady found evidence of acute arsenic poisoning in the

198
00:12:12,360 --> 00:12:17,360
Speaker 1: samples and concentrations in the soft tissue were really high,

199
00:12:17,400 --> 00:12:20,120
Speaker 1: while concentration in the bone and hair were low. And

200
00:12:20,200 --> 00:12:24,480
Speaker 1: that's probably because if they did dive arsenic poisoning, it

201
00:12:24,559 --> 00:12:28,200
Speaker 1: happened really quickly, not enough time for the arsenic to

202
00:12:28,240 --> 00:12:31,120
Speaker 1: set into their bones and grow out through their hair.

203
00:12:31,800 --> 00:12:36,360
Speaker 1: But in June, another scholarly paper came out, the one

204
00:12:36,400 --> 00:12:39,360
Speaker 1: published in the American Journal of Medicine that we mentioned earlier,

205
00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:43,000
Speaker 1: that was sent to us by Helen and For this study,

206
00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:45,960
Speaker 1: the scientists wanted to see if the rumors of poison

207
00:12:46,080 --> 00:12:49,040
Speaker 1: and the earlier b MJ study were off and find

208
00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:50,959
Speaker 1: out if the real cause of death was the one

209
00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:54,760
Speaker 1: made by court physicians malaria, which was a disease prevalent

210
00:12:54,800 --> 00:12:58,480
Speaker 1: in central Italy until World War Two. They obtained a

211
00:12:58,679 --> 00:13:02,800
Speaker 1: cancelous bone from one of Francesco's vertebra because they didn't

212
00:13:02,800 --> 00:13:06,440
Speaker 1: get any from Bianca. As negative controls, they use samples

213
00:13:06,480 --> 00:13:10,040
Speaker 1: from Francesco's family members, Calls the First, who died of pneumonia,

214
00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:13,719
Speaker 1: and Joan of Austria who died in childbirth. Their other

215
00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:17,520
Speaker 1: negative controls were from medieval bones outside of malarial regions

216
00:13:17,600 --> 00:13:21,080
Speaker 1: um parts of Germany and France. And they found the

217
00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:25,840
Speaker 1: presence of malaria in Francesco's samples and none in the others.

218
00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:29,800
Speaker 1: And they're pretty confident about their conclusion. They say quote

219
00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:33,400
Speaker 1: that with the use of modern methods, we provide robust

220
00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:37,240
Speaker 1: evidence that Francesco the First had false a param malaria

221
00:13:37,280 --> 00:13:41,640
Speaker 1: at the time of his death. Are immunologic results confirm

222
00:13:41,760 --> 00:13:45,440
Speaker 1: the archival sources that describe the onset, course and fatal

223
00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:49,560
Speaker 1: outcome of the disease. Our findings also absolved Fernando the

224
00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:52,880
Speaker 1: First from the shameful allegation of being the murderer of

225
00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:57,200
Speaker 1: his brother and sister in law. So, like we said,

226
00:13:57,240 --> 00:13:59,880
Speaker 1: this is a choose your own ending podcast. I think

227
00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:05,040
Speaker 1: it's so fascinating that too respected medical journals have put

228
00:14:05,040 --> 00:14:07,400
Speaker 1: out food. I know, I wonder if it is a

229
00:14:07,440 --> 00:14:10,800
Speaker 1: feud Americans versus the Brits. Just that so many people

230
00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:14,600
Speaker 1: are actually doing studies on these people who died hundreds

231
00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:18,400
Speaker 1: of years ago. It's fascinating. So choose your own ending, indeed,

232
00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:21,120
Speaker 1: and let us know what you think. And that brings

233
00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:27,480
Speaker 1: us to some really fantastic listener mail. So this edition

234
00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:31,560
Speaker 1: of Listener Meal involves presents, making it a super exciting

235
00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:35,000
Speaker 1: edition of Listener Meal indeed. And this is CC in

236
00:14:35,040 --> 00:14:39,880
Speaker 1: Australia and she sent us these amazing cand knit animals.

237
00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:43,760
Speaker 1: They're so cool. Katie got a narwhale and I got

238
00:14:43,800 --> 00:14:46,680
Speaker 1: an awful lot, and she wrote I instructed them both

239
00:14:46,680 --> 00:14:49,520
Speaker 1: to be on their best behavior and not fight on

240
00:14:49,520 --> 00:14:52,320
Speaker 1: the journey from Australia to you. They I think they

241
00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:54,280
Speaker 1: did all right. You would not want to fight with

242
00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:57,240
Speaker 1: my narwhale. That tusk is pretty intense. My awful lot

243
00:14:57,440 --> 00:15:01,560
Speaker 1: has closed eyes, and I was thinking c C probably

244
00:15:01,680 --> 00:15:04,600
Speaker 1: left these clothes though, that he wouldn't get injured on

245
00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:07,280
Speaker 1: the way. And we named them after things that have

246
00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:11,080
Speaker 1: come up in our recent podcast. My narwhale is named

247
00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:14,640
Speaker 1: Zara from our episode on the Crusades, and my awful

248
00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:19,720
Speaker 1: is named Antonio after today's basket baby Medici because he

249
00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:22,400
Speaker 1: showed up on my desk the same day this podcast

250
00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:27,400
Speaker 1: was initiated, So a big, big thank you to c C.

251
00:15:27,680 --> 00:15:30,280
Speaker 1: And we'll put up a picture of our lovely little

252
00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:33,560
Speaker 1: animals on our Facebook and also on our Twitter at

253
00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:37,040
Speaker 1: Miston History, you should follow us, and if you search

254
00:15:37,120 --> 00:15:40,840
Speaker 1: our home page at ww dot how stuff works dot com,

255
00:15:40,920 --> 00:15:44,000
Speaker 1: you can find my article on mar walls, although Sarah

256
00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:47,920
Speaker 1: hasn't gotten to write one about ocelts not yet. And

257
00:15:47,960 --> 00:15:50,480
Speaker 1: if you're not a crafty type of person, but you're

258
00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:53,760
Speaker 1: a wonderful letter writer instead, you can send us an

259
00:15:53,760 --> 00:15:58,520
Speaker 1: email at History podcast at how stuff works dot com.

260
00:15:58,560 --> 00:16:01,080
Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit

261
00:16:01,160 --> 00:16:03,400
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com and be sure to check

262
00:16:03,440 --> 00:16:05,640
Speaker 1: out this stuff you missed in History class blog on

263
00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:16,280
Speaker 1: the how stuff Works dot com home page