As much as Heinrich would hate my saying this, he did have older siblings to serve as examples on the sceptic/deist front...
And so did Gian Gastone! Or if not outright deist, then at least reeeeally laid back about religion. To wit: bisexual older brother Ferdinando, the great supporter of music and the arts who partied himself to death and died of advanced syphilis, unable to recognize the people around him. Also, Uncle Francesco Maria, the Cardinal, who partied himself to death via overeating rather than via sex.
Note that the older son, Cosimo III, becomes Grand Duke, and the younger Francesco Maria, becomes Cardinal, irrespective of which one is the bigot and whic one is super laid back abou the whole thing.
So between these two examples, I think AU!Heinrich, taking Gian Gastone's place as the younger Medici son of Cosimo III, would have managed not to be a bigot like Dad. (Who got his bigotry from his mother, Vittoria della Rovere. Who was not a big fan of her husband, Grand Duke Ferdinando II, being all into science and the arts and protecting Galileo.)
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Re: Real and AU Medici
Date: 2021-11-27 04:38 pm (UTC)And so did Gian Gastone! Or if not outright deist, then at least reeeeally laid back about religion. To wit: bisexual older brother Ferdinando, the great supporter of music and the arts who partied himself to death and died of advanced syphilis, unable to recognize the people around him. Also, Uncle Francesco Maria, the Cardinal, who partied himself to death via overeating rather than via sex.
Note that the older son, Cosimo III, becomes Grand Duke, and the younger Francesco Maria, becomes Cardinal, irrespective of which one is the bigot and whic one is super laid back abou the whole thing.
So between these two examples, I think AU!Heinrich, taking Gian Gastone's place as the younger Medici son of Cosimo III, would have managed not to be a bigot like Dad. (Who got his bigotry from his mother, Vittoria della Rovere. Who was not a big fan of her husband, Grand Duke Ferdinando II, being all into science and the arts and protecting Galileo.)