Prologue- The messed up life of Francesco De Medici:
He was born to a woman who was in love with the otherwise married Pope. That much everyone knew. What they didn't know was that the Pope had really loved his mother. They didn't know that the woman in question came from a noble family but had been disowned when she married a common man who had abused her constantly until she snapped and killed him and made it look like an accident. They didn't know that she had three daughters by her husband, the oldest who was calm and wise the middle who was hotheaded and violent and the youngest who developed schizophrenia at age eight and was never treated. They didn't know that she also had twin daughters by the Pope; since they were bastard daughters, they had no potential and therefore didn't get their DNA tested like Francesco had. They didn't know that the Pope had come to visit his son almost as much as to visit his lover and that he had been nice to the older daughters as well, so much so that they had cried the day of his funeral, when the three of them had stayed home with the twins while Francesco's mother escorted him to the funeral. They knew that the Pope had pulled strings to get his son baptized so he could be absolved of the sins of being a bastard child but what they didn't know was that he had also pulled strings to have his two daughters baptized. They didn't know that Francesco's oldest sister Maria had been forced to grow up too fast, left in charge of two babies and a schizophrenic when she was only twelve. They didn't know that his sister Vincenza had been put in the stocks once for 2 days as punishment for beating up a man who called their mother a whore. They didn't know that he spent a great deal of his childhood telling his sister Damiana to ignore the voices in her head. They didn't know that he had comforted Lucia and Giovanna when they woke up with nightmares. They knew that he had been sent to live with the Archbishop Alphonzo and Caterina and Alessandro when he was twelve. What they didn't know was that he constantly wrote letters home to his other sisters.
After that they knew his life's story. He entered the seminary at age fifteen and was ordained a priest. When he was eighteen he served for three years as a chaplain in the Vatican army before he was recalled to Rome when a Cardinal died and made Cardinal by political maneuvering by his Uncle, who was hoping that Francesco would help him get elected Pope, but that backfired when Caterina asked for his help getting Alessandro elected instead. Part of the reason he helped her was because he wanted to get back at his uncle for dragging him into the political arena, but he forgave his uncle once he found his niche as head of the inquisition.
A/N-I was always curious about Francesco's background, and this so I invented a half sister for him, which ultimately turned into three. I based the ages on the assumption that Allesandro was a baby when his parents died and that he is 16 during the series and Francesco is 23 and was 8 when his father died and is two years older than Caterina. This makes Maria 11 when the Pope dies and Vincenza is 10 Damiana is 9, and the twins are 2. The following chapters will be in the form of conversations, letters, ect. Between Francesco and his siblings and half siblings.