thumb|200px|right|The ducal coronet used by the Italian states.
The Duca della Repubblica Fiorentina, rendered in English as Duke of the Florentine Republic or Duke of the Republic of Florence, was a title created in 1532 by Pope Clement VII for the Medici family (his own family), which ruled the Republic of Florence. There were effectively only two dukes of the Republic of Florence, Alessandro de' Medici and Cosimo de' Medici, the second duke being elevated to Grand Duke of Tuscany, causing the Florentine title to become subordinate to the greater Tuscan title.
History
thumb|200px|right|The [[Coat of arms|heraldic achievement of the Medici, the family to which the two Dukes of the Florentine Republic belonged.]]
In 1532, Pope Clement VII, who was born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, appointed Alessandro de' Medici as duke over the Republic of Florence, the Medici family having acted as de facto rulers over the city of Florence since 1434 when Cosimo "the Elder" de' Medici (also known by his supporters as Pater Patriae, or "Father of the Country"), returned to the city from his short-lived exile in the Republic of Venice by the Alberti and Strozzi families who were also political rivals of the Medici family. The duchy would bolster Medici power and influence in the region, which had just a few years prior been restored by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor after political upheaval against the Medici pope and Medici rulers of Florence in 1527. Alessandro is also believed by historians to have been the illegitimate son of either Pope Clement VII or Lorenzo II de' Medici, Duke of Urbino.
In 1535, a delegation of Florentine nobles, which included the Pazzi family who previously conspired to assassinate Lorenzo de' Medici and was headed by Alessandro’s cousin Ippolito de' Medici, sought to gain the assistance of Emperor Charles V to depose Alessandro. Charles rejected the delegations’ appeals, as Alessandro had been wedded to the emperor's daughter Margaret of Parma.