Fifteenth century zenith, Italy.
Standard–bearer Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449 CE – 1492 CE) leader of Florence during the Golden Age of the Renaissance (midway through the Medici family 400 year TimeLine).
The Medici family was a fabulously wealthy and formidably powerful Florentine political family group from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century. The Medici produced three popes (Leo X, Clement VII, and Leo XI) and several rulers of Europe, including Catherine de Medici (1519–1605) Queen of France, and Marie de Medici (1573–1642) Queen and Regent of France. The family heavily financed the Arts, and played an important and historic role in the beginning of the Italian Renaissance. It intermittently ferociously tangled with the Vatican, as well (when it wasn’t controlling it, of course).