Episode 33: The Pazzi Conspiracy

I Take History With My Coffee Podcast
Episode 33
Title: The Pazzi Conspiracy


“The murderers being ready, each in his appointed station, which they could retain without suspicion, on account of the vast numbers assembled in the church, the preconcerted moment arrived, and Bernardo Bandini, with a short dagger provided for the purpose, struck Giuliano in the breast, who after a few steps, fell to the earth.  Francesco de Pazzi threw himself upon the body and covered him with wounds; while, as if blinded by rage, he inflicted a deep incision upon his own leg.”
Niccolo Machiavelli, History of Florence and the Affairs of Italy, 1525



Welcome back to the I Take History With My Coffee podcast and thank you for continuing our exploration of the Early Modern period.


When Lorenzo de Medici first took power upon his father’s death, there was little change in how things were done.  Like his predecessors, Lorenzo was happy to respect the existing constitution and the appearance of republican freedom.  He held no office and had no official title.  He was satisfied with continuing the Medici foreign policy of alliances with Milan and Naples.  The Florentine state remained quiet, at least for a little while.  

Yet Lorenzo wasn’t without challenges.  Many of these stemmed from his role as both a statesman and banker.  In essence, Lorenzo's ascent to significant political influence was heavily influenced by his inherited role in foreign policy. The successes in foreign affairs and adept interpersonal connections with fellow rulers, which were prominent features of his grandfather's and father's reigns, played a pivotal role. Conversely, misjudgments in foreign affairs led to problems, as we will see in later episodes.

Lorenzo's fortunate encounters and favorable impressions on key Italian state leaders were critical. However, these encounters posed a challenge: foreign leaders often overestimated his autonomy in decision-making. They projected their own perspectives onto him, overlooking the nuanced approach he had to take due to the varying political makeup of each Signoria. This necessitated a careful negotiation strategy, adjusting the pace of action based on the support he could expect from the respective ruling bodies.

Due to the city's specific political dynamics, Florentine diplomacy followed a unique tempo compared to other powers. The inherent mistrust this generated burdened Lorenzo with extensive correspondence to mollify both offended princes and his agents. Despite having the authority to nominate the republic's ambassadors, differing opinions within the regime regarding foreign affairs complicated matters.

Lorenzo's standing as a banker also impacted his diplomatic efforts for Florence. Struggling financially, he found himself at times held hostage during negotiations, with allies like Duke Galeazzo Maria of Milan seeking loans or other personal favors. This financial strain eroded the diplomatic value of his reputation for immense personal wealth.

The intricacies of conducting diplomacy in Florence were amplified due to the reliance on mercenary armies, necessitating parallel negotiations with both princes and condottieri. The rotational leadership principle further added delays and sometimes contradictions to the negotiation process. For Lorenzo, these complexities were exacerbated by his active involvement and enthusiasm, challenging the notion of his reluctance to follow in his father's footsteps.

     Problems with Lorenzo’s dual role as statesman and banker became apparent early on.  In 1471, Sixtus IV was elected pope. The Pope was keen on expanding papal control over the towns of Romagna,  and he approached Lorenzo, seeking his assistance as a banker.  Sixtus IV was infamous for nepotism and aimed to secure territories for his clerical and lay nephews. He eyed towns like Imola, Sinigaglia, and Urbino, sensitive points in Italy's power balance. Venice and Milan were also interested in the Romagna, while Florence, reliant on the region for grain and trade routes to Ancona, preferred a weak and divided Romagna.

Trouble arose over Imola when negotiations for its purchase favored Florence's control but were disrupted when Sixtus IV convinced the Duke of Milan to transfer Imola to papal authority, appointing his nephew, Girolamo Riario, as vicar. The Pope had turned to the Medici Bank for the cash to arrange this deal.  Lorenzo instructed the Rome Branch not to lend the money and urged the Pazzi-owned bank to do the same.  This marked Lorenzo as an enemy of the Pope.  Simultaneously, Lorenzo was focused on mediating between Milan and Venice to maintain peace, given Florence's vulnerability in potential conflicts involving these major powers.  While Francesco Sforza was Duke of Milan, the Medici could count on the support of a strong Milanese state.  But that support was now in question, and this left Lorenzo in a vulnerable position.  

Meanwhile, Pope Sixtus IV pursued his policy of consolidating the papal possessions in Romagna and Umbria.  The pope was not pleased when he learned that much of the local resistance to his plans was secretly encouraged by Lorenzo.  These small domains formed a protective belt around Florentine territory, so naturally, the Florentines were alarmed by the Pope’s new aggressiveness in the region.  Then, in late 1474, Lorenzo exacerbated the situation by abandoning the successful alliance with Milan and Naples.  Instead, he made a new agreement with Milan and Venice, who were equally disturbed by the Papal program as Florence.  Sixtus immediately countered by entering an arrangement with Naples.  Thereby, Itlay was divided between two mutually suspicious leagues.  

      The pope turned out to be a vindictive opponent of the young Lorenzo.  He elevated to the Archbishopric of Pisa, a Florentine enemy of the Medici, and did so without deferring to the Florentine government.  This further strained the relationship between the head of the Church and the ruler of Florence.  And then disaster struck in Milan.

On December 26, 1476, Duke Galeazzo Maria was assassinated by three Milanese youths while entering the church of St. Stephen. Their humanist teacher had incited them using classical authors' praise of tyrannicide. The murdered duke, known for his tyranny, received little sympathy. However, the event had significant repercussions. It caused political confusion in Milan due to the young heir and led to a power struggle among the late duke's brothers, weakening Milan's influence. Additionally, the assassination popularized the idea of tyrannicide, potentially inspiring Medici enemies to consider murder as a means of removal, although direct links cannot be proven.  The incident eliminated Milan as a key supporter of Medici power and left Lorenzo in a much more precarious position.

     The central figure of the plot, known as the Pazzi Conspiracy, was the pope’s nephew, Girolamo Riario, recently granted possession of Imola.  While in Rome under the pope’s wing, he met up with another young man who shared his hatred of the Medici family.  This was Francesco Pazzi.  He was the nephew of Jacopo Pazzi, the head of one of the oldest families in Florence, and director of the Pazzi Bank, chief rival to the Medici Bank.  Francesco was the manager for the Rome Branch of the Pazzi Bank and was behind Sixtus IV’s decision to move money from the Medici to the Pazzi.  The third conspirator was Francesco Salviati, the man appointed Archbishop of Pisa and who had long been blocked by Lorenzo from taking his post.  The next step for these three was to gain the pope’s blessing.

     Pope Sixtus seemed for a moment to remember his Christian conscience.  Though he despised the Medici and agreed they needed to be rooted out, he refused to give his blessing to the murder of Lorenzo and his brother, Giuliano.  But the pope’s stance was ambiguous enough that the plotters understood it to be his approval of their plans.

The conspirators faced the challenge of selecting a capable military leader to oversee their plan to assassinate Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici. Gian Batista da Montesecco, a mercenary captain in the service of the lord of Imola, accepted the appointment for this role. He was entrusted with the details of the planned murder, which was intended to eliminate both Medici brothers simultaneously.

However, a significant moral dilemma arose during the plotting. The conspirators had decided that the double assassination should occur in a church during the mass celebration. Montesecco, a professional brigand, was willing to carry out the murders for a fee, but he was also a Christian brigand and refused to commit them in a sacred place. His ethical boundaries posed a problem for the conspirators.

Ultimately, Montesecco had to be replaced in the late stages of planning. Nonetheless, he did not leave town and was captured after the assassination. Notably, before his trial and execution, he wrote a detailed confession, which became a crucial source of information about the conspiracy.

As the planning evolved, the conspirators settled on the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore as the location for the assassination during the High Mass on Sunday, April 26, 1478. The plot aimed not only to eliminate Lorenzo and Giuliano but also to overthrow their government. Each conspirator was assigned a specific role.

Two disaffected priests volunteered to replace Montesecco and carry out Lorenzo's assassination.  Francesco Pazzi and a young, vain Florentine merchant, Bernardo Bandini, took responsibility for Giuliano's murder.  The archbishop Salviati agreed to seize the Palazzo Signoria and take control of the government.  Jacopo Pazzi, an older man who could no longer ride a horse, was tasked with rallying the citizens to join the struggle for their lost liberty.

Jacopo Pazzi had initially resisted joining the plot due to his reputation as a greedy miser. However, as the conspiracy became more solid, he reluctantly agreed to play his assigned role and sound the alarm, calling the people to overthrow the Medici rule. 

Girolamo Riario, the original conspirator, chose not to directly participate in the plot to safeguard his safety. Instead, he arranged for his young nephew, who was also the grand-nephew of the pope, to be involved as a decoy. Despite being just seventeen years old, this young man had already been elevated to the rank of cardinal, serving as evidence of the church's declining moral standards. He was summoned from the University of Pisa to Florence under the guise of paying the Medici rulers a visit of respect. 

The young cardinal's presence at the church service during the High Mass would not raise suspicion about the conspiracy or his role as a mere representative. The signal for the simultaneous assassination was set for the most solemn moment of the service—the elevation of the host.

When the mass bell tinkled, and the officiating priest elevated the host underneath Brunelleschi’s great dome, the murderers sprang into action. Francesco Pazzi and Bernardo Bandini swiftly killed the young and handsome Giuliano, inflicting a brutal twenty-nine wounds upon him. Francesco Pazzi's fury was so intense that he injured himself in the thigh during the attack.

On the other hand, the two priests assigned to assassinate Lorenzo proved to be less skilled in the art of murder. Lorenzo, wounded on the shoulder by a glancing blow, turned on his attackers, drawing his sword and holding them off until his friends came to his aid. Together, they managed to get him to safety in the sacristy, shielding him from the gruesome sight of Giuliano's lifeless body.  After the chaos of the attack, with the worshipers fleeing in panic, Lorenzo's supporters acted as his bodyguards, guiding him away from the desecrated church and back to the safety of his home. 

Meanwhile, Archbishop Salviati and Jacopo Pazzi attempted to rally the Florentine citizens to rise against the Medici.  They soon discovered that the sitting priors and the Florentine people had unwavering support for the Medici.  When Salviati led a band of supporters into the Palazzo Signoria, they were all immediately arrested.  Old Jacopo rode through the streets crying Popolo and Liberta, traditional rallying cries for the masses. Still, he was met with shouts of Palle, Palle, indicating popular sentiment with the ruling family.  

Public outrage against the plotters swelled into an uncontrollable mob thirsting for vengeance. The people, incensed by the conspiracy, demanded retribution. The priors, yielding to the angry crowd gathered in the Piazza della Signoria, flung the captured minions of the archbishop from windows to the pavement. Archbishop Salviati himself was hanged from a window dressed in his elaborate vestments. The frenzy extended to the Pazzi palace, where the mob sought Francesco, wounded in bed, and ultimately hanged him from another window alongside his fellow conspirator.

Old Jacopo Pazzi eluded immediate capture by fleeing to the hills, but he was eventually captured by peasants, tortured, and hanged. However, young Cardinal, Riario’s nephew, was spared as a pawn of the criminal elders. The city remained tumultuous for days and even weeks, fueled by a feverish demand for vengeance against all participants in the conspiracy.

Bernardo Bandini fled to Constantinople, but he was eventually apprehended and, like the other culprits, paid for his crime with his life. Despite the involvement of individuals with diverse political allegiances, the Florentines viewed the conspiracy primarily as a feud between two local families, thus naming it the Pazzi Conspiracy.

Although Lorenzo de' Medici survived the plot and the city rallied around him, the threat to him and his government persisted. Pope Sixtus IV, infuriated by the failure of the plot, the treatment of his grand-nephew, and the indignities heaped upon an archbishop, excommunicated Lorenzo, ostensibly for resisting the attempted murder. He threatened to impose an interdict on Florence and all of Tuscany unless Lorenzo was handed over to him. When Florence defiantly rejected this demand, the pope declared the interdict, sparking a war. The King of Naples allied with the pope, while Lorenzo called upon Milan and Venice, and he assembled an army of mercenaries.  By the summer of 1478, Italy was embroiled in a conflict, with various small states aligning with one of the two major factions.


The conflict quickly turned against Lorenzo.  His mercenary forces proved unreliable as always, and his allies, Venice and Milan, provided insufficient support. Venice was preoccupied with a war against the Turks, while Milan was mired in political turmoil.

King Ferrante of Naples and Pope Sixtus IV seized the opportunity to invade Tuscany and nearly succeeded in overwhelming Lorenzo's forces. In the autumn of 1479, Duke Alfonso of Calabria, King Ferrante's son, launched a surprise attack that drove the Florentine army into a panicked retreat towards Florence. However, instead of pressing his advantage, Duke Alfonso proposed a seasonal truce on November 24. The Florentines eagerly accepted this truce, providing a brief respite.

Given the war's toll on Tuscan soil and its populace, Lorenzo realized the urgency for peace. King Ferrante led the Pope’s main force, and Lorenzo believed engaging with the King directly was critical. Taking a bold and unprecedented step, Lorenzo left Florence secretly and sailed to Naples, hoping to plead his case with King Ferrante.

Upon arriving in Naples, Lorenzo faced challenging negotiations, particularly with Ferrante's son, the Duke of Calabria. After two months of eloquent and gracious persuasion, a treaty began to take shape by February 1480. Under the terms of this treaty, Florence had to pay a substantial indemnity and accept territorial concessions.  However, Pope Sixtus IV, offended by the separate peace, maintained  Lorenzo's excommunication and interdict.

The situation changed when a Turkish fleet descended on the Neapolitan town of Otranto in August 1480, marking the first Muslim invasion of Italian soil. This event sent shockwaves throughout Italy. Duke Alfonso of Calabria, who had lingered in Tuscany hoping for further territorial gains, had to rush back to defend Naples.

The liberation of Otranto by the Neapolitans in the following year was a notable achievement for the duke.   Furthermore, the Turkish invasion prompted Pope Sixtus IV to call for unity among Italians to resist the infidels, causing him to reconsider his feud with Lorenzo. The pope entered into negotiations that led to a formal reconciliation. In a ceremony at St. Peter's church, Sixtus cleansed a delegation of Florentines and, symbolically, the entire Florentine population, including Lorenzo, from the heretical taint he had placed upon them. This marked the end of the bitter conflict between Pope Sixtus IV and Lorenzo de' Medici.

For now, we will turn away from the broader affairs of Italy and focus on what is considered the golden age of the Florentine Renaissance.  First, we’ll look at the gathering of scholars, first initiated by Lorenzo’s grandfather Cosimo, known as the Platonic Academy.

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