The Pazzi Conspiracy

16 Pages·2012·0.27 MB·English

by  Antonius Berghuis

Podcast Transcript
Death at the Duomo: The Pazzi Conspiracy |

Announcer
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from www.HowStuffWorks.com.

Katie Lambert
Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I’m Katie Lambert.

Sarah Dowdey
And I’m Sarah Dowdey. Today, we are starting a new series.

Katie Lambert
A super series, if you will.

Sarah Dowdey
Yep. It’s on the Medici, and we’re hoping we’re going to be able to connect it back around to our series on
Elizabeth, specifically through Mary, Queen of Scots.
Katie Lambert
So you can puzzle on that one for a little bit and see if you can figure it out.
We’re starting today with the Pazzi conspiracy, a dramatic event that shook the city of Florence and also
transformed the Medici’s most illustrious family member into the man we know: Lorenzo the Magnificent.

Sarah Dowdey
So this is a suggestion from listener Nicollet who really tantalized us with her desecration. She wrote, “This plot
consists of conspiracy, murder, betrayal, and a serious dose of retribution.”

Katie Lambert
So if you’re ready, we’re just going to dive right in. Since we’ll be spending a lot of time with the Medici
family, we wanted to give you a little bit of background.
You probably know them as patrons of the arts as well as Machiavellian game players, wealthy bankers, men of
the people, but originally, they were Tuscan peasants.

Sarah Dowdey
Despite their later alliances with great royal families and their great wealth, they’re not noblemen. They’re
bourgeois. They come to Florence sometime in the 12th century and make a fortune over the next hundred
years. They work their way into becoming one of the city’s leading families during a 1340s depression which
bankrupts most of the rest of the city’s elite.
Katie Lambert
But there are a few lines of powerful Medici. The one that concerns us today rose to power in the late 14th
century with Giovanni di Bicci de Medici who inherited ’tis great business of banking and cloth manufacture,
silk manufacture. His son is Cosimo who helped politicize the family. Cosimo’s grandson is Lorenzo. That’s
Lorenzo the Magnificent, and he’s the guy we’re talking about today.
So young Lorenzo is not so great at actually running the bank, but he’s good at politics, and he’s been bred to
rule the city of Lorene along with his brother and co-ruler, Giuliano. So Florence is a republic, but the Medici
have control over it through the allies and the council, some very wise marriage matches, and some
underhanded payoffs as well.

Sarah Dowdey
That’s what they’re really good at, underhanded payoffs. They’re not warriors. They make things happen with
bribes, with money. Encyclopedia Britannica and the historian Francesco Guicciardini says that Lorenzo’s
regime was that of a benevolent tyrant in a constitutional republic. Plus, he’s good at keeping bread prices low,
having lots of festivals and parties, things that Florentines like.

Katie Lambert
Bread and circuses. That’s key.

Sarah Dowdey
He’s really good at that. To me, this sounds like an awfully good way to breed resentment among your peers.
Katie Lambert
Sarah, you are oh so very correct. We need to take a look at our conspirators, the people who have such
resentment against Lorenzo de Medici.
The Pazzi family is a great rival to the Medici family, and they would really like to see them fall, frankly.
Lorenzo’s been messing with the Pazzi family anyway. There was a woman who was supposed to inherit a great
deal of money, and he maneuvered it in such a way that it was actually her cousin and not her that ended up
with it.

Sarah Dowdey
And her Pazzi husband.

Katie Lambert
There’s some personal stuff in there as well as money stuff.

Sarah Dowdey
So we have Francesco de Pazzi who is plotting a coup against the Medici, against Lorenzo who co-rules with
his brother, Giuliano. It’s interesting, though. The Pazzi patriarch is not part of this plan, even though we have
this thing called the Pazzi conspiracy. The patriarch isn’t into it.
Katie Lambert
One of the important Pazzis is not wanting to do this.

Sarah Dowdey
He only agrees to go along with it when he realizes that if they go ahead with the plot, he’s going to be
implicated regardless, so he might as well join in, try to make it happen.

Katie Lambert
The Pazzi have some very powerful allies, namely Pope Sixtus the Fourth. Since the Pazzi bank has assumed
the business affairs of the papacy, this is again another beef the Medici and the Pazzi have together, because the
Medici controlled most banking stuff, except for this.

Sarah Dowdey
The pope has his own personal beefs too, along with his nephew, Girolamo Riaro. That has something to do
with the fact that this is a pope who has tremendous interest in temporal affairs, and he’s trying to consolidate
the poor of the papacy. The Medici are not helping very much. In fact, they’re thwarting him.

Katie Lambert
Also on the ecclesiastical anti-Medici side, we have Francesco Salviati Riaro who was the archbishop of Pisa,
but Lorenzo wouldn’t recognize him, so burn, and archbishop.
Sarah Dowdey
Yes. So far we’ve got the Pazzi family, the pope and his nephew, the archbishop. To bring in one more major
conspirator, we have Federico da Montefeltro. You’d recognize him if you saw his picture, the famous dual
portrait painted by Piero della Francesca. He’s got this ridiculous hooked nose. Just Google his name! You’ll
find him.
He commits 600 troops to this conspiracy effort hoping to bring down Medici control. We should make it clear
here that this isn’t just a plot against the two Medici brothers, the two co-rulers. To make it actually happen and
to really seize control from the Medici family, a whole big thing is going to have to happen.

Katie Lambert
But before these armies can come in and unseat the Medici rule – bum, bum, bum – two men must die. So
here’s our plot.

Sarah Dowdey
Lorenzo de Medici is a pretty reckless dude considering his powerful position in Florence. One of the few
things he agrees to though, to protect his own safety, is that he rarely appears in public with his brother. For this
plot to work, both of the brothers need to be attacked and killed at the same time. If you go after one of them
and the other gets wind of it, he’s going to lock himself up in the Medici palace, and you’re not going to see
him for the next year.
But Pope Sixtus the Fourth, despite being invested in this plot, isn’t too keen on anyone being killed. According
to a later confession from one of the conspirators who pulls out at the last minute, Giovan Battista, who’s the
count of Montesecco, who’s also a mercenary.
Sixtus says, “In no case will I have the death of anyone. It is not my office to cause the death of a man.” But
he’s pope. He’s gotta say something like that.

Katie Lambert
At least to have it on record, to make yourself look good.
Sarah Dowdey
But what does he think is going to happen? If you’re trying to take down the Medici family, you’ve got to have
the two brothers fall.

Katie Lambert
There will be blood.
In the lead up to our Easter of 1478, our conspirators start trickling into Florence one by one. They’re going to
play it by ear, see if they can contrive some kind of opportunity for them to do what they need to do.

Sarah Dowdey
To bring the brothers together.

Katie Lambert
And kill them, and then seize control of important parts of the state and rally the people to their cause.
Lorenzo seems pretty clueless about what’s going on. He’s not noticing all the strangers that are coming into
town because lots of people are coming in for all the Easter festivities, and he’s feeling like things might be
thawing because his enemies are being really friendly to him.

Sarah Dowdey
Yeah, he’s welcoming all these men who are secretly plotting to kill him. He’s welcomed Montesecco to his
home, the mercenary. He’s done such a good job. Lorenzo is such a game player that Montesecco is even
having second thoughts because he likes him so much. He’s invited and welcomed a kinsman of the pope,
Raffaele Sansoni Riaro, who’s the newest 17-year-old cardinal. We should say this pope was pretty big into
nepotism. So maybe things are okay with Sixtus now too. Maybe the papal relations are thawing.
Katie Lambert
And he has entertained arch-conspirator Francesco de Pazzi at his own home for a pre-Easter luncheon, along
with the archbishop of Pisa, so he’s thinking, “Great. Maybe things are good with Sixtus. Maybe things are
okay with the Pazzi. Things are looking up.”

Sarah Dowdey
The plotters, though, are decidedly more freaked out than their intended victims. Lorenzo might not really
understand what’s going on, but the plotters are getting nervous, mainly because – like we said – it’s hard to get
Giuliano and Lorenzo together. They’re scrambling to make it happen.
The luncheon would’ve been pretty good opportunity to assassinate the brothers, except that Giuliano cancels at
the last minute because of an eye infection, so the archbishop, trying to quickly stage a second get-together
suggests that the Medici brothers show them all their finery at their Florentine mansions.

Katie Lambert
Sarah, you should come see my gold.

Sarah Dowdey
Yeah. Lay out all your gold and silk, and I’ll come over. So Lorenzo said, “Okay, that sounds like a good plan!”
but before it can happen, he goes ahead and invites all the guests, a real gesture of goodwill here, invites them
all to attend mass with him the next morning. Here we go. This is our opportunity. Both of the Medici brothers
are going to be together at Easter mass. Time for a murder!
Katie Lambert
But Montesecco pulls out saying, “No way am I going to kill someone in church at Easter mass.” Just think
about that for a second. His replacements are two disgruntled priests.
Let’s set the scene. We are at the Duomo on Eastern morning. Lorenzo has walked to church arm in arm with
Cardinal Raffaele, and he’s swept up greeting friends as soon as he arrives and winds up standing about to the
right of the alter, and priests with daggers position themselves behind him.

Sarah Dowdey
Giuliano again is a no-show. Remember, he was sick the day before with this eye infection.

Katie Lambert
He should’ve stuck with the eye infection.

Sarah Dowdey
I know. It could’ve been a little worse for him. So Francesco de Pazzi and another conspirator, Bernardo
Bandini, go to collect him from his home. You’ve got to wonder what they say to him to make him get out of
bed with his eye infection and go to church in the morning, but they convince him. On the walk to the cathedral,
Francesco even puts his arm around Giuliano and says, “Your illness seems to have made you fat.” He’s really
checking for armor, Giuliano. If your friend does this to you, beware.
Katie Lambert
Lesson. Please remember. So they arrive at church and Pazzi and Bandini position themes behind him. We’ve
got the priests behind Lorenzo, and we’ve got Bandini and Pazzi behind Giuliano.

Sarah Dowdey
The Duomo is really chatty and loud. Everybody is having a good time, but everyone gets quiet right at the bell
before the elevation of the Host, which is the agreed-upon signal for the conspirators. Right when that happens,
the attackers strike.
Bandini is the first to strike. He hits Giuliano shouting, “Here, traitor!” Pazzi begins to strike him as he falls,
slashing so much that he cuts his own leg. Giuliano sustains 19 wounds.

Katie Lambert
Lorenzo is too far away to see any of this happening to Giuliano, but obviously everyone can hear it. One of the
priests grabs Lorenzo before he actually tries to strike. Lorenzo shakes him off, whips around his clack to dodge
the blow, and grabs his own sword, although he gets nicked in the neck.

Sarah Dowdey
The Medici friends immediately surround Lorenzo, whisk him off to the sacristy, which is secured by these
massive bronze doors. Bandini keeps his head in all the chaos that’s starting to happen and pursues Lorenzo
knowing that if Lorenzo doesn’t die too, this whole thing is not going to work. In his pursuit, he runs through
one of Lorenzo’s friends with his sword, and he gets to the sacristy right as their bolting the doors to protect
Lorenzo.
So Bandini flees town. Pazzi, who’s hurt, limps home and retreats knowing the whole thing is lost, and probably
that he’s a dead man. The priests scurry out into the streets and alleyways.