In the day of Easter officiating the 26th of April 1478 in the main cathedral of Florence a certain Francesco Pazzi and his friends tried to slaughter the town’s governors Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano Medici. This episode has entered into the history as the “Pazzi Conspiracy”.
Where did the famous family Medici appear from? And how that happened that they were governing Florence for centuries and supplying the beauties to the leading royal families of Europe? The French queens Catherine Medici and Maria Medici are the most famous for us, but there were a lot of other queens and princesses of Medici in Europe.
They were hereditary pharmacists. Once upon a time a good fortune met an offspring of Medici, a son of a poor widow, Giovanni. His cousin gave him a position in one of the banks in Rome. Giovanni discovered his talent there. The forefather of the future royal generation reached a bank governor. He went into politics and start sponsoring the known corsair Baldassare Cossa which had a claim on Papal throne. The corsair became an antipope (John XXIII) in 1410 and recompensed his creditor assigning the Medici’s bank to control the finance of the Roman Catholic Church.
Giovanni Medici was considered as a “God’s banker” and he started developing an international financial network. He opened branches in Lion and London. That was easy to him because all non-payers were excommunicated from the Church. Growing rich the founder of the Medici bank family took a great interest in art and became a Maecenas. His son Cosimo was the heir to the bank empire. Cosimo grew as a very educated person. Banking was not enough to him and he went into politics in real. He sustained a defeat in the beginning. He was accused of a conspiracy and nearly executed. But he turned out well suborning the watches. He got even with his prosecutor later on.
The political system in Florence could be considered as an oligarchic democracy. The power was elective and belonged to deputies of Signoria. But in fact the power belonged to several family clans. The head of the clan was the first among equals. He didn’t have any titles and usually didn’t occupy any official positions just being considered as a national leader. Coup d'état meant a change of the ruling clan. Parties had simple and understandable names, for example, the party of the Albizzi family (predecessors of Medici). The underlying task of a candidate was to throw off the leader. Do not allow that was the main task for the leader. Having the intention of getting power in Florence, Cosimo gained the popularity of Florence’s people. He had got power with the peak of people’s admiration to him. By the way, Brunelleschi got a row and funding for the construction of the couple of the cathedral under the pressure of Cosimo Medici.
The Founder of the Medici dynasty is called Cosimo the Elder. The dynasty of old Casimo was not good enough in the beginning. The eldest son died very young, the youngest son was an unhealthy and a poet. Which leader could be from a poet? Therefore old Cosimo loved very much his grandson Lorenzo. He was promised to be a real leader. And that really happened. Lorenzo the Magnificent (how he was called by the time) ruled the Florence until 1492. Leonardo Da Vinci, Sandro Botticelli and Michelangelo Buonarroti were supported by Lorenzo. Michelangelo spent his boyhood in the Lorenzo’s house together with the Lorenzo’s children. Lorenzo shared the power in Florence with his younger brother Giuliano until the attempt on their life happened on the 26th of April. The conspiracy against the Medici was not something unusual at that time. Of cause, Medici had a lot of enemies and their counter-intelligence worked quit well. Sometimes the conspiracies were discovered by Lorenzo himself. For example, once he successfully prevented an attempt on his father’s life. Though, the “Pazzi Conspiracy” was not noticed by the Medici brothers.
Who were those Pazzi? Their family was much more honorable than the chemist family of Medici. A crusader Pazzi was the first who climbed over the town’s wall during the siege of Jerusalem in 1099. He got three stones from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The head of the Pazzi family stroked the holy fire from these stones each Ester in Florence. People lighted candles during the religious procession to the baptistery. Dante Alighieri immortalized the Pazzi family in his Divine Comedy. The emblem of Pazzi was hanged all over Florence. Their palace was the most luxurious in Florence; Pazzi had a claim on the most important positions of the city.
They had a bank and a trading company. Pazzi started their business at the same time as Cosimo Medici but not in Rome, in Barcelona.
At the time of conspiracy the head of the Pazzi financial empire was Jacopo Pazzi. He didn’t have his own sons, but had a lot of nephews, among which the most courageous was a certain young man by the name Francesco. A bad idea had entered into his head: Medici of humble origin had power in Florence while Pazzi of noble birth had to be satisfied with the second role - cold hands and hot heart were founded for the conspiracy. What about a head? Where was the head of the conspiracy?
The head was in the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome. The Pope Sixt IV took an offence at Medici. Medici’s bank refused lending 40 thousand ducats for the Holy Throne of. Pope had wanted to make a present to his nephew. Medici refused the request because the founder Giovanni had said that money shouldn’t be given to authorities without any benefits. It appears that Pope Sixt IV was a very rancorous. He took away the status of the “God’s bank” from Medici bank and gave it to Pazzi. In response Medici took away Pazzi from the power in Florence.
Francesco Pazzi lived in Rome, where he started spinning the conspiracy. The archbishop of Pisa took active participation in the conspiracy. He expected to move to Florence in case of success. Conspirators enlisted external’s support and gathered large forces with the help of Pope Sixt IV. Jacopo Pazzi was informed about the conspiracy. He was against it in the beginning, but when he made sure that the conspiracy can’t be stopped at that point he started supporting the idea. Conspirators found some young dissatisfied people in Florence, which were core of the fighting squads.
Initially it was supposed to entice Lorenzo from Florence to Rome and dealt shortly with him there and to kill Giuliano in Florence. But Lorenzo was not going to go to Rome. Then a cardinal, an envoy of Pope came to Florence and the official reception was appointed on 28th of April in the Pazzi’s villa. The Medici brothers were supposed to be poisoned on that ceremony. But Giuliano had fallen ill, and became known that he would not visit the ceremony. Delay was not impossible because a lot of people knew about the conspiracy, and all of them could be arrested. The murder was scheduled for Easter. The priest, who conducted the divine service in the cathedral, was aware of the murder. He had to kill Lorenzo. Francesco agreed to kill Giuliano Medici by himself. The archbishop of Pisa, Jacopo Pazzi and others should occupy the Signoria and declare the power change.
So the divine service started in the cathedral. Lorenzo came; he had to come because the envoy of Pope was there. Giuliano was absent, he was ill. Then Francesco Pazzi went to the Medici’s Palace. Facetious saying he persuaded Giuliano to go to the cathedral. He even helped him to go supporting his shoulder. They were chatting with each other in a friendly manner during the way to the church.
When they entered to the Basilica Francesco started drew a dagger and plunge it into Giuliano. He was killing Giuliano with incredible fury so that the dagger hurt his own leg. There were 19 dagger wounds counted on the Giuliano’s body. At the same time the conspirators attacked Lorenzo Medici and hurt his neck. Lorenzo was hidden in a crowd closer to the altar. The crowed defended him. The killers tried to escape, but they were caught and killed by their own weapons. The attack was repulsed; Lorenzo took refuge in a sacristy. The cardinal instigator hid in another sacristy.
At that time the archbishop of Pisa and his friends being absolutely sure of success of their venture went into the Signoria. There was a night and all deputies went away basically, but somebody stayed there. And the second fatal misfortune overtook the conspirators here. The door of the chancellery can be opened by the key only. The conspirators burst into the chancellery destroying all on their way. Somehow the heavy door has slammed behind them and all fighting squad turned out in a trap.
The archbishop of Pisa and some other men started arresting the speaker (the gonfaloniere), but they were slightly unconvincing in their behavior. The gonfaloniere suspected that something is wrong and threw out of his office. Everybody who was in the building of the Signoria resorted to the help of him. The conspirators were unable to wrestle with the people because they were lost the fighting squad which was blocked in the chancellery. All conspirators were caught, tied up and threw out of the Palazzo Vecchio’s windows.
Some Francesco’s troops should have come to the aid of them, but Francesco was bleeding from a self-inflicted wound. The old Jacopo Pazzi wasn’t able to such kind of feat of arms and he hesitated in his choice too long than it was possible. When finally he ventured to go, saddled up a horse and arrived to the Signoria’s square as a head of an armed hundred, he saw the conspirators had just been hanged and a crowd of people hurling stones to him and his soldiers. Confused Jacopo Pazzi decided to save his life of the crowd and to leave of troops from the town. He expected to take cover in his own villa, but he was caught and disarmed on his way to home.
Waves of riots were spread across the town. The townspeople took advantage of the moment. Houses of Pazzi were looted down. Francesco was caught and hanged naked in the same window, where the Archbishop of Pisa had been already hung. All of the Pazzi were caught in three days and everybody was hung. Only one survived, which was married to a Lorenzo’s sister. Some time ago Cosimo Medici married his granddaughter to one of the Pazzi wishing to reconcile two families. No reconciliation was availed, but the life of one man was saved. He was stripped of his status and banished from Florence forever. All distant relatives of the Pazzi family did three years in prison.
The corpse of Jacopo Pazzi was buried initially, but then it was dug up and thrown into the River Arno.
Niccolo Machiavelli wrote: "This is truly the clearest example of the vicissitudes of fate, when a man from the heights of wealth and prosperity was so ignominiously overthrown into the abyss of the greatest misfortunes."
The “Pazzi Conspiracy” was ramified and went far beyond Florence. The famous portrait of the Duke of Urbino, the pride of the Uffizi Gallery, represents one of the conspirators also. Despite the fact that the duchy Urbino was very far from Florence, a letter of the Duke to Pope Sixt IV has been found recently, where the duke promised to give an army of 600 men to restore order after the Medici overthrow in Florence.
Paintings depicting at least some of the Pazzi no longer exist. Their portraits were thoroughly destroyed, so that even the memory of this family is not survived. All of their palaces and houses were destroyed as well (except their main house). The Pazzi Chapel (designed by Brunelleschi in the complex of Basilica of Santa Croce) survived by accident. But there are no things which belonged to the Pazzi family.
Lorenzo made a sumptuous funeral of his killed brother. Several months later, his illegitimate son was born, which was also named Giuliano. He'll be brought up in Lorenzo's house like his own son together with Lorenzo’s children. Many years later, this child will become Pope Clement VII.
Nowadays the Pazzi family name has revealed oneself in a completely unexpected context. A psychological thriller “Hannibal” is a sequel to the famous film "The Silence of the Lambs" was released in 2001. It left nobody indifferent. One of the strongest moments of the film, which links it with Florence, is the story of how Hannibal Lector rips the belly of Rinaldo Pazzi a policeman and hangs his twitching corpse famously from the window of the Palazzo Vecchio (that white window that under the clock). Probably Francesco Pazzi was being hung from the same window.
In the film Rinaldo Pazzi is a direct descendant of Francesco, who repeated his fate after exactly 500+ years. Dr. Lector is mocking Rinaldo Pazzi all the time in the movie, alluding to his relationship with the hanging man 5 hundred years ago. Rinaldo is confused on that and says that this story is forgotten already. "Hannibal" was being filmed for 16 weeks in Florence. An idea of shooting such kind of movie did not cause a clear delight among the Florence people. There were protest demonstrations and the film crew was strongly interfered. But the authorities of Florence allowed shooting hoping, perhaps, to a certain advertisement of Florence. However, there is no Florence in the movie. Even the Palazzo Vecchio and Piazza della Signoria are not look like a beautiful place for civilized people.
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