%2c_1478.JPG) Commemorative medal byBertoldo di Giovanni, 1478, showing the assassination attempt (Staatliche Münzsammlung,Munich) | |
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| Native name | Congiura dei Pazzi |
|---|---|
| Date | 26 April 1478,Easter Sunday |
| Location | Duomo of Florence |
| Also known as | Pazzi plot |
| Type | assassination attempt |
| Organised by | |
| Participants | |
| Deaths | |
| Non-fatal injuries | Lorenzo de' Medici, wounded |
| Convictions | about 80 |
| Sentence | execution |
ThePazzi conspiracy (Italian:Congiura dei Pazzi) was a failed plot by members of thePazzi family and others to displace theMedici family as rulers ofRenaissance Florence.[1]: 151
On 26 April 1478 (Easter Sunday) there was an attempt to assassinateLorenzo de' Medici and his brotherGiuliano. Lorenzo was wounded but survived; Giuliano was killed.
More than eighty people implicated in the plot were executed, some by hanging from the windows of thePalazzo della Signoria. The surviving Pazzi family members were banished from Florence.
Francesco della Rovere, who came from a poor family inLiguria, was elected pope in 1471. As Sixtus IV, he was both wealthy and powerful and at once set about giving power and wealth to his nephews of thedella Rovere andRiario families. Within months of his election, he had madeGiuliano della Rovere (the future pope Julius II) andPietro Riario bothbishops andcardinals (including thearchbishopric of Florence for Riario); four other nephews were also made cardinals.[2]: 252 [3]: 128 He madeGiovanni della Rovere, who was not a priest,prefect of Rome, and arranged for him to marry into theda Montefeltro family,dukes of Urbino.
ForGirolamo Riario, also a layman – and who may in fact have been his son rather than his nephew – he arranged to buyImola, a small town inRomagna, with the aim of establishing a newpapal state in that area.[2]: 252 [3]: 128 Imola lay on the trade route between Florence and Venice.Lorenzo de' Medici had arranged in May 1473 to buy it fromGaleazzo Maria Sforza, theduke of Milan, for 100,000fiorini d'oro, but Sforza subsequently agreed to sell it instead to Sixtus for 40,000ducats, provided that his illegitimate daughterCaterina Sforza was married to (Girolamo) Riario.[2]: 253 This purchase was supposed to be financed by the Medici bank, but Lorenzo refused, causing a rift between Sixtus and the termination of the appointment of the Medici as bankers to theCamera Apostolica.[4][5]: 158 The pope negotiated with other bankers, and a substantial part of the cost was obtained from the Pazzi bank.[4]
A further source of friction between Lorenzo and Sixtus was the status of the archbishoprics ofFlorence, left vacant by the sudden death of Pietro Riario in January 1474; and ofPisa, left vacant by the death of Filippo de' Medici in October 1474. Lorenzo managed to obtain the archbishopric of Florence for his brother-in-law,Rinaldo Orsini [it]; but Sixtus appointedFrancesco Salviati, a friend and relative ofFrancesco de' Pazzi, as archbishop of Pisa. This latter appointment was contested by the Florentines (the Medici) on the grounds that they had not given their assent.[4]
Girolamo Riario, Francesco Salviati and Francesco de' Pazzi put together a plan to assassinate Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici. Pope Sixtus was approached for his support. He made a very carefully worded statement in which he said that in the terms of his holy office he was unable to sanction killing. He made it clear that it would be of great benefit to the papacy to have the Medici removed from their position of power in Florence, and that he would deal kindly with anyone who did this. He instructed the men to do what they deemed necessary to achieve this aim, and said that he would give them whatever support he could.[2]: 254 An encrypted letter in the archives of theUbaldini family, discovered and decoded in 2004, shows thatFederico da Montefeltro, the father-in-law of Giovanni della Rovere, was deeply embroiled in the conspiracy and had committed to position 600 troops outside Florence, waiting for the right moment.[6]
The attack took place on the morning of Sunday, 26 April 1478, duringHigh Mass at theDuomo of Florence. Unusually, Lorenzo and Giuliano were both present, and were attacked at the same time.[4] Lorenzo was attacked by two of Jacopo Pazzi's men, but managed to escape to thesacristy, and thence to his home. Giuliano was killed byBernardo Bandini dei Baroncelli andFrancesco de' Pazzi. Archbishop Salviati, with a number of Jacopo Pazzi's men, went to thePalazzo della Signoria and attempted to take control of it, but was unsuccessful – the Florentines did not rise against the Medici as the Pazzi had hoped they would.[4] Salviati was arrested and, with Francesco de' Pazzi and several others, was hanged from the windows of the Palazzo della Signoria.[3]: 140 [4]
Many of the conspirators, as well as many people accused of being conspirators, were killed; more than thirty died on the day of the attack.[4] Most were soon caught and summarily executed.Renato de' Pazzi was lynched and hanged.Jacopo de' Pazzi, head of the family, escaped from Florence but was caught and brought back. He was tortured, then hanged from the Palazzo della Signoria next to the decomposing corpse of Salviati. He was buried atSanta Croce, but the body was dug up and thrown into a ditch. It was then dragged through the streets and propped up at the door ofPalazzo Pazzi, where the rotting head was mockingly used as a door-knocker. From there it was thrown into theArno; children fished it out and hung it from a willow tree, flogged it, and then threw it back into the river.[3]: 141
Lorenzo did manage to save the nephew of Sixtus IV, CardinalRaffaele Riario, who was almost certainly an innocent pawn of the conspirators, as well as two relatives of the conspirators. The main conspirators were hunted down throughout Italy. Between 26 April, the day of the attack, and 20 October 1478, a total of eighty people were executed.[7]: 456 Bandini dei Baroncelli, who had escaped toConstantinople, was arrested and returned infetters by the SultanMehmed II, and – still in Turkish clothing – was hanged from a window of thePalazzo del Capitano del Popolo on 29 December 1479.[3]: 142 [8] There were three further executions on 6 June 1481.[7]: 456
The Pazzi were banished from Florence, and their lands and property confiscated. Their name and their coat of arms were perpetually suppressed: the name was erased from public registers, and all buildings and streets carrying it were renamed; their shield with its dolphins was obliterated everywhere. Anyone named Pazzi had to take a new name; anyone married to a Pazzi was barred from public office.[3]: 142 Guglielmo de' Pazzi, husband of Lorenzo's sister Bianca, was placed under house arrest,[3]: 141 and later forbidden to enter the city; he went to live at Torre a Decima, nearPontassieve.[9]
Sixtus IV reacted strongly to the death of Salviati: with abull of 1 June 1478 heexcommunicated Lorenzo, his supporters and all members of the current and preceding administration of the city. On 20 June he placed Florence underinterdict, forbiddingMass andcommunion. By July troops of theKingdom of Naples under the command ofAlfonso of Aragon, and others fromUrbino underFederico da Montefeltro, had begun to make attacks on Florentine territory.[4][10] Lorenzo took an unorthodox course of action: he sailed to Naples and put himself in the hands of the king,Ferdinand I, who interceded on his behalf with the pope, though without success.[1]: 189 [11]
The events of the Pazzi conspiracy affected the developments of the Medici regime in two ways: they convinced the supporters of the Medici that a greater concentration of political power was desirable and they strengthened the hand of Lorenzo de' Medici, who had demonstrated his ability in conducting the foreign affairs of the city. Emboldened, the Medicean party carried out new reforms.[12]: 223
Shortly after the attackPoliziano – who was in the Duomo when it took place – wrote hisPactianae coniurationis commentarium, a dramatic account of the conspiracy. It was published byNiccolò di Lorenzo della Magna; a revised edition appeared in 1480.[13][5]: 157
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See also:  Coup d'état | |
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