A dramatic royal history event in Florence
A plot
That day, unbeknownst to the congregation, a meticulously plotted conspiracy was about to unfold—a plan that would shake the Republic of Florence to its core. The plot had been hatched by the Pazzi family, wealthy Florentine bankers with ambitions to unseat the de' Medici. They were backed by Francesco Salviati, the Archbishop of Pisa, and, more ominously, by Pope Sixtus IV, who opposed the de' Medici's influence in central Italy. The Pope’s nephew, Girolamo Riario, was also involved, giving the plot the air of both political and ecclesiastical intrigue.
During the Easter Mass
As the mass reached its climax, with the choir echoing through Brunelleschi’s great dome, the conspirators struck. While Lorenzo was being attacked by two priests with daggers—he managed to fend them off and escape with only a superficial wound—Giuliano was not so lucky. Surrounded and unsuspecting, he was set upon by Francesco de' Pazzi and Bernardo Bandini dei Baroncelli, who stabbed him repeatedly. Giuliano was struck in the head and chest—one account says he received a total of 19 wounds, including a fatal blow that punctured his heart. He collapsed and died in the very heart of Florence’s most sacred space. The attack was meant to be a swift coup, coordinated with an attempt to seize control of the government palace, the Palazzo della Signoria. But it failed. Lorenzo survived and rallied support from the citizens of Florence. The conspirators were quickly hunted down.
Reaction
Retribution was brutal and public. Francesco de’ Pazzi was dragged through the streets and hanged from a window of the Palazzo della Signoria, his corpse left for days as a warning. Bandini fled but was eventually captured in Constantinople, extradited, and executed in Florence. Archbishop Salviati was also hanged, in a spectacle that even included the murder of several clerics—an act that shocked the papacy. The Pazzi name was erased from Florentine life. Their family palaces were seized or destroyed, and it became illegal to even mention their name in public. This event, known as the Pazzi Conspiracy, not only failed to destroy the de' Medici—it solidified their grip on power for generations.
Afterwards
For Lorenzo, the loss of his brother was devastating. But the aftermath turned him from a powerful statesman into something closer to a legend—the man who survived an assassination in church, only to rise stronger. His survival became a foundational myth of Medici power. Giuliano de’ Medici was just 25 years old when he was killed, handsome, athletic, and widely liked. His death remains one of the most shocking political assassinations of the Renaissance, echoing through art, memory, and myth.
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