573. The Medici: Lorenzo the Magnificent (Part 2)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Episode 573. The Medici: Lorenzo the Magnificent (Part 2)
The Rest Is History hosted by Goalhanger
Release Date: June 11, 2025

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Introduction

In the second installment of the Medici series, hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook delve deeper into the life of Lorenzo de Medici, unraveling the complexities behind his title, "Il Magnifico." This episode meticulously examines Lorenzo's ascent to power, his extravagant lifestyle, and the infamous Pazzi Conspiracy that nearly dismantled his reign.

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Lorenzo de Medici: Rise to Power

Born on January 1, 1449, in Florence, Lorenzo de Medici was the son of Piero de Medici and Lucrezia Tornabuoni. Dominic begins by highlighting Lorenzo's illustrious lineage and the significant influence of his mother, a talented poet and patron of the arts (05:17). Lorenzo received a classical Humanist education, immersing himself in Latin, Aristotle, and Plato, preparing him for a future in politics.

Upon the death of his grandfather, Cosimo de Medici, Piero assumed leadership of the Medici family. Piero, despite his ill health—suffering from gout and arthritis—demonstrated remarkable political acumen by quelling opposition through force, ensuring the Medici's continued dominance in Florence (09:07).

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Lorenzo's Extravagance and Patronage

Lorenzo inherited a flourishing yet overextended Medici Bank. Unlike his predecessors, he was more interested in the arts and personal pleasures than in managing finances. Dominic criticizes Lorenzo's financial mismanagement, citing historian Mary Hollingsworth's view that Lorenzo's "greed and inexperience" marked the beginning of the Medici's decline (28:10).

Despite financial strains, Lorenzo was a renowned patron of the arts. He sponsored artists like Sandro Botticelli and enjoyed organizing grand tournaments and extravagant parties. One notable event was the 1469 tournament celebrating his betrothal to Clarice Orsini, characterized by lavish costumes and excessive spectacle (18:07).

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The Pazzi Conspiracy: A Godfather-Style Plot

Lorenzo’s growing influence and extravagant spending alienated powerful factions within Florence, notably the Pazzi family, an older and more prestigious banking dynasty. The Pazzi, led by Jacopo de Pazzi, sought to undermine the Medici's power. The conspiracy gained momentum after Pope Sixtus IV, initially an ally, shifted his support to the Pazzi due to financial disputes over alum mines (33:21).

On April 26, 1478, the Pazzi orchestrated a brutal assassination attempt during High Mass at the Florence Cathedral. The plan was to kill both Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano simultaneously. However, only Giuliano was killed, while Lorenzo narrowly escaped with his life by defending himself and fleeing the cathedral (46:36).

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Aftermath and Public Backlash

The failed assassination plunged Florence into chaos. The Medici loyalists swiftly retaliated, leading to the gruesome execution of the Pazzi conspirators. Dominic recounts the harrowing scenes within Florence, including the public display and brutal punishment of the Pazzi family members (50:30). This act solidified Lorenzo's power but also intensified his conflict with Pope Sixtus IV, who excommunicated Lorenzo and allied with other Italian states against him (54:07).

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Lorenzo's Struggle and Decision

Facing mounting external threats and internal dissent, Florence endured economic hardship and civil unrest. By December 1479, Lorenzo faced imminent invasion by Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, leading him to make a dramatic decision. He chose to surrender himself to his enemies, hoping to secure peace for Florence, marking a significant turning point in his leadership and the Medici legacy (57:00).

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Conclusion and Teasers for Future Episodes

Tom and Dominic conclude the episode by reflecting on Lorenzo's legacy, emphasizing the delicate balance between patronage and political power. They tease upcoming episodes that will explore further developments in the Medici saga, including Lorenzo's eventual restoration and the family's rise to ducal status.

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Notable Quotes

• Antonio Maffei’s Speech:
  "You have strayed and sacrificed your liberty to that wretch Lorenzo de Medici. You are puppets, enslaved by purse strings..." (02:04)

• Lorenzo’s Reflection on Power:
  "I did it solely to protect my friends and possessions, for it fares ill in Florence for anyone who is rich and does not control the state." (21:09)

• Dominic on Lorenzo’s Financial Decisions:
  "This is when the rot started. A depressing tale of greed and inexperienced from which the Medici brand never really recovered." (28:10)

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Insights and Analysis

The episode underscores the volatile nature of Renaissance politics, where banking prowess, personal alliances, and brute force intertwined to shape Florence's destiny. Lorenzo's transformation from a patron of the arts to a politically targetable figure illustrates the inherent risks of wielding immense power without robust financial oversight.

Moreover, the Pazzi Conspiracy serves as a stark reminder of the fragile alliances and the lethal consequences of political rivalry during this era. The brutal retaliation by the Medici loyalists not only eliminated the Pazzi threat but also cemented Lorenzo's authority, albeit at the cost of deepening his enmity with the Papacy.

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Conclusion

Episode 573 offers a vivid portrayal of Lorenzo de Medici's complex character and the tumultuous events that defined his tenure as the leader of Florence. Through engaging storytelling and expert analysis, Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook provide listeners with a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between art, power, and politics in Renaissance Italy.

For those intrigued by Lorenzo’s story and eager to learn about the dramatic aftermath, including the arrival of a giraffe which promises to be a fascinating highlight, joining The Rest Is History club is recommended.

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Timestamps Reference

• Early Conspiracy Discussion: 02:04
• Piero’s Leadership and Health: 09:07
• Lorenzo's Marriage and Lifestyle: 18:07
• Pazzi Conspiracy Details: 33:21
• Assassination Attempt: 46:36
• Public Backlash and Aftermath: 50:30
• Lorenzo’s Surrender: 57:00
• Notable Quotes: 02:04, 21:09, 28:10

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For more detailed insights and upcoming episodes, visit theresthistory.com and consider joining the exclusive club for additional content.

Transcript

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Thank you for listening to the Rest Is History. For weekly bonus episodes, ad free listening, early access to series and membership of our much loved chat community, go to thereestishory.com and join the club that is thereestishistory.com.

[Tom Holland]

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[Dominic Sandbrook]

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[Tom Holland]

Citizens of San Gimignano, heed well my words. You must repent. Repent and seek forgiveness for your wicked ways have incurred the wrath of a demon summoned by your sins. He now walks our world cloaked in shadow and darkness, and everywhere he treads, death follows.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Why, you ask?

[Tom Holland]

Because you have strayed and sacrificed your liberty to that wretch Lorenzo de Medici. You are puppets, enslaved by purse strings, won over by poisonous words. You have lost your virtue. You have lost your dignity. You have lost your faith. And this draws the demons in to feed. And feed they will. So that was a priest called Antonio Maffei addressing the people of San Gimignano in Tuscany. And it is a speech that follows one of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the Renaissance, perhaps indeed in all Italian history. And that is the Pazzi conspiracy, which was a plot to murder Lorenzo the Magnificent, who is head of the Medici family. During high mass in the cathedral, the Duomo in Florence on the 26th of April, 1478. And people alert to the nuances and rhetorical rhythms of Florentine rhetoric in the 15th century, maybe wondering whether that speech was actually made by Antonio Maffei or whether it was made up very possibly, for a computer game. So, Dominic, what's the answer? Because that doesn't sound genuine to me.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

It's not genuine, Tom. It's a scene from the video game Assassin's Creed 2, which I heartily recommend to the listeners. A brilliant game set in Medici Florence. In reality, Maffei, who definitely existed and plays a big part in this story, he was in no condition to give such a speech since he had just gone under the knife in a peculiarly excruciating way.

[Tom Holland]

Oh, so this is delivered after he's gone under the knife?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

No, I think they cut in the game, him going under the knife.

[Tom Holland]

Okay. Because in which case I should have done it in a slightly higher pitched voice.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

You should indeed. But we'll give that moment it's due, Tom. Don't worry.

[Tom Holland]

Okay. Something for listeners to look forward to.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Exactly. The fact that this moment plays a part in a bestselling video game tells you, I guess, something about the enduring reputation of Lorenzo the Magnificent. You know, by any historical standards, he is a figure of extraordinary glamour and romance. He is the embodiment of Renaissance Florence at its peak. Now, last time, in the last episode, we looked at the foundations of Medici power in Florence, and in particular, Lorenzo's grandfather, Cosimo. And today we're going to look at Lorenzo himself behind the myths of his magnificence. And we will concentrate particularly on the story of the Pazzi conspiracy, this amazing kind of Godfather 2 style conspiracy that almost destroys him. So, shall we start with Lorenzo himself?

[Tom Holland]

Why not?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah, I know you'd love that. So he was born on the 1st of January, 1449 in Florence. His father was Piero de Medici, who is the son of Cosimo, who we talked about last time. And Piero is being groomed to succeed his own father as head of the Medici political network. Lorenzo's mother. Now, we haven't actually had any women in the story, really, at all, so it's nice to have one. His mother is called Lucrezia Tornabuoni, and she came from a rich, patrician family, and she was a remarkable person, actually. She's very religious, she's very keen on the arts. She is a poet in her own right. She writes hymns, she writes verse translations of the Bible.

[Tom Holland]

She sounds brilliant.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah, she is brilliant. Everybody said Lucrezia Tornabuoni is a very, very accomplished and impressive woman.

[Tom Holland]

There was the other one who was jolly and fat in the previous episode.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Contesina. Yes. Who's his grandmother. Fat and capable and cheerful, I think, was the description.

[Tom Holland]

So what about Lucrezia? Is she.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

She's not fat, she's capable.

[Tom Holland]

Is she jolly?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

I think if you're writing verse translations of the Bible, by definition you're not jolly, surely. Necessarily so. Lorenzo has three sisters and he has a younger brother called Giuliano. And Giuliano will return in this story in a thrillingly blood stained way. So Lorenzo is said to be a very ungainly boy, but he's good at sports, Tom, which will please you. And he's very clever. And he has the classic kind of mid 15th century Humanist education from his private tutors.

[Tom Holland]

Classical, you might say, classical education.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Loads of Latin, loads of Aristotle, loads of Plato. Now, because people are getting really excited about Plato. And by the time he's 15, his family are already training him for a life in politics. He's being sent on diplomatic missions to Pisa, to Milan, of course, Florence's big ally, to Bologna, to Naples and so on. When he's 17, in 1466, he goes to meet the Pope Paul II to Rome to discuss something that is going to again play a part in this story. Something that matters a lot to the Medici Empire, which is they have a concession for alum mines in a place called Tolfer. Alum is a kind of mineral, a mineral salts that you use for dyeing and you make a lot of money from it. And this mine is really important for the Medici and as you will see, its importance has consequences.

[Tom Holland]

And why is the Pope into this?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

The alum mines at Tolfer are in the Papal States, so they're under the Pope's kind of jurisdiction. He's granted the Medici a concession. Right now, by this time, his life has already changed because his grandfather Cosimo, the godfather of the family business, has died of his gout. So that's where we ended last time. Now, Cosimo, as people will remember, is not a duke, he's not a prince or a king. He is the de facto ruler of Florence because he's the head of the bank and he's the head of the political network. So when he dies, Cosimo, it's not actually guaranteed that Medici influence will continue.

[Tom Holland]

Because, I guess, I mean, we compared him to Augustus in the previous episode.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yes.

[Tom Holland]

And Augustus has this kind of officially voted Raft of powers, doesn't he? But Cosimo doesn't have that. It's much more shadowy for him.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yes.

[Tom Holland]

And so it's a question of can he maintain the bonds, the dues, the networks.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Exactly. The person who succeeds is Lorenzo's father, Piero. He is accepted pretty smoothly as the new head of the family. But is he really up to it? You know, Piero is 48 years old at this point, and he's a bit of a wreck, to be honest. He has massive eczema, he has arthritis, and he, of course, he has this gout. So actually, people call him Il Gotoso the Gouty. He's known as Piero the Gouty. He looks very unappealing. He has massively swollen glands. His eyelids droop, so he appears to be constantly asleep. But actually, he's a smart guy.

[Tom Holland]

You see, I had always kind of imagined him as Jeremy Strong.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

No.

[Tom Holland]

And I realized that that's because he's playing a role slightly analogous to Jeremy Strong's character in succession.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

No, he's much more impressive than Kendall Roy. Yes, he looks very sleepy, but he's always thinking. And he's a methodical. He's a famously methodical banker. So actually, I think he's a reasonably impressive person.

[Tom Holland]

So he's underplayed in the historical record.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

I think he's underplayed exactly because he's head of the family for only four and a half years, so he's easily forgotten. And it's not smooth sailing, actually. So when he takes over, he asks for a report. He says, right, I want to have a report on the. The family finances, on the state of the Medici Bank. And he is shocked to find out that they have overextended themselves a bit. There's a lot of turbulence in Northern Europe and they basically loan too much money. And he says, right, we should cut back on credit to some of these big spenders. Actually, people like Edward iv, King of.

[Tom Holland]

England, he's a massive spender, isn't he?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Massive spender, very extravagant. Or the Dukes of Burgundy. And he says, we've also loaned too much money to the Florentine elite. Let's call in some of these loans. But actually, calling in the loans means that some of the Florentine elite go bankrupt. And this triggers a bit of a crash in Florence itself. So there's an economic crash. There's then a split in the Medici party. Some of the old guards say, oh, Piero's. What's he canceling all the loans for? This is terrible. And this comes to a head in the summer of 1466. Actually, you mentioned succession. It's a very succession scene. So the sort of hangers on of the Roy family in succession. They're all called Karl or whatever, these kind of old guys, these people in the Medici story say Piero's not up to it and they call for an end to Medici domination and they say, let's go back to the old free republican system. And Piero shows that despite his gout, he does have the backbone, he does have his father's ruthlessness, because he immediately spends a load of money bringing in troops from Milan. He raises a private army of mercenaries, he brings them into the center of the city the day before the Signoria elections and the opposition kind of panic and crumble. The elections go his way, they're banished from Rome and Piero is able to cement his power.

[Tom Holland]

You've got to say that being a senior banker in 15th century Florence Sounds a lot more dramatic and fun than maybe being one today.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah. It's not just sort of VIP tickets to Wimbledon.

[Tom Holland]

No. It's eliminating your enemies by bringing in paid mercenaries.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Who wouldn't want to do that? Everyone loves that. But actually, this is the side of the Medici story, you see, that we often miss, because people think it's all kind of fancy palaces and Renaissance paintings, like a thousand or more different versions of the Annunciation. But actually, what you miss is the kind of armed intimidation, the election rigging, the sort of political gangster sort of mafia politics, I think, to some degree.

[Tom Holland]

And that's the aspect you admire.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

That's the aspect I like. I can take or leave some of these paintings of, you know, the Annunciation and whatnot. They're all the same, ultimately.

[Tom Holland]

What have you got against the Annunciation?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

I just think there's so many of them.

[Tom Holland]

Oh, you can never have too many. Or indeed the Adoration of the Magi. They're very keen on that as well.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah, exactly. So I was in Florence a few months ago and Tabby, our assistant producer, said, how's it going? And I just said, listen, if I see another painting, Annunciation, I'm going to go mad.

[Tom Holland]

But what if it's an Adoration of the Magi with a giraffe?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Well, we'll come on to the giraffe later on. But the art is part of the story because, like, Cosimo Piero was very keen on artistic patronage. He spent a lot of money on coins, stuff for churches.

[Tom Holland]

Brilliant.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

I love him on manuscripts. He was a big fan of Donatello. We Talked about Donatello last time, the sculptor. When he died, Piero paid for him to be buried next to Cosimo, next to his father.

[Tom Holland]

Wasn't Donatello a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

He absolutely was.

[Tom Holland]

That'll mean nothing to most of our listeners who are all under the age of 15.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

No, but it means something to me, Tom. And it's Piero who actually promotes a young painter called Sandro Botticelli. So he was a tanner's son, and he gets Botticelli to actually come and live in the Palazzo Medici and treats him as one of the family. And if you go to the Uffizi Gallery, you mentioned the Adoration of the Magi, Botticelli's painting of that. In the painting are Cosimo and Piero, and one of the young men on the right is the young Lorenzo the Magnificent. And you know what this reminds me of?

[Tom Holland]

What?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Our appearance as donkeys in.

[Tom Holland]

Oh, yeah. Malcolm Price's novel.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

The Welsh noir novels of Malcolm Price. Yeah. So anyway, Lorenzo. So Piero the Gauti is the boss, is the new godfather, and he's pushing Lorenzo forward. And one of the elements of pushing him forward is they have to get him a wife. So he's 18 and Piero and Lucrezia are looking for a wife for him. The fact that they're looking for a wife when he's only 18, which is young by Florentine standards, is a sign that they are beginning to rank themselves alongside the kind of the princes and the aristocratic families of Europe, because princes get married young.

[Tom Holland]

But to remind a point made in the previous episode in Florence, if you're a member of the aristocracy, you can't run for office.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Right? Exactly.

[Tom Holland]

So is this starting to change? By this point, I mean the Medici have reaching a point where they don't have to worry about this or what's going on.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

They can't become aristocrats. They want to live like aristocrats and they want aristocrats abroad to treat them like aristocrats.

[Tom Holland]

Right.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

So it's very telling. Lorenzo's bride will be a foreign noblewoman, a young woman called Clarice Orsini. She's 16 years old. She's an heiress from Rome. Her family have big estates near Naples. Lucrezia goes off to Rome to meet her and inspect her at Mass at St Peter's and she reports back, she says to Clarice, she's all right, she's got a round face and red hair, and I quote, she's tall and not unattractive. Her face is not pretty. But it is not common and her figure is good altogether. I think the girl is a good deal above the average.

[Tom Holland]

So it's kind of 15th century hinge.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah, it's. Now, what about Lorenzo? Is Lorenzo a catch? Well, people say Lorenzo looks a little bit unconventional. He has long, dark, shoulder length hair.

[Tom Holland]

Does he?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

He has a long broken looking nose. He has a kind of jutting jaw and a kind of glowering, angry brow. And his voice, we're told, is nasal and high pitched. And when I read those words, Tom, you know who I thought of?

[Tom Holland]

I know exactly who you thought of. And he's listening in as we record this right now.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

I thought of Theo Young Smith, the producer of the Rest Is History, because of course we're also told that Lorenzo was very charming and energetic and clever. And the parallels are uncanny. It is Theo, they really are.

[Tom Holland]

Although Lorenzo has slightly grander taste in clothes than Theo, doesn't he?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

You don't rate Theo's jewelry and stuff?

[Tom Holland]

No.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Oh, tash.

[Tom Holland]

Theo looks like he's just coming off the street. Whereas you'd never say that of Lorenzo.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

I can't believe you've gone there, Tom, but you have. Theo, please remember who it was who said. Who praised you as charming and clever and who said you look like somebody off the street. So anyway, Lorenzo marries this Clarice. I was about to say it's not a great love affair, although they do have 10 children. But he's not faithful. He has mistresses, whatever.

[Tom Holland]

Well, he's the Magnificent, isn't he?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah. Do what he likes.

[Tom Holland]

That's the kind of thing, if you call the Magnificent, that's going to happen.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

What does he like doing? How does he spend his time? He loves a bit of sport. He plays a kind of football.

[Tom Holland]

So again, like Theo, who's very good at football.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah. But he plays a calcio fiorentino, which is 27 players on each team. I think it's too many. He plays a kind of fives called Palloni. Now he loves a prank and a joke. Not quite at the standard we're used to on the show, though. Peter the Great or sort of Augustus the Strong or Charles XII standard. Yeah.

[Tom Holland]

But you see, the thing is, I think that their japes are quite menacing. You wouldn't want to be caught up in, you know, something involving bellows or bears or anything like that.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

No, that's not the raceless fire. But tell me what you think of this tasteful prank. So they were all out drinking with some friends like Theo, with Paul Rouse in Dublin one of their friends, who was a doctor, got absolutely wasted and basically when he passed out, they bundled him off to the country, they locked him in a farmhouse. Then they went back to Florence and spread a rumor that he was dead. When he escaped and went home, his wife shrieked, thought he was a ghost who wouldn't let him in. What do you think of that?

[Tom Holland]

I see. I think that's great.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah, it's great banter.

[Tom Holland]

Well, I think it's very. Very Renaissance Florence. Appropriate. Because it's like a short story from Boccaccio or something.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah, it is, exactly. It is.

[Tom Holland]

Whereas if they had kind of mated him with a bear or something like that, that would be inappropriate.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

I don't think we've ever had a moment of human bear relations in that way on the show, have we?

[Tom Holland]

Yeah, but, you know, I mean, that's obviously where it's heading.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah.

[Tom Holland]

So I like that. I like that.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Anyway, Lorenzo also like Theo. He loves music. He loves songs and poems. I think this is unlike Theo. He dabbles in architectural drawing, which I'm not aware of as a young Smith. Hobby. On the downside, actually, very light theory. He's really competitive. Whenever he loses something, he has a massive tantrum. So I think that's a black mark. Yeah.

[Tom Holland]

That is like Theo, isn't it?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

But he loves a party. So the most famous is they had this massive tournament in the Piazza Santa Croce in 1469 to celebrate his betrothal to Clerice. It was the most glamorous tournament anyone could remember. It cost 10,000 ducats. They all had these fancy helmets. He was wearing a white, scarlet and silk cape, a velvet surcoat, a silk scarf embroidered with roses and a black velvet cap. And he wore a helmet with three tall blue feathers.

[Tom Holland]

I mean, that is not Theo.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

He looked very camp, I would think.

[Tom Holland]

Theo does not dress in a camp manner.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

No, but he was declared the winner. He was actually not very good at fighting, but he was declared the winner anyway, basically because he bought the title. And then they have the wedding, which is a gigantic blowout. Remember we did that episode with John Dickey about Italian food?

[Tom Holland]

Yes.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Mad Italian food.

[Tom Holland]

Yeah. All kind of weird combinations.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Right. So it's been like calf's liver stuffed with marzipan, a jelly made of a goose, all this kind of like weird sugared lamb or something like that. They have all this.

[Tom Holland]

That's what they're having at this.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah. And 300 barrels of wine. However, there is a bad omen. It rains so heavily on the wedding morning that everybody Gets completely soaked and all their lovely dresses are ruined.

[Tom Holland]

What about Lorenzo's feathers?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Droopy, probably. Drooping, disconsolate. Could this be an omen of disaster? Maybe. Because Piero the goiter's health, a few weeks afterwards, takes a turn for the worse. And on 2 December 1469, Piero dies at his country villa in the hills above Florence. So he's done a solid job. Piero, he's only been there four and a half years, but he's weathered the kind of a bit of protest. He strengthened the families links with Milan and with Naples. But the question is, what will happen to the Medici bank and the Medici network now?

[Tom Holland]

Because I would say he's done more than a solid job. Because what effectively he's done is to establish the idea of heredity in the context of, yes, you know, a republic. That's pretty impressive.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

I think I agree with you. And the proof of that is what happens next. So the night before Piero's funeral, the Medici loyalists hold a meeting at the convent of Sant Antonio. And it's a very Godfather scene because they all gather and the chief voice is this elderly Medici crony called Tommaso Soderini. That's so brilliant. Tommy, Tommy. Tommy Soderini is going to give his verdict. He's an old associate of Cosimo's and he says, give the boy his chance.

[Tom Holland]

That's so good.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

And everybody kind of agrees. And they say to Lorenzo, will you take on the care of the state? And he says, oh, I'm very reluctant. I would hate to do it. But obviously he's gagging to do it and he says he'll do it. And he wrote later on, he said, I did it solely to protect my friends and possessions, for it fares ill in Florence for anyone who is rich and does not control the state.

[Tom Holland]

I mean, that's such a telling phrase, isn't it?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah. There might be an element of truth in that you're targets. And if you're not in charge, they will come for you.

[Tom Holland]

You'll be brought down.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

You'll be brought down. Now, he's already written to the Duke of Milan to secure his support. That gives him the muscle that he needs. And so, at the age of not yet 21, Lorenzo de Medici assumes control of the bank, of the family and of the fortunes of Florence. At Tom, in the shadows, the knives are glinting.

[Tom Holland]

Oh, my goodness, Dominic. And if the knives are glinting, then that suggests that after the break, conspirators will be striking. But which conspirators and who will they be striking at? We will find out after the break. This is an ad from BetterHelp.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

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[Tom Holland]

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[Dominic Sandbrook]

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[Tom Holland]

BetterHelp has supported over 5 million people worldwide. Finding someone who fits doesn't feel like guesswork.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Talk it out with BetterHelp. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com restishory that's better. H E L p.com restishory this episode is brought to you by Buffalo Trace Distillery. Powerful, yet smooth. Contained, but never tame. Proudly going their own way, but never going alone. This is the spirit inside Buffalo Trace Bourbon made at Buffalo Trace Distillery, the world's most award winning distillery. Buffalo Trace is always perfectly untamed. Distilled, aged and bottled by Buffalo Trace Distinction distillery, Franklin County, Kentucky. 90 proof, 45% alcohol by volume. Learn more@buffalotrace distillery.com Please drink responsibly. Hello, I'm Gordon Carrera, national security journalist.

[C]

And I'm David McCloskey, CIA analyst turned spy novelist.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Together we're the co hosts of another goal hanger show called the Rest is Classified where we bring you the best stories from the world of secrets and Spartans.

[C]

We have just released a series on the decades long battle between the CIA and Osama Bin Laden. And this week we are stepping into the devastation of the 911 terror attacks to understand how Osama Bin Laden was able to carry out such a plot right under the nose of the CIA.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

It was a moment that changed global politics forever shifting the focus of spy agencies away from nation states towards hunting for terrorists and understanding the extremist ICE ideology that drove them.

[C]

We will then go into the decade long manhunt for Osama Bin Laden which culminated in a dramatic raid at his compound in Pakistan in 2011 which killed the world's most wanted terrorist.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

So if all of this sounds good, we've got a clip waiting for you at the end of the episode.

[Tom Holland]

Hello and welcome back to the Rest Is History. And dominic. It is December 1469, and Lorenzo de Medici, only 20 years old, has become head of the Medici family and therefore the Master of Florence. But I suppose the huge question is, you know, is he up to it?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Well, Cosimo and Piero were much older and more experienced when they took power. They were famously cautious and calculating. Everybody says about Lorenzo, he's inexperienced, but he's also impulsive. He has absolutely no interest in banking. And this is a problem. And it will become a bigger problem for his successors. Basically, they've inherited a family business in which they are no longer terribly interested. He's good at writing poetry, he's good at playing football, he's good at playing music and playing pranks, but he's never actually run anything. And in the long run, as we will see, this is a problem for him and for the Medici family.

[Tom Holland]

And this is, again, a kind of classic business story, isn't it?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Of course it is, yeah. Absolutely. It is.

[Tom Holland]

The grandfather, the father, very calculating, and then the son who kind of blows it all, has an expensive education and can't be bothered with what's actually made the money.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

And actually, the tone is set right away. So right away, there's sort of a lot of feasting and dancing. I think there's a slightly camp side to Lorenzo, as we discussed before.

[Tom Holland]

You've written Lorenzo's slightly camp hey nonny nonny way.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah. I think there's a lot of capering. Do you not think?

[Tom Holland]

Yeah. To a lute.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah. There's a lot of loop work and a lot of capering and laughing.

[Tom Holland]

A lot of tights.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah. Laughing excessively at slightly amusing jokes. I think there's a lot of that. And there's all these horse races and mock battles. Lorenzo particularly enjoys a jake with an animal, which is a real theme of history, as we've discovered on this podcast. So he turns the Piazza della Signoria into this sort of circus. So they'll have people attacking boars with lances, they'll try to stage fights between lions and dogs. And the weirdest one, I think, is basically they fill the square with stallions and then they set loose a mare in the square and the stallions all went absolutely berserk. And a diarist writing at the time said, and I quote, it was the most marvellous entertainment for girls to behold.

[Tom Holland]

Nice.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

So I don't know whether Tabby would agree with that.

[Tom Holland]

I mean, again, there's an obvious kind of slight Roman echo there.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

No, definitely the pillar work in Florence.

[Tom Holland]

That is going into the Medici palace. And so on is drawn from the Colosseum. And the Colosseum obviously serves no purpose because they're not staging beast fights, but it's obviously on the Medici radar. So perhaps there's something like that going on.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

I think so.

[Tom Holland]

And again, just to flag up what I think is the. The single most exciting event in the whole story of the Medici is the arrival of a giraffe. But I think that's in the next episode, isn't it?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

I think that's in the next episode, but that's coming.

[Tom Holland]

So that's also part of this Roman style obsession with animals and things.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

If you're a member of the rest of his history club and you're into giraffes, you can skip the rest of this episode about the conspiracy, go straight to the giraffe. But most people obviously should listen to this episode first. So why is Lorenzo so extravagant? I think because unlike his father and his grandfather, he is desperate to be considered a prince. Now, his nickname, Il Magnifico the Magnificent, we think that's because he was so great, he was so glorious. No, that is wrong. It is a standard honorific that was given to rich merchants and to the heads of families.

[Tom Holland]

Right, so he's not a principe.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

No. So every time he is called Il Magnifico, that is a reminder of his sort of subordinate status.

[Tom Holland]

He's silver class, not gold class.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Exactly, exactly. And here's the thing. This is the big difference between him and his father and grandfather. They lent money, he borrows it. He trades on the bank's reputation to start borrowing money to fund his lifestyle. So he borrowed 61,000 florins from his cousin. He borrowed 10,000 florins from the Duke of Milan. And remember, the whole thing about the alliance with Milan was that the Medici bank was bankrolling Milan. Now it's the other way around. He's borrowing money now. He said, later on, you know, I don't regret it. I think the money was well spent and I'm well pleased. But more caustic. Historians of the Medici family, like Mary Hollingsworth in her book, say this is when the rot started. I mean, she basically paints him. It's a great book, actually, her book. She paints him as this arrogant, spoiled, super rich kid who blew his inheritance. She says, quote, a depressing tale of greed and inexperienced from which the Medici brand never really recovered.

[Tom Holland]

Just to present the counter argument, I mean, the fact that he is still thought of as the embodiment of Renaissance prince right up to the present Day. And the fact that, spoiler alert, the Medici, in due course, will establish themselves as the Dukes of Florence.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah.

[Tom Holland]

Surely that suggests that to a degree, he's right in saying that by presenting himself as a princely figure, he's able to elevate his descendants to the actual rank of princes.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Possibly. Although there were an awful lot of twists and turns before we get to that point. I mean, there are a couple of generations, there are periods of exile and whatnot. I mean, you could argue that in the long run, would it have been better for them to be remained in the shadows and piled up the money? That's what I would have done, Tom. I don't need a fancy helmet with feathers on it. I'd rather have the money. This is perhaps where you and I differ.

[Tom Holland]

All I will say is that we're going to be doing a series on Mary Queen of Scots at a Medici will be featuring in that story as a queen of France. So.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

So they did do well in the end.

[Tom Holland]

They do do well.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Now, some listeners may be a bit surprised to hear anybody criticizing Lorenzo, because basically, as in the Assassin's Creed video game, he's usually treated as thoroughly admirable. But, of course, you're not thoroughly admirable if you're wielding power in Renaissance Italy. You know, a saint doesn't wield such power. And his chief ally, I mean, it's a really good example of this. His chief ally is the Duke of Milan, Galeazzo Maria Sforza. He's a patron of the arts, he's a complete Renaissance man, but he's also a complete psycho.

[Tom Holland]

Is this the son of the guy who was bending iron bars in the previous episode?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

It is his son, Francesco's son. And Galeazzo Maria Sforza, he's a pungent character, I think it's fair to say. Tom, do you want to know what he got up to?

[Tom Holland]

Yeah, I'd love to.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

I quote, he raped the wives and daughters of numerous Milanese nobles. He took sadistic pleasure in devising tortures for men who offended him. He supervised these tortures himself and pulled their limbs apart with his own bare hands. And he delighted in the moans of dying men and sight of corpses.

[Tom Holland]

So this is very much the English Renaissance sense of what Italian princes are getting up to, isn't it?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Exactly, yeah. The black legend of the Italian Renaissance, if such a thing existed. And actually, you may say, well, obviously this is exaggerated in propaganda, but to be a Renaissance magnate, you have to behave in pretty grim ways. And Lorenzo himself is a good example. Remember we talked about that alum mine?

[Tom Holland]

Oh, yes.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

So in 1472, Lorenzo becomes involved with another alum mine. This is in Volterra, just south of Florence. Now, this is a town that is under Florentine control, where the locals have discovered a load of alum and they've developed a mine. The problem for Lorenzo is that Volterra's alum is cheaper than the alum made by the Medici controlled mine near Rome. And so basically, there's a big dispute about control of the Volterra consortium. He uses Florentine troops to go in and teach Volterra a lesson and bring it into his orbit. And the Volterrans are completely helpless. And the result is an unbridled massacre. Lorenzo's mercenaries run amok in Volterra. They rampage through the town for 12 hours. They loot all the shops, they kill hundreds of people. There is mass rape. It is a horrendous story. Now, afterwards, Lorenzo says, oh, that's such a shame. I'm so sad that that went a little bit too far. I feel so guilty about it. But actually, I think even at the time, people thought, this is very disingenuous of him. You know, he basically unleashed his mercenaries on this town for his own financial.

[Tom Holland]

Gain and also to enhance his reputation as a man. It's dangerous to cross, I assume.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Right. But the problem with doing that is that if there are other powerful people, they may say, you've crossed a line and now we're going to move against you. And there are other powerful people in Florence, because the Medici are not the only powerful banking family. There is another family called the Pazzi. Now, the Pazzi are an older and more prestigious family than the Medici. So one of their ancestors, Tom, this will appeal to you, had gone on the First Crusade and he brought back some stone flints from the altar of the Holy Sepulchre.

[Tom Holland]

Oh, I'm definitely team patsy.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Right, well, the patsy trade on this. They bring them out, I think, something like every Easter and kind of parade around the city with them and people are weeping with joy and all this. I don't want to sound dismissive, but you know my views on relics. So the patsy have got a big banking network of their own. They've got offices in Florence and in Rome and in Avignon, Valencia and all these places. And the head of the Pazzi family is not like Lorenzo at all. He's called Jacopo de Pazzi. He's in his mid-50s. He's simultaneously, I think, an interesting combination. He's Both a miser and a gambler. He's very competitive and you get this sense, I think maybe this is my sort of romantic imagination, that he is watching Lorenzo with the cold eyes of a predator all the time.

[Tom Holland]

I like the sound of him. He's got relics. He's in his mid-50s, intensely competitive.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah, he's like you.

[Tom Holland]

He's quite like me.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Cold eyes of a predator.

[Tom Holland]

Cold eyes of a predator. Exactly.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

But let's see who this man reminds you of. There's another ruthless character who's watching Lorenzo very closely. And this is a man called Francesco Del Rovere, or rather Pope Sixtus iv. So Pope Sixtus IV came from a fishing town in Liguria. He's a bit of a self made man. He has climbed the ecclesiastical ladder to win the papacy. He's very clever, but he's a complete bruiser. So Christopher Hibbert, who's very good at these pen portraits, calls him a big, gruff, toothless man with a massive head, a small squashed nose and an intimidating expression.

[Tom Holland]

Goodness, I can't think who that reminds me of.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

I think he's a bit like the Emperor Vespasian.

[Tom Holland]

A bit, yeah.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Now, he's incredibly corrupt, even by papal standards. So that I can now bring out my inner Thomas Cromwell. He's handing out offices to his family. He makes six of his nephews cardinals.

[Tom Holland]

But if he genuinely thought that they were worthy of it, I don't see what the problem is.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

I'm sure he did think that. Yeah, I'm sure. They're genuinely really kind of upstanding religious people. Now, at first, he confirmed the Medici as the papal bankers and he actually sent Lorenzo some presents. He sends him busts of Augustus and Agrippa.

[Tom Holland]

No better present than that.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

You know, those choices are a sign of Lorenzo. Lorenzo is following in Cosimo's footsteps at this point. Right, yeah. Cosimo admired Augustus, but then they have a massive falling out in 1473. Sixtus had a favorite nephew who he hadn't made to cardinal yet, called Girolamo Riario, who is described as, and I quote, a fat, uncouth, rowdy young man. And everybody says this bloke Riario is actually the Pope's son. He's not really his nephew, he's his son.

[Tom Holland]

Right.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Riario wanted to buy the town of Imola.

[Tom Holland]

He's a fan of Formula one.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Formula one exactly has a key strategic location on the road from Bologna. And Sixtus said to the Medici bank, could you lend us the money, please, to buy this town of Imola. Now, Lorenzo was horrified at this. He wanted Imola for Florence. There was no way he was going to let it fall into somebody else's hands. And he turns down the loan. The Pope is furious. Who does the Pope turn to for the money? He turns to the Pazzi bank and Jacopo gave him the money. A year later, in the summer of 1474, Sixtus got his revenge on the Medici. He stripped them of the Papal account and gave it to the Pazzi. And then as the new Archbishop of Pisa, which was in Florentine control, he appointed Jacopo de Pazzi's cousin, Francesco Salviati. Remember him? This bloke, Salviati. Lorenzo was obviously very offended by this. He could see that this was a massive snub, that the Pazzi were being advanced.

[Tom Holland]

And Lorenzo, how old is he at this point?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

He's born in 1449, so he's 27, Tom. Because we're now approaching the end of 1476. Now there's a sense in which things are turning against him. The Pope has turned against him. And then on Boxing Day, he gets terrible news from Milan. His friend, Galeazzo Maria Schwarzer, the psycho, he has been assassinated on his way to mass and his son is only seven. And there's a massive succession crisis in Milan. So Milan is now effectively out of the game. Lorenzo's biggest ally. And a few weeks later, three men meet in secret in Rome. One of them is Girolamo Riario, so he's the fat, rowdy papal nephew son. One of them is Francesco Salviati, the Pazzi cousin who has just been made the Archbishop of Pisa. And the other man is Francesco de Pazi and he is the manager of the Pazzi bank in Rome. And he is described as a young man of great arrogance and pretension. And these three men have met to discuss one thing and one thing only. And that is how to get rid of of Lorenzo de Medici.

[Tom Holland]

God, it's so Mafia, isn't it?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

So they have this meeting soon after that Francesco de Pazzi, the bank manager, who's basically brains behind all this, he asks for a meeting with one of Rome's most hard bitten mercenary commanders. This is a man called Montesecco who has done a lot of dirty work for the papacy over the years. And Francesco de Pazzi says to him, I would like to hire you for an operation against the Medici. And Montesecco says, I'm not going to do anything without the Pope's approval. And Francesco says, great, because the Pope is already on Board. Now, Montesecco doesn't believe him, so they organize a meeting with Sixtus IV himself. And the Pope says he's quite elliptical. He says, obviously the last thing I would like to see is any killing.

[Tom Holland]

Heaven forfend.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

It would make me really sad if you killed. I'd be awful if you killed Lorenzo de Medici. I actually hate bloodshed and if Lorenzo was dead, I'd be very, very upset. However, I'd really like to see the back of Lorenzo. I really strongly desire to see this change. I want to see Lorenzo disappear from the picture in Florence. And obviously Montesecco gets the message. You know, Lorenzo has got to go and Popo probably doesn't really mind that much. So there's only one link in the chain left, and that is Jacopo de Pazzi, the head of the family, because.

[Tom Holland]

He'S a chill, calculating man, isn't he?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Exactly. Now he's a banker and he knows the costs of failure. When Montesecco the mercenary goes to see him, he says, I think this is a bad move. He says, quote, they're going to break their necks. I understand what is going on here better than they do. I don't want to hear any more about this. Montesecco says, look, the Pope is on board with this. We've got the money, we've got the muscle, we can do it. And Jacopo says, you know, it's so Godfather Part 2. He says, Fine, do it, but you can't just kill Lorenzo. You must kill his brother Giuliano, and you must do it at the same time. No slip ups. We have to get this right.

[Tom Holland]

Because the lesson from the previous episode is that if you're striking at the Medici, you've got to get rid of all of them.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Exactly. So the months pass while they're negotiating all this and finally we get to early 1478. They've toyed with various different schemes, but now they have what they think is the right opportunity. Another relative of the Pope, who's a young cardinal called Raffaele Riario, is going to visit Florence. Completely unrelated. And Lorenzo has organized a banquet for him. And they're like, right, the banquet is the time to strike. They make their plans and Montesecco basically stations his mercenary company in the villages outside Florence, ready to pour into the city at the crucial moment. But then they hear bad news. Giuliano, the brother, has an eye infection and he's probably not going to go to the banquet, so they can't do it there after all. They meet hurriedly to discuss the Position. They say, look, we've told so many people now, word is leaking out. Montesecco has brought his men to Tuscany. It's really now or never. And then one of them says, look, there is actually one more possibility. On Sunday 26 April, the Medici brothers are bound to go to High Mass in the cathedral with this young Cardinal Riario. This is the chance. This is the one place where the brothers are bound to be together. Why don't we strike there?

[Tom Holland]

The plan is to cut them down at mass, in front of the altar in a church? Yeah, in front of everybody. All the assembled clergy. How would the Pope react to this?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

We'll find out. I think the Pope could live with it. I mean, God's watching wherever they do it. Tom, let's be honest. It doesn't make any difference to God where it happens.

[Tom Holland]

I think it does make a difference to God where it happens. I don't think God would at all approve of people being murdered in front of the altar of the church.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

But you think God would be all right with it? It was like a public toilet or something. Fine, yeah, crack on.

[Tom Holland]

It's an interesting theological question, but I just generally think murdering people in cathedrals at high Mass is probably not.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

You don't approve of it?

[Tom Holland]

Not whether I approve of it, whether God approves of it. I just don't think God would approve of that. Going out on a theological limb there.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Okay, let's talk through the details of the plan. So, Francesco de Pazzi, a young, arrogant bank manager, he will kill Giuliano and he will be helped by an adventurer called Baroncelli, who owes the Pazzi lots of money and wants to basically wipe away the debt. So that's how they'll deal with Giuliano. Now, Lorenzo, the hard bitten mercenary Captain Montesecco will kill him. But actually, Montesecco is like you. He's in a terrible funk about doing this in a cathedral. He says, I can't do it. And actually he says explicitly, I can't do it because God will see it. See, he agrees with me. God wouldn't see it in a public toilet, but he would see it at the cathedral.

[Tom Holland]

I don't think that's what he's saying, Dominic.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

But there are two other candidates on hand, which is good news. And these are, and I quote, lean in. The best kind, the best kind of priests and the best kind of lean and bittered people. And these are called Bagnoni and Maffei. So the person we began with, the person from Assassin's Creed Two. Bagnoni is a Pazzi tutor. Maffei. Here's the thing. He is from Volterra, the place with the alum. Mine.

[Tom Holland]

Yeah. Where they've all been massacred.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

He hates Lorenzo for what he did to his town. And this is what they agree. The signal will be when the sacristy bell rings at the point in the service where the priest elevates the host before communion.

[Tom Holland]

God, this is just getting more and more sacrilegious.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Oh, it's brilliant. So this is an unmissable signal. And crucially, at that moment, when the bell rings, the whole congregation, including the Medici brothers, will have bowed their heads in reverence. So they'll kill them then. And then the bloke is the Archbishop of Pisa, Salviati. He will seize the Palazzo della Signore with the armed mercenaries. He'll take the Florentine government prisoner. He'll crush resistance and the Pazzi will control the city. It's a great plan.

[Tom Holland]

I mean, this is not good archiepiscopal behaviour.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

No, it's not. But it is a fun plan.

[Tom Holland]

I suppose it is. I suppose that's the genius of it. It's the last thing they would expect from an archbishop.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Exactly. If an archbishop and two embittered priests. Brilliant.

[Tom Holland]

Who'd have thought it?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

So we get to the morning of Sunday 26th April, 1478. About 11 o' clock, Lorenzo sets off from the Medici palace with his guest, Cardinal Riario. It literally takes them. I've actually checked it on Google Maps. It takes them three minutes to walk from the Palazzo to the Duomo. And they're joined on the walk by Archbishop Salviati, the snake. And when they get to the cathedral, the Archbishop says, oh, I actually have to skip mass because my mother is feeling ill, so I'll leave you here.

[Tom Holland]

God. So not only is he going to launch a massacre as the host is being raised, but he's lying.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah. That's poor, isn't it?

[Tom Holland]

So no limit to his iniquity.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

So Lorenzo goes into the cathedral with the cardinal, they go to the high altar and then Lorenzo leaves. The cardinal goes off to chat to some friends, some sort of Medici cronies. Now, important for people to picture this, you don't sit down. There are no chairs in the cathedral, no pews. People are standing and they're standing in groups, chatting and mingling and moving about, which they would do during the service. Giuliano, however, has not arrived. Where is he? Francesco de Pazzi and the adventurer Baroncelli. They go to the palazzo Medici to fetch him.

[Tom Holland]

It's quite like Julius Caesar not going to the Senate House on the day he's murdered.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Exactly. I mean, obviously they are kind of classical cosplaying in the Renaissance, but the kind of the rhythms and rhymes. It's nice to see. Giuliano is feeling ill and he was actually thinking about skipping mass. But they persuade him again, very Julius Caesar to change his mind. They said, come on, it'll be great fun. And so they walk with him to the cathedral. Along the way. I love this detail. Francesco de Pazzi puts his arm around him and gives him a squeeze and says, you're getting fat. But actually, the reason Francesco does that is to check if he's wearing armor under his clothes. And he's relieved to find that he isn't. So they're now into the cathedral. It's midday. The service is about to start. Giuliano is on one side of the choir, the north side, with his assassins standing around it. Lorenzo is on the other side of the altar. He's in the ambulatory, whatever that is. I don't even know what it is. Some cathedral thing. There's lots of his friends nearby, but.

[Tom Holland]

The two killer priests, the lean, murderous.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Ones, are standing right behind him. The service starts. You know, a lot of chanting, whatever. We reach the crucial moment, right? The priest at the altar lifts up the host and the congregation bow their heads. And the bell rings. And the priests draw their daggers. And the guy from Volterra, Maffei, he puts his hand gently on Lorenzo's shoulder, sort of to steady himself for the thrust. And Lorenzo turns at that point and he feels the dagger on his neck. And just at the point where Maffei is digging it in, he pulls away. So what happens is the dagger slices into his neck, but it doesn't kill him.

[Tom Holland]

So there's a spurting of blood.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Blood. Lorenzo pulls off his cloak, he wraps it round his arm and he uses it as a shield, kind of ward off the blows. Then he reaches for his sword. He's carrying a sword. He reaches for his sword, he unsheathes it, he slashes at the priests, and then he turns and he runs and he leaps over the rail of the altar. And then he sprints for the bronze doors of the sacristy, which might offer some refuge.

[Tom Holland]

Cause there are a lot of bronze doors in the Duomo, aren't there?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

The Florentines love a bronze door. While that's happening, what's happened to Giuliano? When the bell rang, Giuliano bowed his Head as Lorenzo had. And the guys on his side were much more efficient. Baroncelli, the adventurer, struck first. He shouted, take that, you traitor. Slashed at his head so fiercely that he almost split it in two, apparently. And then Francesco de Pazi was on him. He stabbed him in the chest again and again. Giuliano fell to the floor with blood everywhere. Francesco, like a madman, stabbing furiously. 19 wounds in all.

[Tom Holland]

So a puddle of blood spreading over the holy altar.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Exactly. Their two killers look up. They can see Lorenzo running for the doors. They run after him. They want to cut him off before he gets to the doors. But at that point, a very unappreciated man, a man called Francesco Nori, who's a partner in the Medici bank, mate of Lorenzo's, he rushes in to intervene. A crucial moment, actually, in the whole story of the Medici dynasty. Norrie threw himself in their path. Baroncelli plunged his dagger in and stabbed him and killed him. But in doing so, they lost vital seconds. Lorenzo and a couple of his friends were able to get through the sacristy doors, slam them shut and jam them behind them. So now he's safe. So now the cathedral, a scene of total chaos and uproar. There are people running and screaming. There's this puddle of blood from Giuliano's body spreading everywhere. It was said that the high altar, Cardinal Riario, who knew nothing about this, was standing there, like, gaping in shock and was rushed to safety. But it was said afterwards that his face never lost the pallor that it had had at that moment at the altar.

[Tom Holland]

I can well believe it.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah. He wasn't expecting it, I think it's fair to say, Tom. The day had not unfolded as he imagined. Now, meanwhile, what's happened to Lorenzo? Lorenzo's friends kind of bustled him out of the back door of the cathedral to the Medici palace. A great crowd assembles outside the Medici palace. And he comes out and he's kind of bleeding from his neck, but he's still very clearly alive. And he says, there's a coup. We must fight back against the conspirators. Now, meanwhile, what happened to the Archbishop Salviati? He had marched on the Palazzo della Signoria with his mercenaries, but he was taken aback. He thought the councillors would. He'd be able to kind of steamroll with them. But no, they fought back. The standard bearer of Florence, the Gonfalonieri, apparently grabbed a cooking spit and fought back against the Archbishop personally. The council start ringing the big bell of Vacca, calling for aid. Loads of people pour into the Square. They completely outnumber the plotters and the mercenaries and they're chanting splendidly, Vivano la pali. Long live the balls. Hurrah for the bulls.

[Tom Holland]

So that's from the Medici symbol, the coat of arms.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah, exactly. So these people chanting about bulls, they end up slaughtering all of the Archbishop's mercenaries. They cut off their heads and then they rampage around the city with these heads on lances. The Archbishop, he was cornered, they tied a rope round his neck and then they threw him out of an upper window of the Palazzo della Signoria and they left him to dangle there.

[Tom Holland]

I think that's fair enough.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

And now Francesco de Pazzi, the bank manager, they found him, they stripped him naked, they did the same thing to him. And would you like a gory fact?

[Tom Holland]

Go on, go for it.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

These two blokes are dangling from the ropes and kind of writhing in agony. And the Archbishop, it was said, while he was writhing at the end of his rope, about to die, for some peculiar reason I don't understand, he took a massive bite out of Francesco de Pazzi's chest and sank his teeth into his torso.

[Tom Holland]

You know what, it's like something out of Dante's Inferno.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

It is a bit, isn't it?

[Tom Holland]

Hideous scene.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Well, it actually is a hideous scene because it turns into a massive riot. And about 80 people, many of them completely innocent, were lynched until Lorenzo managed to calm things down. So what happened to the other plotters? So we mentioned that that bloke Maffei, who you began with, had an appointment with the knife. He did indeed. He and the other priests, they were caught, they were castrated and then one of them was hanged and one of them was beheaded. So that was the end of them. Montesecco, the sort of hard bitten mercenary captain, he was interrogated under torture. That's how we know the details of the story. And then in a sort of, he had a slightly more benign end in that he was beheaded with a sword in the courtyard of the Bargello, which is now a very famous art sculpture museum.

[Tom Holland]

But if he revealed all the details, I mean, he's not that hard bitten, is he?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Don't forget he had been worried that God would see him in the cathedral.

[Tom Holland]

That's true, yeah.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

So he clearly had doubts the whole time. And then the adventurer Baroncelli, who killed Giuliani, he escaped as far as Constantinople, but he was recognized somehow in Constantinople and the Sultan agreed to extradite him to Florence and he ended up being beheaded in the Bargello as well. So that was what happened to him? Now? What about the Godfather, The Pazzi? Jacopo? He fled to a village. People recognized him. He was dragged back to Florence. This is a very gory end, actually. He was tortured. He was stripped naked. He again was hanged from a window of the Palazzo della Signoria.

[Tom Holland]

So that's the style of execution of choice?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Very much so. Very much. The vibe. His body was thrown into the River Arno, but some children then fished it out and children hung it from a willow tree and to amuse themselves, used to go and beat it and flog it. It's more innocent times.

[Tom Holland]

How long was it hanging there?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

I don't know. But it's better than being stuck inside in a PlayStation. No, I mean, I think it's good to get outside and have some fun. I suppose so. And of course, all this. His head came off. People took it. People took it to the Palazzo Patzi and they used to amuse themselves by banging it on the door, like using it as a door knocker.

[Tom Holland]

Oh, God. So he should have gone with his original instincts, shouldn't he?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

He should have gone with his instincts. It's a sign. Never go against your instincts. The Pazzi family were banished forever from Florence. Their property confiscated. Their symbol, which was the dolphin, was erased from the city. Even if you'd married a Pazzi, you were banned forever from holding office. And actually, Botticelli painted a lovely mural at the Bargello where the executions had taken place. A lovely mural of the Pazzi with ropes around their necks, kind of dangling to their deaths.

[Tom Holland]

Nice.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

So that's nice. Now, actually, across Europe, the Pazzi conspiracy was a great story. Everyone was very shocked by it. The King of France, Louis xi, he wrote to Lorenzo saying, gosh, what a terrible story. You know, unbelievable to do it at Mass.

[Tom Holland]

I mean, he's not wrong. I find that very shocking.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

No, I think you should pay more heed to the Pope. The Pope said, there's absolutely nothing wrong with this. And the real miscreants here are the Medici. Do you know what he did when he heard about the failure of the plots? He promptly excommunicated Lorenzo and the entire Signoria of Florence, he said, for killing the two priests and the Archbishop. He thought that was absolutely disgraceful.

[Tom Holland]

You hear Catholics complaining about, I don't know, Francis or whatever woke popes. Woke popes, I have to say.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

I mean, Sixtus is a more robust pope.

[Tom Holland]

I think it looks pretty feeble compared to Sixtus iv.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Sixtus IV is a very robust pope. Now, Lorenzo said to the Council of Florence, look, you know, we're up against it here, with the Pope against us. I could go into exile. He knows that they'll say no, but he says, I could go into exile. And everybody said, oh, no, don't do that. We'll all stand together. We'll defend the house of Medici as we will defend our own republic. But at the end of June 1478, Sixtus placed Florence under interdict, which I believe, Tom, means that no one can take the sacraments, they can't take communion in Florence.

[Tom Holland]

Yeah. And they're not allowed to be born or die or anything like that.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Right. And he actually then issued George W Bush in the axis of Evil or something. He said, I call on all the other Italian states, let's stage a liberal intervention against the excommunicated and heretical Lorenzo de Medici. God wants us to basically punish him for his wickedness. The Medici bank was expelled from Rome and from Naples. Its assets were seized. And a few weeks later, heeding the Pope's call, the heir to the throne of Naples, who is Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, left Naples with the big army heading for Florence. So things are looking a bit desperate now for Lorenzo. He really needs money to raise an army, but actually he's blown all his money on fancy helmets and stuff with stallions and altarpieces and all of this.

[Tom Holland]

Annunciations.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Yeah, exactly. So he has to send messengers across Italy to beg for cash, especially to Milan. He sends his family to the Medici castle at Cafaggiolo, which is in the mountains north of Florence, for safety. The months go by and Alfonso makes very slow progress, basically grinding his way through central Italy, take town by town, castle by castle, heading to Florence. The war drags on. It blows a hole in the Florentine economy. People start running out of food. There are bread riots, you know, Alfonso and the Neapolitan army, with the Pope's backing, is getting closer and closer. In the late summer of 1479, a friend writes to Lorenzo and says, Florence is exhausted. People just want this to end. There are bread riots now. Something has to change. And then Lorenzo comes to a really extraordinary decision.

[Tom Holland]

Is it a bombshell?

[Dominic Sandbrook]

It is a bombshell. We haven't had a bombshell in this episode, but now we have. On the 5th of December, 1479, he sends a message to the Signoria. He says, I made my mind up. I'm going to make the ultimate sacrifice for peace. He says, given the dangerous circumstances in which our city is placed, the time for deliberation is over. It is time for action. I have decided to sail for Naples immediately. I am the chief target of our city's enemies. So I have decided to surrender myself into their hands. And perhaps that way we have peace. The war began with the blood of my brother and of myself. And perhaps it is the will of God that this is how we will end it. Sir Tom, an incredible gamble. Lorenzo the playboy, the patron of the arts, is going to risk his freedom, perhaps even his life, to save the people of Florence.

[Tom Holland]

Goodness. Stunning stuff. If you want to know what happens, you can find out right now by joining the Rest is History club@the restishistory.com and not only will you find out what happens to Lorenzo, but you will get to hear about his giraffe, which is for me, the highlight of the whole series. And of course you'll get episode four as well, the last in the series, Savonarola, Bonfire of the Vanities, all of that. But if you want to wait, that's fine. It will be coming out next Monday and next Thursday, episodes three and four. So thank you, Dominic. Fantastic stuff. Thanks everyone for listening and bye bye.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Grazia River. I'm Gordon Carreran.

[C]

And I'm David McCloskey.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

Together we're the co hosts of another goal hanger show called the Rest is Classified.

[C]

Here's that clip we mentioned earlier on.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

When I look back on it now, you still see that, you know, this plan, there's memoranda, there's notifications, there's all these things, but they're never actually executed. They never actually kind of pull the.

[Tom Holland]

Trigger on anything, do they?

[C]

I'm a little bit of two minds on this because I agree with you that the theme of this episode really is a series of missed opportunities to get Osama bin laden prior to 9, 11. Yeah, but we should also note that once Tenet and the CIA understand that Osama bin Laden is coming for us, in particular after the East Africa bombings, there is a push to improve our collection and our understanding of Al Qaeda pretty significantly. I mean, there's a bunch of human sources who get recruited in this period. There's a lot more technical collection. Alex Station is beefed up to more than 40 people. There's a of bunch, bunch of connections with foreign partners on Al Qaeda that hadn't existed before. I mean, Interestingly, there's a PDB President's Daily Brief in December, December 4th of 1998, which is titled quote, Bin Laden preparing to hijack US aircraft and other attacks. And so there's a lot of strategic warning, I think you could say, about what Al Qaeda is up to. And yet there's an inability, I think, to translate that into practical efforts and operations to stop these attacks and just stop Al Qaeda from ultimately carrying out 9 11.

[Dominic Sandbrook]

If you want to hear the full episode, listen to the rest is classified. Wherever you get your podcasts.