Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised, Hey, this
Speaker 1: is Danish sports. Quick bit of housekeeping just before we
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Speaker 1: that's pretty much all I have to say. Oh, I'm
Speaker 1: teaching a horror writing workshop this fall, So if you've
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Speaker 1: taking what we've learned and applying it to our own writing.
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Speaker 1: The two men in front of him were so excited,
Speaker 1: so passionate, that it was making Giovanni Battista, Count of
Speaker 1: monte Seco nervous. Monte Seco was a career soldier, a
Speaker 1: practical man, a captain who actually worked for one of
Speaker 1: the men in front of him, Gilimo Riario. There were
Speaker 1: three of them that day, meeting in Rome. Monte Seco
Speaker 1: had been invited over to the fine house of the
Speaker 1: Archbishop Francesco Salviati, where Geralimo and Salviati had sat the
Speaker 1: captain down and told him something extraordinary. They were planning
Speaker 1: an overthrowing Lorenzo the Magnificent in Florence. With the help
Speaker 1: of another conspirator, Francisco de Pazzi. They would assassinate both
Speaker 1: Lorenzo and his brother and claim the city, freeing it
Speaker 1: from the tyranny of its Medici overlords. Girolimo had rightly
Speaker 1: recognized that for what they were planning, they would need
Speaker 1: military expertise, which is why they brought Montesecco into the fold.
Speaker 1: But the thing about a lifetime spent as a military
Speaker 1: man was that monte Seco knew a hair brained scheme.
Speaker 1: When he heard it, monte Seco brought up his concerns,
Speaker 1: you know, he said, from what I've heard, Lorenzo the
Speaker 1: Magnificent is pretty beloved in Florence. Salviati and Girolimo both scoffed.
Speaker 1: You've never been to Florence, they said, trust us, no
Speaker 1: matter what you've heard on the ground, things are different.
Speaker 1: Salviati was from an old Florentine family, and it was
Speaker 1: true monte Seco had never been to Florence. Maybe they
Speaker 1: were right, after all, from what they said, the conspiracy
Speaker 1: was happening in coordination with another old Florentine family, the Pazzis.
Speaker 1: The Pazzis were even older than the Medicis. Still, monte
Speaker 1: Seco was unconvinced. This was the fourteen seventies, and so
Speaker 1: he had, of course not seen the twenty first century
Speaker 1: television program The Wire. He had never heard the phrase,
Speaker 1: if you come at the King, you best not miss.
Speaker 1: But still he surely understood the sentiment. The Medici were
Speaker 1: powerful once a humble banking family that had extended their
Speaker 1: tendrils throughout central Italy and beyond. Lorenzo, their patriarch at
Speaker 1: this point, was a celebrated humanist and poet who kept
Speaker 1: the government of Florence in his back pocket while bankrolling
Speaker 1: universities and promoting local artists. Yes, he was the single
Speaker 1: power in what was supposed to be a republic, but
Speaker 1: there was a reason the Medici had become so powerful
Speaker 1: in the first place. Lorenzo was good at making friends
Speaker 1: and allies, for better or for worse. He had Florence
Speaker 1: wrapped around his finger, and Montesecco was well aware that
Speaker 1: if they tried to take him down and failed, they
Speaker 1: would be staring down a grisly death. The stakes in
Speaker 1: this game were win or be destroyed. Monteseco wanted to
Speaker 1: be sure he was on the winning side, or at
Speaker 1: least a side with a fighting chance. If they were
Speaker 1: going to come for a king, he wanted to make
Speaker 1: sure that they had a king behind them. He turned
Speaker 1: to Geralimo, his boss. What does your uncle say about this,
Speaker 1: he asked. Geralimo smiled, Let's do our next meeting at
Speaker 1: his place, and so that was how Monteseco found himself
Speaker 1: inside the Papal Palace, surrounded by a thousand years of
Speaker 1: finery and a cum related wealth, Sitting down with Pope
Speaker 1: Sixtus the Fourth. The Pope began the meeting, recounting all
Speaker 1: of the many wrongs that Lorenzo de Medici had done
Speaker 1: to them, the threat that he posed to them, their family.
Speaker 1: The papal states Italy as a whole, but Monticeco didn't
Speaker 1: need to know the Pope's philosophical position on the Medici.
Speaker 1: He needed to know if he the Pope was sanctioning
Speaker 1: his nephew's bloody plan. Interrupting the Pope as he waxed
Speaker 1: poetic about how much better Italy would be without Lorenzo's tyranny,
Speaker 1: Monticeco said, Holy Father, it is difficult to execute such
Speaker 1: an intention without the death of Lorenzo and Giuliano and
Speaker 1: several others. Perhaps. The Pope replied, it is not my
Speaker 1: office to cause the death of a man. Lorenzo has
Speaker 1: behaved unworthily and badly towards us, but I will not
Speaker 1: hear of his death, though I wish for a revolution
Speaker 1: in the state. Now it was Jeralimo's turn to speak
Speaker 1: to his uncle. Will do our best that no one
Speaker 1: fall victim, he said, and this next part I'll paraphrase,
Speaker 1: but if it did, you know, end up being an assassination,
Speaker 1: your Holiness would pardon whoever did it. Right. The Pope's
Speaker 1: reply here is fascinating, a masterclass in saying everything that
Speaker 1: needed to be said without actually saying it. Quote. I
Speaker 1: will have no one die, but only the government overthrown.
Speaker 1: I wish this revolution to proceed in Florence and the
Speaker 1: government to be taken out of the hand of Lorenzo,
Speaker 1: for he is a violent and bad man who pays
Speaker 1: no regard to us. If you were expelled, we could
Speaker 1: do with the republic as it seemed best, and that
Speaker 1: would be very pleasing to us. End quote. The men
Speaker 1: were satisfied, They thanked the Pope, maybe asked about the
Speaker 1: progress on the new Sistine Chapel he was building, and
Speaker 1: left Monte Seco. The grizzled soldier, who had been on
Speaker 1: the fence about the whole endeavor, was finally convinced he
Speaker 1: would join Geralimo Salviati and Francesco Pazzi in their assassination plot,
Speaker 1: satisfied that they were in fact acting on behalf of
Speaker 1: the Pope, or with the Pope's approval. Murder is wrong,
Speaker 1: of course, but nothing is really a sin if it's
Speaker 1: endorsed by the Pope. If you heard the Pope's statement
Speaker 1: and thought, well, wait a minute, he wasn't actually saying
Speaker 1: that they should murder Lorenzo de Medici, this is a
Speaker 1: classic case of written words not really communicating everything that
Speaker 1: the words meant at the time. Sixtus was not a
Speaker 1: naive man. He was cunning and intelligent, surely not stupid
Speaker 1: enough to believe that there could be revolution in Florence
Speaker 1: that didn't involve the death of the Medici brothers Lorenzo
Speaker 1: and Giuliano and Monteeseco was a practical man who had
Speaker 1: needed the Pope's go ahead before joining the conspiracy. The
Speaker 1: fact that he left that meeting fully on board is
Speaker 1: the historical context clue. We need to understand that when
Speaker 1: the Pope said, of course, I can't condone the bloodshed,
Speaker 1: but those Medici really need to go, what he was
Speaker 1: really saying was do what you have to do. It
Speaker 1: was a statement delivered with a wink. The Pope was
Speaker 1: not only aware but in full support of their mission.
Speaker 1: Even if he said he hoped it wouldn't be too
Speaker 1: bloody in the end, regardless of the Pope's warning, it
Speaker 1: would be. This attempt to assassinate two men would lead
Speaker 1: to more than eighty deaths. Bodies would swing from the
Speaker 1: Palazzo Vecchio in the main square of Florence. Corpses would
Speaker 1: be dismembered and thrown throughout the city. What history now
Speaker 1: knows as the Pazzi Conspiracy would become a gruesome spectacle,
Speaker 1: weeks of bloodshed that would eventually give rise to the
Speaker 1: entire city government being excommunicated and Florence itself placed under
Speaker 1: papal interdict. But that would all come later. For now,
Speaker 1: there was just a trio of passionate men, so indignant
Speaker 1: at the abuses of Lorenzo de Medici that they had
Speaker 1: worked themselves into a fervor until they convinced themselves that
Speaker 1: killing him was the only possible course of action. The
Speaker 1: reasons why their petty grievances boiled into bloodlust are fascinating.
Speaker 1: The actual assassination attempt, which would be in the Cathedral
Speaker 1: of Florence under Bruno Leeschi's famous dome during Sunday mass,
Speaker 1: would make this conspiracy the stuff of legend. They would
Speaker 1: come for the king, their souls be damned, and when
Speaker 1: spoiler alert they did in fact miss, it would lead
Speaker 1: to more destruction than they could have possibly imagined. I'm
Speaker 1: Danish Schwartz, and this is noble blood. I could spend
Speaker 1: a few minutes here describing the government system of Florence
Speaker 1: in the fifteenth century. I could tell you about how
Speaker 1: it was a republic run by a council of nine
Speaker 1: men called the Signoria, with representatives from the major guilds
Speaker 1: of the city, and then more councils would be called
Speaker 1: into service should the need arise. I could talk about
Speaker 1: term length, about how each member of the government was chosen.
Speaker 1: I could, but that would be a waste of both
Speaker 1: of our time. For most of the second half of
Speaker 1: the fifteenth century, the government was one man Florence was
Speaker 1: Lorenzo de Medici. The Medici family was not particularly old
Speaker 1: or noble, but over generations of building banking power, they
Speaker 1: became the undisputed heart of Florentine politics and culture. It
Speaker 1: had been Lorenzo's grandfather, Cosimo, who first elevated their family
Speaker 1: over the nominal power of just being rich. Lorenzo's father,
Speaker 1: known unfortunately as Piero the Goudi was you guessed it,
Speaker 1: suffering from gout, but he was also clever and academic,
Speaker 1: a lover of arts and literature with a passion he
Speaker 1: tried to pass on to his own two sons, Lorenzo
Speaker 1: and Giuliano. From a young age, Lorenzo knew he would
Speaker 1: be taking over the family business. He was fifteen when
Speaker 1: his venerated grandfather Cosimo died, and he spent his adolescence
Speaker 1: going on diplomatic missions across Italy. He made friends with
Speaker 1: the son of the King of Naples, he attended the
Speaker 1: weddings of Milanesi princesses, and he made appearances in Bologna, Ferrara, Rome,
Speaker 1: all promoting the interests of Florence and the Medici. When
Speaker 1: he was twenty, Lorenzo married for duty a woman named
Speaker 1: Clarice Orsini from a powerful Roman family. His mother had
Speaker 1: gone down to examine the girl to see if she
Speaker 1: passed muster. And while this isn't quite relevant to the
Speaker 1: subject matter of the episode, I find her letter back
Speaker 1: funny enough that I think it's worth including. She wrote
Speaker 1: quote her hair is not blonde, which side note was
Speaker 1: considered the ideal for nobility at the time. Her face
Speaker 1: is somewhat round, yet it does not displease me. Her
Speaker 1: bosom was invisible, for it is the fashion here to
Speaker 1: cover it, but it appears to be ample. Altogether, we
Speaker 1: consider her above the average good enough. Lorenzo no doubt
Speaker 1: understood that his marriage was a diplomatic prospect, not a
Speaker 1: romantic one, But in his writing he could barely conceal
Speaker 1: his distaste for the fact that he would have preferred
Speaker 1: a more cultured Florentine bride. I have taken a wife,
Speaker 1: he wrote, or rather she was given to me. Now.
Speaker 1: Usually when we describe weddings on this podcast, they are
Speaker 1: elaborate affairs, dresses with trains the lengths of city blocks,
Speaker 1: and feasts with sugar sculptures and stuffed peacocks. And so
Speaker 1: when you hear the phrase Medici wedding, you might be
Speaker 1: expecting another list of finery beyond the wildest imagination of
Speaker 1: anyone who has ever sublet a studio apartment. But note
Speaker 1: rich as they were, the Medici wedding was a simple occasion.
Speaker 1: One guest noted quote as an example of moderation to others.
Speaker 1: On such occasions, there was never more than one roast.
Speaker 1: The Medici were rich, yes, but above all they were prudent,
Speaker 1: and they understood the power of having positive standing in
Speaker 1: their commune. There were a series of banquets to commemorate
Speaker 1: Lorenzo's weddings, But unlike kings who used their wealth to
Speaker 1: show off the fact that they were gods anointed on earth,
Speaker 1: the Medici didn't want anyone to see them as superior.
Speaker 1: It was advice from Lorenzo's grandfather that he also heeded. Well,
Speaker 1: never have the people be jealous of you. They were
Speaker 1: doing the fifteenth century equivalent of what people today call
Speaker 1: quiet wealth no visible labels. In case you were wondering,
Speaker 1: Lorenzo and Claire's marriage was, to borrow a phrase from
Speaker 1: Lorenzo's mother, probably just about above the average, to quote
Speaker 1: a historian, affection grew with habit, but he never fell
Speaker 1: in love with his wife. It was Lorenzo's younger brother, Juliano,
Speaker 1: who was the romantic. He unburdened by the responsibility of
Speaker 1: being the eldest boy. Julianu relished in the rituals of
Speaker 1: courtly love and romance. The two of them, Lorenzo and Giuliano,
Speaker 1: the two Medici brothers, were the powerful beating heart at
Speaker 1: the center of Florence, the city in the center of
Speaker 1: Renaissance Italy. When it comes to the series of events
Speaker 1: that would eventually lead a group of men to want
Speaker 1: to kill the Medici brothers in cold blood, the place
Speaker 1: we start is with the death of an old pope.
Speaker 1: Pope Paul the Second, who was Venetian, died in fourteen
Speaker 1: seventy one. There wasn't too much love lost. Pope Paul
Speaker 1: the Second was obsessed with the finer things in life.
Speaker 1: He collected antique bronzes and jewels. At night, he would
Speaker 1: bring rubies and sapphires into bed with him. Apparently it
Speaker 1: was because of a superstition, and people didn't like it
Speaker 1: because it read as pagan personally. To me, it calls
Speaker 1: to mind a cartoon dragon. When he died, the idea
Speaker 1: was that the next Pope should be a more modest man,
Speaker 1: or at least someone from a not too powerful family
Speaker 1: with an unimpeachable reputation. The choice was Francesco of Savona,
Speaker 1: who adopted the last name Riveri, meaning Oak, and he
Speaker 1: became Pope Sixtus the Fourth. Of course, Lorenzo de Medici,
Speaker 1: born diplomat, was sure to pay his respects, and it
Speaker 1: seemed as though the two men would get on. In fact,
Speaker 1: Lorenzo was given such a warm reception by the new
Speaker 1: pope that it actually made the Duke of Milan jealous.
Speaker 1: It was important that the Medici and the papal relationship
Speaker 1: was strong, because the Medici were the Vaticans major banker.
Speaker 1: Lorenzo tried to advocate to make his younger brother Giuliano
Speaker 1: a cardinal, but the Pope demurred. Giuliano was just twenty.
Speaker 1: There's plenty of time for that, and he's a little young.
Speaker 1: Of course, age wouldn't stop the pope later on from
Speaker 1: making one of his nephews a cardinal at seventeen years old.
Speaker 1: The new Pope, Sixtus the Fourth, wasn't going to bring
Speaker 1: gems into his bed, but he wasn't going to let
Speaker 1: the position of being pope pass him by without trying
Speaker 1: to establish a family dynasty. And so he got started
Speaker 1: on a practice so common it actually gave rise to
Speaker 1: the word nepotism, the practice of a pope giving his
Speaker 1: nephews or nipotes, positions of power. Two of his nephews
Speaker 1: immediately became cardinals off the bat, and for another of
Speaker 1: his nephews, a layman named Gialimo Riario, the Pope purchased
Speaker 1: the tiny town of Imola, making Duralimo a lord. Immola
Speaker 1: is small, but it was an important stronghold, about fifty
Speaker 1: miles outside of Florence. An important thing for you to
Speaker 1: remember is that in the fourteen hundreds the Vatican wasn't
Speaker 1: just a tiny little pocket in Rome that you could
Speaker 1: line up to visit to see Michelangelo's Pieta. The Papal
Speaker 1: states were a kingdom and fighting for supremacy and power
Speaker 1: on the Italian peninsula, just like their neighbors, only with
Speaker 1: the added bonus that their quote unquote king happened to be,
Speaker 1: you know, the pontiff with holy authority. If you have
Speaker 1: an incredibly good memory for names, you might remember Duralimo,
Speaker 1: the new Lord of Immola from our introduction. He's about
Speaker 1: to become a major player here. The challenging thing about
Speaker 1: discussing this conspiracy is there isn't a simple a to
Speaker 1: be to see narrative of how the conspirators came together
Speaker 1: and how they all collectively and individually built up enough
Speaker 1: vitriol toward the Medici family to be motivated enough for
Speaker 1: an incredibly risky coup. But if you bear with me,
Speaker 1: we'll walk through a few of those factors and inciting
Speaker 1: incidents and introduce the major conspirators at play. One of
Speaker 1: the big conflict points was the sale of Imola itself.
Speaker 1: Remember how the Pope bought the town for his nephew, Well,
Speaker 1: the Duke of Milan who sold it, had originally agreed
Speaker 1: to sell it to Lorenzo de Medici. Of course, Lorenzo
Speaker 1: wanted it, it was a really strategic and important town
Speaker 1: right on the edges of his territory. But the Duke
Speaker 1: of Milan was enticed by papal power, so much so
Speaker 1: that if the Pope agreed to have Geralimo marry one
Speaker 1: of his illegitimate daughters, he would sell the town for
Speaker 1: far less than the number Lorenzo had agreed to pay.
Speaker 1: Lorenzo naturally was furious, and he refused to have his
Speaker 1: bank fund the sale, and so the Pope went through
Speaker 1: another Florentine banking family, the Pozzis, who did agree to
Speaker 1: front most of the cash. This is a good opportunity
Speaker 1: to introduce our next conspirator, representing the family that gives
Speaker 1: the Pozzi conspiracy its name. Francesco de Pozzi. Geralimo, lord
Speaker 1: of Emmila, was new money who wore his uncle's new
Speaker 1: found power and wealth on his person with silk and gems.
Speaker 1: Pozzi was old money, the scion of an old Florentine
Speaker 1: family who had seen their wealth and power dwindle while
Speaker 1: the media outmaneuvered them at every turn. Francesco de Pazzi
Speaker 1: was tired of having to grovel for scraps of dignity
Speaker 1: while the Medici sat comfortably in their seat of power.
Speaker 1: When Francesco de Pazzi and Geralimo got together, they lathered
Speaker 1: each other up, bolstering each other's confidence and bravery, until
Speaker 1: assassination seemed not only noble but inevitable. Pozzi had seen
Speaker 1: his family dwindle begging for Medici scraps. Jeralimo was the
Speaker 1: lord of a tiny state that could easily be squeezed
Speaker 1: out of existence between the real powers of Milan and
Speaker 1: Medici Florence. And as Jeralimo also understood with a creeping awareness,
Speaker 1: his newfound power was entirely dependent on his uncle, the Pope,
Speaker 1: who was getting up there in years. Jeralimo had seen
Speaker 1: the promise of power. It was just there glistening in
Speaker 1: the distance, and if he didn't act, it would flicker
Speaker 1: and disappear, like a candle flame on a damp night.
Speaker 1: He wanted power, he wanted to secure that power, and
Speaker 1: so Lorenzo de Medici had to go. One writer, Nicolo Valori,
Speaker 1: writing only a few decades after the assassination attempt, claimed
Speaker 1: the entire thing was Jeralimo's idea first, and that he
Speaker 1: came to Pozzi with the idea to kill Lorenzo. Another
Speaker 1: writer says it was Pozzi's idea. Macchiavelli sort of splits
Speaker 1: the difference when he recounts the event writing quote. And
Speaker 1: since Francesco to Pozzi was very friendly with Count Geralimo,
Speaker 1: they often complained to one another of the Medici. So
Speaker 1: after many complaints, they came to the reasoning that it
Speaker 1: was necessary if one of them was to live in
Speaker 1: his states and the other in his city securely to
Speaker 1: change the state of Florence, which they thought could not
Speaker 1: be done without the deaths of Giuliano and Lorenzo. But
Speaker 1: here's the thing. Geralimo and Pozzi knew that they were
Speaker 1: both outsiders and not particularly popular in Florence. Even though
Speaker 1: Pozzi was a born Florentine, he had spent most of
Speaker 1: his life living abroad. If the two of them were
Speaker 1: going to overthrow the Medici, they needed to be seen
Speaker 1: as liberators, not foreign assassins. They wanted to spearhead a
Speaker 1: Florentine revolution, and so they needed to bring someone else
Speaker 1: into their conspiracy. The third man in was an archbishop
Speaker 1: named Francesco de Salviati. Salviati was about twenty years older
Speaker 1: than both Jai and Pazzi. He was middle aged when
Speaker 1: he should have outgrown flights of romantic heroism, but he
Speaker 1: had his own reasons to hate the Medici. Like the Pazzi,
Speaker 1: the Salviati were an old Florentine family that had fallen
Speaker 1: on hard times, and he blamed their descent on the
Speaker 1: rising Medici. In some ways that might have been justified.
Speaker 1: It was under certain financial policies by Lorenzo's dad that
Speaker 1: the Salviati were forced to give up a wool business
Speaker 1: they owned in Pisa. But it wasn't just pride or
Speaker 1: a nebulous sense of family dignity that would drive Salviati
Speaker 1: into joining the conspirators. No, for him, it was very personal.
Speaker 1: Salviati was cousins with the Pazzi, but he was also
Speaker 1: the right hand man of Jeralimo's brother, Pietro I E,
Speaker 1: another pope who was made a cardinal and then Archbishop
Speaker 1: of Florence. But then in fourteen seventy four Archbishop Pietro died.
Speaker 1: He was only twenty nine years old, and so of
Speaker 1: course there were whispers of poison, but the more likely
Speaker 1: culprit is a few years of very very hard living
Speaker 1: what historians in the books I've read like to call
Speaker 1: over indulgence. Anyway, Salviati was a Florentine and the right
Speaker 1: hand man of the late Archbishop of Florence. He was
Speaker 1: ready to get the job. Lorenzo de Medici put his
Speaker 1: brother in law in the position. The Pope felt bad
Speaker 1: and more or less informally promised that Salviati would get
Speaker 1: the next open slot, and so a few months later,
Speaker 1: when Filippo Dimidici, Archbishop of Pisa, died, the Pope gave
Speaker 1: Salviati the job. But there was a problem. It's worth
Speaker 1: noting here that at this point in the fifteenth century,
Speaker 1: Pisa was controlled by Florence. The Signoria in Florence was
Speaker 1: supposed to have been consulted about who filled the archbishop position.
Speaker 1: The Pope hadn't done that. They had provided the Pope
Speaker 1: a list of acceptable candidates, and Salviati wasn't on it.
Speaker 1: The Pope didn't pull back, he doubled down and said
Speaker 1: that as pope, he's entitled to put whoever he wants
Speaker 1: into the position of archbishop. Well, Florence responded, you're allowed
Speaker 1: to put whoever you want in the position, but we
Speaker 1: are allowed to say who can and cannot set foot
Speaker 1: in our territory. And so, even though Salviati was Archbishop
Speaker 1: of Pisa, Florence refused to let him actually physically take
Speaker 1: the position. Salviati was forced to spend a humiliating year
Speaker 1: in Limbo in Rome until he was finally allowed into Pisa,
Speaker 1: and the entire time he was stewing about Lorenzo de Medici,
Speaker 1: the man wielding power that wasn't even his right, like
Speaker 1: a tyrant. So those are the three major conspirators worth knowing. Geralimo,
Speaker 1: the Pope's nephew and Lord of Imola, Francesco de Pazzi,
Speaker 1: the family allying themselves with the Pope, and Francesco Salviati
Speaker 1: Archbishop of Pisa, another papal loyalist who resented Lorenzo and
Speaker 1: the power he wielded in Florence, brought in as some
Speaker 1: additional hometown muscle. Unfortunately for Jeralimo and Pozzi, in the
Speaker 1: words of historian Miles Hunger quote, it's a measure of
Speaker 1: how out of touch they were with public opinion in
Speaker 1: Florence that the second native son drawn into the web
Speaker 1: was almost as unpopular in his native land as Francesco
Speaker 1: de Pazzi himself. But out of touch or not, these
Speaker 1: were the core conspirators who would then go on to
Speaker 1: enlist Geralimo's captain Monteseco, the man we followed in the
Speaker 1: introduction the man with military experience. Over the next couple
Speaker 1: of years, there were a number of other slights between
Speaker 1: the Papal states and the Medici that would continue to
Speaker 1: exacerbate their relationship. Like the Pope would try to help
Speaker 1: another of his nephews secure a small town in Perusia
Speaker 1: the Chita de Castello, and the nephew would ask Lorenzo
Speaker 1: de Medici for help, but Lorenzo had made an alliance
Speaker 1: with the family that was in charge of that town,
Speaker 1: and he refused the Pope would move his accounts from
Speaker 1: the Medici and do more banking with the Pazzi. Geralimo,
Speaker 1: on behalf of the papal treasury, would do an audit
Speaker 1: of the Medici bank. That's sort of thing, tensions building
Speaker 1: until they would in the end erupt. There's one more
Speaker 1: slight that's so petty, I do feel like it's worth
Speaker 1: mentioning in some depth. In fourteen seventy seven, an incredibly
Speaker 1: rich Florentine man named Giovanni Borromeo died without any male heirs,
Speaker 1: only a daughter. Under Florentine law, his inheritance would go
Speaker 1: to the daughter, but the male cousins who wanted that
Speaker 1: money petitioned Lorenzo to change the law so that the
Speaker 1: inheritance would go to surviving male relatives instead. And Lorenzo
Speaker 1: had the laws changed, which would have been fine, except
Speaker 1: the daughter, the one set to inherit the windfall, was
Speaker 1: married to Francesco de Pazzi's brother. It's a slight, so petty,
Speaker 1: and a law changed so specifically just to screw over
Speaker 1: the Pazzi that you almost understand their murder fantasies. Anyway,
Speaker 1: that's the scene set a number of interweaving players with
Speaker 1: various reasons for hating Lorenzo de Medici. They knew that
Speaker 1: as long as he lived, and as long as his
Speaker 1: brother Juliano lived, florent would be under the Medici thumb.
Speaker 1: Wasn't it supposed to be a republic. Weren't they supposed
Speaker 1: to be done with tyrants, especially tyrants that they had
Speaker 1: petty gripes with. Something had to be done, and they
Speaker 1: would be the ones to do it. The Medici knew
Speaker 1: they had a target on their back, and they were
Speaker 1: careful to some degree when Gialimo invited Lorenzo to visit
Speaker 1: him in Rome. Lorenzo was smart enough to refuse that invitation,
Speaker 1: but the Medici were completely unaware as to the extent
Speaker 1: of the plot forming against them. The Medici brothers continue
Speaker 1: to live their life, celebrate art and poetry and Florentine culture.
Speaker 1: In fourteen seventy five, Giuliano de Medici had a magnificent
Speaker 1: jout that served as a coming out party for him.
Speaker 1: The streets were transformed into a fantasy scape, with artisans
Speaker 1: tasked with transforming buildings into fairy castles with banners, tapestries,
Speaker 1: and pennants. When young Giuliano, twenty one years old at
Speaker 1: this point, rode out in full armor, carrying a banner
Speaker 1: painted by Bodicelli. He must have looked resplendent. He must
Speaker 1: have looked beautiful, full of the promise of youth and
Speaker 1: wealth and power. Of course, now that the relationship between
Speaker 1: the Medici and Sixtus the Fourth had soured, there were
Speaker 1: no more conversations about turning Giuliano into a cardinal. But
Speaker 1: still at that moment, I'm sure no one gave it
Speaker 1: a second thought. Our gallant knight Juliana had the favor
Speaker 1: of the lovely Semonetta of Vespucci, celebrated as the most
Speaker 1: beautiful woman in Italy at the time. It was her
Speaker 1: image on his banner, along with a French inscription meaning
Speaker 1: the unparalleled one. Giuliano's men trailed behind him, also gleaming
Speaker 1: in custom armor. Looking out at that scene, it would
Speaker 1: have been impossible for Lorenzo to predict that in a year,
Speaker 1: the lovely Semonetta would be dead of illness, and two
Speaker 1: short years after that Giuliano would be dead himself. His
Speaker 1: limbs contorted as the blood seeped from his body onto
Speaker 1: the cold floor of the cathedral, in Florence. That's the
Speaker 1: end of part one of this story of the Pazzi conspiracy,
Speaker 1: but keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear
Speaker 1: a little bit more about how Giuliana's lover cemented her
Speaker 1: place in art history. Simonetta Vespucci, considered the most beautiful
Speaker 1: woman in Italy, quickly became a fixture at court with
Speaker 1: Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici. With Giuliano especially, he held a
Speaker 1: banner carrying her likeness during the joust of his coming out,
Speaker 1: and when he won, he declared Simonetta the Queen of Beauty.
Speaker 1: Though some historians dismiss their romance as mere courtly love,
Speaker 1: she was, after all, a married woman. Her husband happened
Speaker 1: to be a cousin of the famed cartographer Amerigo Vespucci.
Speaker 1: But in my opinion, looking at the evidence, it seems
Speaker 1: apparent that Simonetta's relationship with Juliano was more intimate than
Speaker 1: just social niceties. After Simonetta died of illness at just
Speaker 1: twenty two years old, her father in law sent Giuliano
Speaker 1: some of her dresses. But Juliano wasn't the only man
Speaker 1: who fell in love with Semonetta at least not esthetically.
Speaker 1: The artist Bodicelli painted her face on Giuliano's banner that
Speaker 1: day of the joust, and he also snuck her into
Speaker 1: some of his most famous paintings. A woman with a
Speaker 1: long nose and light strawberry blonde hair recurs in his work.
Speaker 1: One of the graces in Bodicelli's Primavera, possibly the central
Speaker 1: figure herself, and some say Simonetta Vespucci was immortalized arriving
Speaker 1: to shore balanced on a seashell, naked with her hair
Speaker 1: winding around her, a goddess in Bodicelli's painting, The Birth
Speaker 1: of Venus. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and
Speaker 1: Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is created
Speaker 1: and hosted by me Dana Schwort, with additional writing and
Speaker 1: researching by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender,
Speaker 1: and Lori Goodman. The show is edited and produced by
Speaker 1: Noemi Griffin and rima Il Kahali, with supervising producer Josh
Speaker 1: Thain and executive producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.