The Men Who Would Kill the Medici, Part 2

troops and making their plans. Monteseco went to Florence twice to help prepare for the assassination, first to meet with Lorenzo, and then to meet with Yacopo de Pazzi, the Pozzi family patriarch, to ensure that he was fully on board. The problem with Monteiceco meeting with Lorenzo de Medici was that Medici was actually a very lovely host. Monticeco found himself charmed by the humble and generous man that he knew in a few short months he would be tasked

with sinking a dagger into like Monticecco had been. Yakapo de Pazzi was hesitant at first when approached with the plan to take down the Medici. He understood all too well how powerful the Medici family was, how well liked they were in Florence, how razor thin the margin for error was in an assassination in which they would need to kill both Lorenzo and Giuliano. The irony was the

Medici finances were precarious. Poe was almost certainly aware that should they choose to wait him out, Lorenzo would be vulnerable, possibly even over in a few years. But the thing about young men is they want the glamour of violence and action. No one becomes a hero waiting for loans to default. So once the conspirator's minds had been made up that it would be a tyrant's death, they were committed to their plan with a fervor that no logic

or patience would penetrate. In the end, Yakopo came around and promised to help with the plan when the time came, probably because he understood that they were going to do it, whether or not he supported them, and if they failed, he and the entire Potzi family would be ruined. Anyway, the stakes were high, and it was time to pick a side for the Potzi They were betting on themselves.

I'm Danish Schwartz and this is noble blood. The logistics of planning the dual assassination would prove to be challenging because Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici were rarely together in the same place, and when they were, they were well guarded. But the conspirators had an idea. Pope Sixtus the Fourth had just appointed another of his nephews, a seventeen year

old named Raphaeli, as a cardinal. The new cardinal would need to be celebrated, and so, as a sign of false goodwill, a gesture of pretending to mend fences between the Medici and the Pope, Geralimo wrote to Lorenzo de Medici and suggested that Medici might want to invite the young new cardinal to his estate and hold a banquet

in his honor. The banquet would be a perfect cover because the dinner being in the young cardinal's honor meant that his retinue of papal loyalists and family members would have an excuse to be there. Meanwhile, men from Perusia and surrounding regions had begun to sneak into Florence so that they would be ready to help lead the revolutionary charge. When the assassinations had finally been carried out, the dinner was set up. Lorenzo was there, unguarded and without armor,

but something was wrong. The conspirators looked around. Where's uh Giuliano, someone probably asked casually, Is he coming soon?

was another minute that could compromise their plan. Their soldiers were already infiltrating the city, and Medici's spies were everywhere. Sooner or later the Medici would hear about the plot to assassinate them and destroy them all. Giuliano might not even be at dinner the next night. Time was running out and they needed to act quickly. It was too late to back out, and tomorrow night might be too late to carry out the assassinations. Instead, they would attack

tomorrow morning, April twenty sixth, forteen seventy eight. It was a Sunday, the Sunday before Ascension Day, and Lorenzo and Giuliano would both be at Mass. It was a holy day, and so there would be throngs of people there. The assassins would be able to squeeze their way through the crowd and kill both brothers as they were praying in

the cathedral. At this point, Monteseco bulked. He had been hesitant from the beginning for logistical reasons, but now the thought of stabbing a man on a holy day in church was a bridge too far. It's also possible that by this point he sort of liked Lorenzo de Medici, and so he was out. He wasn't going to go through with the assassination, and so they replaced him. Two priests who didn't have monte Seco's Christian qualms were brought

in to do the deed in his place. The next morning, Lorenzo de Medici arrived early to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiori, standing in the shadow of the magnificent red brick dome, the miracle of engineering masterminded by Brunelleschi only a few decades prior. At this point, it was the largest dome since the Pantheon in Rome, which had been constructed out of a concrete whose formula had been

long since lost to history. The final piece of Brunelleschi's dome, a copper ball done by Verocchio to be placed atop the lantern, had only been done in fourteen sixty nine, less than a decade earlier. At this point, ever, the attentive host, when Lorenzo heard that the teenage cardinal, the man of Honor, Cardinal Raphaeli, had actually come to his home expecting them to go to Mass together. Lorenzo returned home so that he and Cardinal Raphaeli could come back

to the cathedral together arm in arm. The delay gave the assassins the upper hand more time to establish the scene and get into position. They were ready. Two priests for Lorenzo and for Giuliano Francesco de Pazzi, and another assassin named Bandini. Archbishop Salviati would go to the palace of the Signoria, the town hall now known as the Palazzo Vecchio. Jacobod Pazzi would ride throughout the city to

try to rally Florentine citizens to their side. They were ready for the moment of truth, but once again the assassins found themselves looking around. Giuliano was nowhere to be found. I'm sure Pozzi looked around, maybe tried to act casual as he asked asked people around him, where's Giuliano. Giuliano was still sick in bed. He wanted to come to Mass that morning, but he just didn't seem up to it.

Pozzi was determined to get him there. Frantic realizing that time was running out, he raced the palace where Giuliano was lying in bed. Pozzi begged him to come to Mass that morning for the sake of their distinguished guest, the young cardinal. I'll carry you if I have to, he joked. He walked with Giuliano all the way back to the cathedral, joking and smiling all the way. It seems you've been eating well, Giuliano, Pozzi said, patting the

Medici brother's stomach. Really, he was feeling to see if Giuliano was wearing any protection. He wasn't. The cathedral was crowded that day, and the assassins waited nervously for the signal they had agreed upon. The two priests were behind Lorenzo and Pozzi and the assassin Bandini were primed to take down Giuliano. Finally, a bell rang in the church, signaling the elevation of the host. It was the signal. Bandini was the first to stab, plunging his knife deep

into Giuliano. Pozzi began stabbing him in the chest once he fell, so crazed with rage and adrenaline that Giuliano's body would have nineteen total stab wounds. Allegedly, Potzi was stabbing so frantically that he stabbed himself in the leg. By mistake, Giuliano's servants, in their fear and confusion, had abandoned him, scrambling away to safety. The two priests had tried to stab Lorenzo, but they lacked the experience that Monteseco would have brought. One of the assassins grabbed at

Lorenzo's sleeve, thinking that he would turn toward him. Instead, Lorenzo spun around the other way, whirling his cape and drawing his own sword to fight off the assassins. The assassin only managed to get a scratch on him before Lorenzo's friends jumped into action behind him and helped protect Lorenzo as he raced toward the security of the high altar. One of Lorenzo's friends was stabbed fatally in the stomach. As the assassins tried desperately in vain to follow their target,

it was chaos in the cathedral, screaming and shouting. Someone cried that Bruno Leeshi's dome, that miracle of physics, was collapsing above them. Lorenzo and a small group of his friends managed to secure themselves behind the heavy bronze doors of the sacristy. One of Lorenzo's friends began sucking at the shallow wound the assassin had managed to make on Lorenzo, sucking and then spitting the blood onto the floor in case the assassin's blade had been poisoned. Where is Giuliano,

Lorenzo said, where is my brother? Is my brother safe? Where is Juliano? No one answered. The people had stampeded out of the cathedral, The room was silent. One member of Lorenzo's group of friends was able to climb the organ loft so that he could look down at the scene to make sure that more enemies weren't waiting outside the bronze doors. He saw Giuliano's body, covered in blood,

lying on the floor. Lorenzo's friends surrounded him a human shield on their way out of the cathedral, not to protect him from assassins, but so that Lorenzo wouldn't have to see the mangled body of his little brother. Meanwhile, Archbishop Salviati and yakapod Pazzi were trying their best to uphold their side of the revolution, attempting to take control of the Palazzo Vecchio and rally the people. On a horse, Yakapo de Pazzi rode through the streets trying to rally

the people. People and liberty. He shouted, people and liberty. He tried to start a chant, but the people of Florence were silent. And then their answer came softly, a murmur from the crowd that became a shout. Polly, They said, Polly. They repeated it, and it became louder, Polly, Polly. It drowned out yakapod Pazzi's words. Polly, Polly Pollay is ball the simbull on the Medici sigil. In almost no time, Lorenzo's men had the upper hand at the Palazzo Vecchio.

The assassination attempt had succeeded in killing one out of two of its targets, but this was an all or nothing game. They had failed and there would be hell to pay. What the conspirators hadn't quite grasped was how unpopular they were and how terribly their message would be received. Lorenzo de Medici didn't even really need to do anything. The people of Florence were outraged at these foreign invaders, these traders who came in with thugs from foreign territories

into their city, who killed their golden Prince, Giuliano. There was outrage at Lorenzo and the media family at the time. There were people in Florence who saw them as tyrants. But as historian Miles Unger wrote, quote, no matter how compelling the message, the Pazzi were the wrong messengers. These conspirators were mad at the Medici for their own selfish, petty reasons. They were the wrong harbingers of revolution. They

weren't there to free Florence from oppression. They were there to get rid of a guy who had been thwarting their own personal political ambitions. And they were more loyal to the Pope than they were to Florence. And the people saw that there was a writer in Florence named

Alamano Renuccini. A year after the assassination attempt, he would write a book called on Liberty, in which you would write, quote, it shames me, indeed, who was born in this city and in this age, to see the people who once dominated most of Tuscany, as well as regions nearby, led about in circles by the whim of this one youth referring to Lorenzo de Medici. He was not a Medici fan. He had been there during the assassination, and even he preferred to protect his own neck rather than join in

the Pozzi conspiracy. And the consequences of that failed conspiracy were incredibly grisly. The men captured at the Palazzo Vecchio were hanged from the window. Archbishop Salviati was still in his vestimens. The mob took care of justice, quite literally, ripping the Pozzi men to pieces and piling the body parts on Lorenzo's doorstep as a tribute, along with piles of weapons and other provisions they gathered as a sign

of strength and solidarity Lorenzo. When he had recovered from his shock, Polo lightly greeted the Florentine citizenry and assured them that as grieved as he was for his brother, he would be strong enough to carry on with state affairs. He thanked them for their support and for his life, and told them there was no need for violence. Quote. I commend myself to you, he said from a second story window. Control yourselves and let justice take its course.

Do not harm the innocent. My wound is not serious. End quote. It was a nice thought, but it didn't do much to reign in the mob. Lorenzo de Medici was able to protect a Pozzi brother in law and have him merely banished from Florence, and he was able to protect the teenage Cardinal Rafaeli, who hadn't actually been involved in the plan at all, aside from being unwitting bait,

but for everyone else well. The historian Harold Acton describes what happened next as a quote orgy of mutilation, bodies hanged from windows like Christmas ornaments, heads bobbed down the streets on pikes. One member of the Pozzi family tried to escape the town dressed as a beggar, but he was recognized and hanged. Old Yakapo da Pazzi, the patriarch of the family, who knew all along it had been a mistake, almost made it out, and when he was captured by guards, he tried to bribe them with gold

to just kill him then and there. Once again, his instincts were right, because the guards refused, and when they did, he was dragged naked by a horse through the square. And after Yakapo da Pazzi was tortured and hanged, he was buried. But then it started raining and people thought that they were being punished for burying a trader on consequented ground, so he was dug up and buried again

near the city wall. Then he was dug up again by a group of boys who dragged his corpse around the city and tied his head to the doorbell of his former home, the old Potzi mansion, which of course would be raised and looted. They sang dirty songs about him and finally threw his body into the Arno River. It's difficult to imagine a plan to try to regain power going worse. The Patzis weren't just beaten, they were demolished.

All of the Potzi symbols were destroyed from the city, and any Potzi left were forced into exile or forced to change their names. Anyone even married to a Patzi wouldn't be allowed to hold office. Eventually, every conspirator was tracked down and killed, with the exception of Juralima, that Lord of Immola, the nephew of the Pope, who had made sure to keep himself actually out of physical harm's way by not being in the city at the time

of the actual assassination. But even he would be killed a few years later in an apparently unrelated assassination scheme. But everyone else was hunted down and eliminated. The two bumbling priests who had botched lorenzo stabbing made it to a monastery, but eventually even the monks realized that they had to give them up in order to assuage the mobs outside. When Montesecco was captured, he gave a full confession, which might be why he got a slightly more dignified

death than public hanging. He was beheaded in the courtyard of the Bargello, which had been a prison and is now a lovely sculpture museum. The final conspirator caught was actually the one who made the first strike, Bandini, the assassin whose stab had taken down beautiful young Giuliano de Medici. Bandini had made it all the way to Constantinople, but

even he couldn't escape his fate. He was arrested by Sultan Mohammed the Second and at the request of the Florentine ambassador, who happened to be a Medici cousin, he was returned to Florence, where he was hanged from the window of the Bargello, still wearing his Turkish outfit. Why had they kept him in his costume, his cap and vest and turquoise jacket. Well, it sent a message, no matter how far you run, to Constantinople or beyond, you

can't escape the Medici. After the dust had cleared and the blood had been swept from the streets, there was still the business of private mourning to be done. Lorenzo was breathed at the loss of his brother Giuliano, But there was one small glimmer of hope and of joy. After Juliana's death, Lorenzo learned that his brother, ever the Playboy, had actually fathered an illegitimate child just a few months old.

Lorenzo would see that the child was educated alongside his own children, and while Giuliano had never been made a cardinal, his son was, And that illegitimate son, whose father was killed with the tacit approval of the Pope, would eventually go on to become the Pope himself, Clement the seventh. That's the story of the Pazzi conspiracy. But if you want to hear a little bit more about one a list cameo in the saga, stick around after a brief

sponsor break. If you were interested in how we knew so much about Bandini's hanging as in what exactly he was wearing, it's because there was an artist who just happened to be there taking notes. Though the artist did draw the hanging body, he seemed to be more interested in the exotic constantinople clothing Bandini was wearing than the grotesquery of the execution itself. The artist described in his notes that Bandini wore a quote tawny cap, black satin vest,

turquoise blue jacket lined with fox. The journal that the artist wrote in is still at the Louver. But the artist was actually from Florence, Well, he was from a small town nearby Vinci. The artist's name was Leonardo. Noble Blood is a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manke. Noble Blood is created and hosted by me Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston,

Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is edited and produced by Noemi Griffin and rima Il Kahali, with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers Aaron Manke, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts.