Pazzi Conspiracy

The Plot

As with any historical story, we could begin anywhere, but I chooseto begin in 1477 in Rome. The pope at the time was Sixtus IV, the fellow who built a chapel that later had some pretty nice paintings done on its walls and ceiling—the Sistine Chapel. That wasn't for another thirty years or so, but in 1477 we are well into the so-called "Renaissance Popes", famous for their corruption as well as for their patronage of the arts. Rome had gone through some very hard times for most of our course, up to around 1430 or 1450, but it was starting to spruce up nicely.

In that place, in that year of 1477, three men met secretly. One was an archbishop, one was a merchant, and one was a mercenary. The churchman was Francesco Salviati, the Archbishop of Pisa. The merchant was Francesco de' Pazzi, a member of an important family in Florence. These two had already decided on their desperate act, but they needed a strongman, and that's why they'd invited Gian Battista Montesecco, a condotierre who was in the employ of the pope and of Girolamo Riario (now Count of Imola). The act they proposed to Montesecco was simple and brutal: the murder of Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother, and the destruction of the Medici hold on power in Florence. The deed would be done next Easter, when Lorenzo and his younger brother Giuliano, were expected to visit the pope in Rome.

This mercenary was a tough veteran soldier who didn't think much of the plot put before him, and he said so. Salviati and Pazzi had to come to him a second time, this time with reassurances that both the Count and the Pope fully approved of the scheme.

Montesecco needed more, so a meeting with Sixtus himself was arranged. Some rather nice conversation was had in which the pope repeatedly insisted he did not want anyone killed but only wanted a change in the government. Yet when the conspirators, who had plainly stated they would kill Lorenzo if necessary, when they asked if the pope was willing to trust them to do whatever was needed, Sixtus agreed. So, while insisting he wanted no part of killing, Sixtus gave a clear signal to the conspirators that they could go ahead with their plans.

Their plans were simple: kill both Lorenzo de' Medici and his kid brother Giuliano at the first opportunity. With the "tyrant" dead, the city would immediately rally to the Pazzi, who would restore the city to liberty, undo the Medicean laws, and everything would be sunny and bright.

That even the conspirators didn't really believe the city would rally to them can be seen in their intent to murder the Medici while they were in Rome. They feared to do the deed in Florence itself. Lorenzo had an invitation to visit the Pope at Easter, and so the date was fixed for that visit, in March of 1478.