Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Missed in History Class from how
Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Dowdy, and today we
Speaker 1: are starting a new series, a super series if you will. Yep,
Speaker 1: it's on the Medici and we're hoping that we're going
Speaker 1: to be able to connect it back around to our
Speaker 1: series on Elizabeth, specifically through Mary Quinnith Scott's, so you
Speaker 1: can just puzzle on that one for a little bit
Speaker 1: and see if you can figure it out. We're starting
Speaker 1: today with the Popsy Conspiracy, a dramatic event that shook
Speaker 1: the city of Florence and also transformed the Medici's most
Speaker 1: illustrious family member into the man we know, Lorenzo the Magnificent.
Speaker 1: So this is a suggestion from listener Nicolette, who really
Speaker 1: tantalized us with her description. She wrote, this plot consists
Speaker 1: of conspiracy, murder, betrayal in a serious doe of retribution.
Speaker 1: So if you're ready, we're just going to dive right in.
Speaker 1: Since we'll be spending a lot of time with the
Speaker 1: Medici family, we wanted to give you a little bit
Speaker 1: of background so you probably know them as patrons of
Speaker 1: the arts, as well as machiavellian game players, wealthy bankers,
Speaker 1: men of the people. But um, originally they were Tuscan peasants. Yeah,
Speaker 1: despite their later alliances with great royal families and their
Speaker 1: great wealth, they aren't noblemen. Their bourgeois and they come
Speaker 1: to Florence sometime in the twelfth century and make a
Speaker 1: fortune over the next hundred years. Um. They work their
Speaker 1: way into becoming one of the city's leading families during
Speaker 1: a thirty depression which bankrupts most of the rest of
Speaker 1: the city's elite. Um. But there are a few lines
Speaker 1: of powerful Medici, and the one that concerns us today
Speaker 1: rose to power in the late fourteenth century with Giovanni
Speaker 1: Debchy de Medici, who inherited this great business of banking,
Speaker 1: cloth manufacturer, silk manufacturer. And his son is Customo, who
Speaker 1: helps politicize the family. And Customo's grandson is Lorenzo, and
Speaker 1: that's Lorenzo the Magnificent, and he's the guy we're talking
Speaker 1: about today. So young Lorenzo is not so great at
Speaker 1: actually running the bank, but he's good at politics, and
Speaker 1: he's been bred to rule the city of Florence along
Speaker 1: with his brother and co ruler, Giuliano. So Florence is
Speaker 1: a republic, but the Medici have control over it through
Speaker 1: allies and the council, some very wise marriage matches, and
Speaker 1: some underhanded payoffs. That's what they're really good at, underhanded payoff.
Speaker 1: They're not warriors. They make things happen with bribes, with money.
Speaker 1: Um Encyclopedia Britannica and the historian Francesco Guiciardini says that
Speaker 1: Lorenzo's regime was that of a benevolent tyrant in a
Speaker 1: constitutional republic. Plus he's good at keeping bread prices low,
Speaker 1: having law of uh, lots of festivals and parties, things
Speaker 1: that Florentine bred and circus. He's really good at that.
Speaker 1: But to me, this sounds like an awfully good way
Speaker 1: to breed resentment among your peers. And oh, Sarah, you
Speaker 1: are so very correct. We need to take a look
Speaker 1: at our conspirators, the people who have such resentment against
Speaker 1: Lorenzo de Medici. The Pozzi family is a great rival
Speaker 1: to the Medici family, and they would really like to
Speaker 1: see them fall. Frankly, Lorenzo has been messing with the
Speaker 1: Pozzi family. Anyways. There was a woman who was supposed
Speaker 1: to inherit a great deal of money, and he maneuvered
Speaker 1: it in such a way that it was actually her
Speaker 1: cousins and not her that ended up with it. So
Speaker 1: there's her Popsy husband. Well there's some there's some personal
Speaker 1: stuff in there is as well as money stuff. So
Speaker 1: we have Francesco de Pozzi who is plotting a coup
Speaker 1: against the Medici against Lorenzo, who co rules with his
Speaker 1: brother Giuliano. It's interesting though, the Pozzy Patriarch is not
Speaker 1: part of this plan. Even though we have this thing,
Speaker 1: it's called the Possy conspiracy. The patriarch is an important
Speaker 1: is not wanting to do this. He only agrees to
Speaker 1: go along with it when he realizes that if they
Speaker 1: go ahead with the plot, he's going to be implicated regardless,
Speaker 1: so he might as well join in try to make
Speaker 1: it happen. And the Popsy have some very powerful allies,
Speaker 1: namely Pope Sixtus the Fourth, since the Posse Bank has
Speaker 1: assumed the business affairs of the papacy. This is again
Speaker 1: another beat that the Medici and the Popsy had together,
Speaker 1: because the Medici controlled most banking stuff except for this,
Speaker 1: and the Pope has his own personal beefs too, along
Speaker 1: with his nephew, Girolamo Riaro. Um. And that's that has
Speaker 1: something to do with the fact that this is this
Speaker 1: is a pope who has tremendous interest in temporal affairs
Speaker 1: and he's trying to consolidate the power of the papacy
Speaker 1: and uh, the Medici are not being very much. In fact,
Speaker 1: they're thwarting him. And also on the ecclesiastical anti Medici side,
Speaker 1: we have Francesco Salviati Riario who was the Archbishop of Pizza,
Speaker 1: but Lorenzo wouldn't recognize him, so burn archbishop. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so far we've got the Pozsi family, the pope and
Speaker 1: his nephew the archbishop. To bring in one more major conspirator,
Speaker 1: we have Federico de monte Feltro and you'd recognize him
Speaker 1: if he saw his picture, the famous dual portrait painted
Speaker 1: by Piero della Francesca. He's got this ridiculous hooked, nos.
Speaker 1: You definitely like just google his name you'll find him. Um.
Speaker 1: He commits six hundred troops to this, uh, this conspiracy effort,
Speaker 1: hoping to bring down Medici control. And that's we should
Speaker 1: make it clear here that this isn't just a plot
Speaker 1: against the two Medici brothers, the two co rulers. To
Speaker 1: make it actually happen and to really seize control from
Speaker 1: the Medici family, a whole big thing is going to
Speaker 1: have to happen. But before these armies can come in
Speaker 1: and unseat the Medici rule, bump bump bomb, two men
Speaker 1: must die. So here's our plot. Lorenzo de Medici is
Speaker 1: a pretty reckless dude, considering his powerful position in Florence.
Speaker 1: One of the few things that he agrees to, though,
Speaker 1: to to protect his own safety, is that he rarely
Speaker 1: appears in public with his brother. And for this plot
Speaker 1: to work, both of the brothers need to be attacked
Speaker 1: and killed at the same time. You go after one
Speaker 1: of them and the other gets wind of it, he's
Speaker 1: going to lock himself up in the Medici palace and
Speaker 1: you're not going to see him for the next year.
Speaker 1: But Pope Sixtus the Fourth, despite being invested in this plot,
Speaker 1: isn't too keen on anyone being killed. According to a
Speaker 1: later confession from one of the conspirators who pulls out
Speaker 1: at the last minute, Giovanni Battista, who's the Count of Montseco,
Speaker 1: who's also a mercenary Um six says, in no case,
Speaker 1: well I have the death of anyone. It is not
Speaker 1: my office to cause the death of a man. But
Speaker 1: you know, he's pope. He's got to say something like that,
Speaker 1: at least to have it on record. And what does yeah,
Speaker 1: what what does he think is going to happen? If
Speaker 1: you're trying to take down the Medici family, you've got
Speaker 1: to have the two brothers fall. They will be blood.
Speaker 1: So in the lead up to our Easter of fourteen
Speaker 1: seventy eight, our conspirators start trickling into Florence kind of
Speaker 1: one by one. They're going to play it by ears
Speaker 1: see if they can contrive some kind of an opportunity
Speaker 1: for them to do what they need to do and
Speaker 1: bring the brothers together well and kill them and then
Speaker 1: sees control of important parts of the state and rally
Speaker 1: the people to their cause. So Lorenzo seems pretty clueless
Speaker 1: about what's going on. He's not noticing all the strangers
Speaker 1: that are coming into town because lots of people are
Speaker 1: coming in for all the Easter festivities, and he's feel
Speaker 1: like things might be falling because his enemies are being
Speaker 1: really friendly to him. Yeah, he's welcoming all these men
Speaker 1: who are secretly plotting to kill him. Um, he's welcomed
Speaker 1: monts Secco to his home, the Mercenary. Um he's he's
Speaker 1: done such a good job. Lorenzo is such a such
Speaker 1: a game player that Montesecco is even having second thoughts
Speaker 1: because he's he likes him so much. Um, he's invited
Speaker 1: and welcomed a kinsman of the Pope, Raphael sin sony Riario,
Speaker 1: who's the newest seventeen year old cardinal. We should say
Speaker 1: this pope was um pretty big into nepotism. So you know,
Speaker 1: maybe things are okay with Sixtus now too, Maybe maybe
Speaker 1: the papal relations are thawing. And he's entertained arch conspirator
Speaker 1: Francesco to Pozzi at his own home for a pre
Speaker 1: Easter luncheon along with the Archbishop of Pizzas. So he's thinking,
Speaker 1: all right, great, you know, maybe things are good with Sixtus,
Speaker 1: Maybe things are okay with the potsy things are looking
Speaker 1: at yep. So the plotters, though, are decidedly more freaked
Speaker 1: out than their intended victims. Lorenzo might not really understand
Speaker 1: what going on, but the plotters are getting nervous, mainly because,
Speaker 1: like we said, it's hard to get Giuliano and Lorenzo together,
Speaker 1: and they're scrambling to make it happen. Uh. The luncheon
Speaker 1: would have been a pretty good opportunity to assassinate the brothers,
Speaker 1: except that Giuliano cancels at the last minute because of
Speaker 1: an eye infection. So the archbishop, you know, trying to
Speaker 1: quickly stage a second to get together, uh, suggests that
Speaker 1: the Medici brothers show them all their finery and their
Speaker 1: Florencine mansion. Sarah, you should come see my gold. Lay
Speaker 1: out your gold and silk and I'll come over. Um,
Speaker 1: so you know the Laurenzo. Okay, that sounds that sounds
Speaker 1: like a good plan. But before it can happen, he
Speaker 1: goes ahead and invites all the guests, in a real
Speaker 1: gesture of goodwill here invites them all to attend Mass
Speaker 1: with him the next morning. And here we go, this
Speaker 1: is our opportunity. Both of the Medici brothers are going
Speaker 1: to be together at Eastern Mass time for a murder.
Speaker 1: But Monte Secho pulls out saying, you know, no way
Speaker 1: am I going to kill someone in church at Easter Mass.
Speaker 1: Just think about that. For a second, and his replacements
Speaker 1: are two disgruntled priests. So let's set the scene. We
Speaker 1: are at the Duomo on Easter morning. Lorenzo has walked
Speaker 1: to church arm in arm with Cardinal Raphaeli, and he
Speaker 1: swept up greeting friends as soon as he arrives and
Speaker 1: winds up standing about to the right of the altar
Speaker 1: and priests with daggers positioned themselves behind him. Giuliano again
Speaker 1: is a no show. Remember he was sick the day before.
Speaker 1: With this I in action should is stuck with the
Speaker 1: iron fection. I know I could have been a little
Speaker 1: worse for him. So Francesco de Pazzi and another conspirator,
Speaker 1: Bernardo Bandini, go to collect him from his home, and
Speaker 1: you've got to wonder what they say to him to
Speaker 1: make him get out of bed with his eye infection
Speaker 1: and go to church in the morning. But they convinced him,
Speaker 1: and on the walk to the cathedral, Francesco even puts
Speaker 1: his arm around Giuliano and says, your illness seems to
Speaker 1: have made you fat. He's really checking for armor, Giuliano.
Speaker 1: So like, if your friend does this to you, beware lesson,
Speaker 1: please remember. So they arrive at church, and Potsi and
Speaker 1: Bandini position themselves behind him. So we've got the priests
Speaker 1: behind Lorenzo, and we've got Bandini and Potsi behind Giuliano
Speaker 1: and the Duomo. It's real chatty and loud. Everybody is
Speaker 1: having a good time, but everyone gets quiet right at
Speaker 1: the bell before the elevation of the host, which is
Speaker 1: the agreed upon signal for the conspirators. Right when that happens,
Speaker 1: the attackers strike, and Bandini is the first to strike.
Speaker 1: He hits Giuliano shouting here Trader Pozzy begins to strike
Speaker 1: him as he falls, slashing so much that he cuts
Speaker 1: his own leg. Giuliano sustains nineteen wounds. Lorenzo is too
Speaker 1: far away to see any of this happening to Giuliano,
Speaker 1: but obviously everyone can hear it, and one of the
Speaker 1: priests grabs Lorenzo before he actually tries to strike. Lorenzo
Speaker 1: shakes him off, whips around his cloak to dodge the blow,
Speaker 1: and grabs his own sword, although he gets nicked in
Speaker 1: the neck and the Medici friends immediately surround Lorenzo whisk
Speaker 1: him off to the sacristy, which is secured by these
Speaker 1: massive bronze doors. Bandini keeps his head in all the
Speaker 1: chaos that's starting to happen, and pursues Lorenzo, knowing that
Speaker 1: if Lorenzo doesn't die too, this whole thing is not
Speaker 1: going to work. And in his pursuit he runs through
Speaker 1: one of Lorenzo's friends with his sword, and he gets
Speaker 1: to the sacristy right as they're bolting the doors to
Speaker 1: protect Lorenzo. So Bandini flees town. Pozzy, who's hurt, limps
Speaker 1: home and and retreats, just knowing the whole thing is
Speaker 1: is lost and probably that he's a dead man, and
Speaker 1: the priests scurry out into the streets and alleyways. The
Speaker 1: crowd is panicking. Some people are shouting that the dome
Speaker 1: is falling. We couldn't help thinking chicken. Little Lorenzo's friends
Speaker 1: fear that he's been poisoned, and Antonio Ridolfi actually sucks
Speaker 1: the wound to try to get this phantom venom out
Speaker 1: of it. It must have been quite the site of
Speaker 1: the church of that day, But the murder and the
Speaker 1: murder attempt at the cathedral are just one piece of
Speaker 1: this conspiracy. And at the same time, the archbishop and
Speaker 1: the Perusian men intend to seize Palazzo Vecchio, which was
Speaker 1: an important seed of the government, and it would be
Speaker 1: you'd have to have it if you were about to
Speaker 1: take control of Florence. But the Medici allies. They're suspicious.
Speaker 1: The archbishop turns out not to be a very smooth talker.
Speaker 1: They figure some things up and there turns out to
Speaker 1: be a scuffle inside the palace. The archbishop, of course,
Speaker 1: was supposed to secure the Pelazzo Vecchio. We know that
Speaker 1: hasn't happened. And the next part of the plan was
Speaker 1: for the Pozzi patriarch to come and rally the people.
Speaker 1: But when he comes riding into the square to you
Speaker 1: join them and rally everyone, no one listens. Has made
Speaker 1: very clear that the people support the Medici. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: shouting these old cries for Florence, and the people are
Speaker 1: just shouting cries for the Medici. But there's one catch
Speaker 1: about supporting the Medici. The Medici still have to be alive,
Speaker 1: and people aren't sure if Lorenzo has survived this attack.
Speaker 1: But he has. He's been spirited home by an armed
Speaker 1: guard and he sends a note to Milan for help.
Speaker 1: Milan at this point is ruled by a regent whose
Speaker 1: husband had also been killed in a church. I don't
Speaker 1: know why everyone is killing people in churches, And he
Speaker 1: appears to the people from his window, appealing for reason
Speaker 1: and calmness, but the people want a vengeance. So we're
Speaker 1: going to give you a rundown of what happens to
Speaker 1: some of the major conspirators in the following days. The
Speaker 1: Perusians who are locked up in the Palazzo Vecchio are
Speaker 1: thrown from the window alive one by one and die
Speaker 1: on the on the steps. Francesco Pozzi, who is seriously injured,
Speaker 1: is ragged from his bed, almost torn to pieces in
Speaker 1: the street, and then hanged naked from the Palazzo Vecchio's window.
Speaker 1: The archbishop is also hanged from the window in his
Speaker 1: ecclesiastical robes, and there's I guess an urban legend kind
Speaker 1: of that he bites Francesco de Pozzi on his way down, which, wow,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know what else to say about that,
Speaker 1: so we just won't and we'll move on. There are
Speaker 1: sevent d executions and lynch ings over the next few days.
Speaker 1: Body parts start piling up in front of the Medici house,
Speaker 1: and Laurenzo kind of stands on the sidelines for everybody
Speaker 1: except his sister's pozzy husband. He intervenes for him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Old Pozsi is hunted down, captured, also hanged from the window,
Speaker 1: and his body is exhumed twice. Exclamation yeah perfect. The
Speaker 1: kids drag it around the city and it's eventually thrown
Speaker 1: into the river. The priests are found hiding in the
Speaker 1: monastery and their noses and ears are cut off for
Speaker 1: they're executed, and Montseco, the mercenary who pulled out at
Speaker 1: the last minute. He cooperates, confesses and for his pains,
Speaker 1: gets to be beheaded instead of hanged from the window.
Speaker 1: Bandini escapes to Constantinople, but that is not far enough.
Speaker 1: Lorenzo has the Sultan sent him home, where he is
Speaker 1: also hanged from the window. One year later, so guys,
Speaker 1: it's pope time. He's really angry, but he can't punish
Speaker 1: someone for not dying in a plot. That's not a
Speaker 1: really good way to go after Lorenzo, and also he's
Speaker 1: in an awkward position. Basically, everybody knows that the pope
Speaker 1: sanctioned this plot, but they can't say it because he is,
Speaker 1: after all, the pope. So he's looking for a way
Speaker 1: to punish Lorenzo, and he finds one um for the
Speaker 1: lynching of the archbishop in his ecclesiastical robes, which made
Speaker 1: it doubly bad. Apparently on a Sunday the archbishop should
Speaker 1: have been subject to ecclesiastical courts, not just hanged from
Speaker 1: the palazzo window biting people. No less, Lorenzo's in a
Speaker 1: tight spot, and at first he says something along the
Speaker 1: lines of you know, okay, I will give myself to them,
Speaker 1: but the people take pity on him and say, no,
Speaker 1: you know, no, we love we love the Medici. So
Speaker 1: instead he decides to make this piece gesture to the
Speaker 1: Pope by returning his nephew, Cardinal Raffaelli, who has been
Speaker 1: held hostage, to maintain his popular support, while at the
Speaker 1: same time he hopes he'll be appeasing the Pope to
Speaker 1: take the upper hand. The Pope, though, is really not
Speaker 1: grateful about this very nice gesture. Lorenzo is excommunicated the
Speaker 1: next day, so clearly, uh Sixesses is really angry about
Speaker 1: this whole thing. But the Pope's problem is with the
Speaker 1: Medici and not with Florence and the people of Florence.
Speaker 1: So he hopes to wear the city down through a
Speaker 1: war of attrition with his ally Naples Army. Eventually, he's
Speaker 1: hoping that the people of Florence will get so tired
Speaker 1: of the countryside being pillaged and just all all the
Speaker 1: problems of war, a war that stretches on for two years,
Speaker 1: that they'll they'll get sick of Florenzo and they'll decide
Speaker 1: to stop protecting him. He also wears them down spiritually
Speaker 1: by placing the city under interdict, which suspends public worship
Speaker 1: and threatens Florentine souls. They are all kinds of of
Speaker 1: rituals and religious ceremonies that you aren't allowed to perform
Speaker 1: if you're under interdict, kind of the equivalent of excommunication,
Speaker 1: except for a city. Um. But this doesn't work very
Speaker 1: well because it's not just the Florentine public that support
Speaker 1: the medici. The Florentine priests are behind them as well,
Speaker 1: and they say, nope, you know, we're worshiping anyways. And
Speaker 1: this is this is an important thing for this city
Speaker 1: and countryside that's about to go into war for the
Speaker 1: next two years, that they have their religious solace. So
Speaker 1: the war stretches on for two years, as we've mentioned,
Speaker 1: and Lorenzo isn't a soldier, so he's not very good
Speaker 1: at this. He's also got way too much on his plate.
Speaker 1: He's ruling a city, he's dealing with business affairs, and
Speaker 1: he misses having his brother and co ruler around as well.
Speaker 1: He also starts to nip at the public money funds,
Speaker 1: which is something that will haunt him later. So eventually
Speaker 1: he realizes enough is enough. He I mean, he's probably
Speaker 1: starting to realize that with um, the threat of plague
Speaker 1: on Florence, and as we said, two years of this
Speaker 1: war of attrition, he's probably not going to be able
Speaker 1: to count on the support of the people much longer.
Speaker 1: So on December seven, fourteen seventy nine, he decides he'll
Speaker 1: go to Naples, since he's the guy who they have
Speaker 1: a problem with. This is a bold move because the
Speaker 1: King of Naples is a sadistic guy. But the two
Speaker 1: of them talk and they start working out some slow negotiations.
Speaker 1: I think fernand the king is pretty impressed that that
Speaker 1: Lorenzo would even show up, or at least, if not impressed,
Speaker 1: taken aback by it um And eventually they come to
Speaker 1: peace and Lorenzo returns and triumph and the Pope is
Speaker 1: forced to give up his vendetta without the Army of
Speaker 1: Naples to support it. So Lorenzo comes out of the
Speaker 1: Pozzy conspiracy with his worst enemies dead and the unquestionable
Speaker 1: support of the Florentine people. And his brother Giuliano turned
Speaker 1: out to have had an illegitimate son right before he
Speaker 1: was killed. Lorenzo raises the boy, Giulio, as his own,
Speaker 1: and he grows up to become Pope Clement the seventh.
Speaker 1: So is this the start to our Medici series. It's
Speaker 1: the the event that made the man who kind of
Speaker 1: makes the family, and look forward to our next episode
Speaker 1: on Girolamo Savonarola and in the meantime, if you'd like
Speaker 1: to learn more about the papacy, you can come to
Speaker 1: our homepage and look for the article how the Papacy
Speaker 1: Works at www dot how stuff works dot com. For
Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how
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