Conspiracy of Pazzi

The conspiracy of Pazzi is a fomented plot with Florence by the Pazzi family against the Médicis in 1478 and which showed a failure, the assassins having been stopped and Laurent de Médicis having escaped with the attack.

The house of Pazzi is a former noble family of Florence, originating in the valley of Arno, where it had great strongholds, and which was rival keen among that of Médicis.

Exit of a prestigious line (in 1099, Pazzino de Pazzi, glory was covered during I Crusade, while being the first knight to enter Jerusalem), the family of Pazzi is at the 15th century one of most former and important families of Florence, and, for this reason, représentatrice of an old order where the old aristocracy exerted its influence on the Italian republics.

Médicis, installed downtown recently, commoners and in addition " new riches" , dominate the political life of the city. A confrontation appears almost inevitable and if Bianca de Médicis, girl of Pierre Goutteux and sister of Julien and Laurent married Guglielmo de Pazzi, old hatreds never really disappeared.

The rise of putting Médicis, with the eyes of their enemies, in danger freedoms of the Republic of Florence, Pazzi take the head of the plot intended for évincer Médicis of the circle of the capacity (and to replace them like first family of the city).

Pazzi can also count on the support of the pope Sixte IV. Sovereign pontiff, elected in 1471, is indeed confronted with the firmness of Médicis about the areas of Imola and Faenza, possessions florentines which he would like to intend for his nephew, Jerome Riario, of which he supports the rise without reserve.

A plot is then warped with an aim of eliminating Julien and Laurent de Médicis, thus decapitating the family of its main leaders.

After a fallen through attempt the day before, at the time of a banquet where Julien, upset, does not go, on April 26th, 1478, Easter Day, at the time of rise, Julien de Médicis and its Laurent brother, knelt, are attacked by Francesco de Pazzi and its accomplices: Julien succumbs of 19 stabs but Laurent, taken refuge in the sacristy, escapes from it. The participants in the plot very quickly are uncovered and punished: the archbishop of Pisa, whose passage had served as a pretext for the plot, is immediately hung. Jacopo, Renato and Francesco de Pazzi as for them quickly are found and carried out. Guglielmo de Pazzi, husband of Bianca, are saved but condemned to a perpetual exile.

Sixth IV however succeeds in involving its allies in a war against Médicis and Florence, which it still did not give up: the war of Pazzi , in which the pope, combined to king de Naples, in Lucques, Urbino and His, fight against Florence, will still last a few years.

With final, the failure of the conspiracy of Pazzi marks a turning in the history of the dynasty: it enormously reinforces the popularity of Laurent who will become the Splendid one, and makes indisputably of Médicis the premiums inter counter Florence, avoiding them of a prestige then unequalled.

The history of the conspiracy of Pazzi was written by Ange Politien and provided to Alfieri the subject of a tragedy.

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