The Pazzi Conspiracy
A rival Florentine banking family, backed by Pope Sixtus IV, attempted to assassinate Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici during Sunday Mass in Florence Cathedral. Giuliano died. Lorenzo escaped. His retaliation was decisive enough that Medici rule tightened for another fifteen years.
The Pazzi Conspiracy is one of the few assassination attempts in history that made its target more powerful. The conspirators' banks were ruined within months. The Pope's role was so transparent that much of Christian Europe quietly distanced itself.
01 · Medici & Monarchs
Information was property of whoever owned the fastest couriers. The Medici bank, founded 1397, was the Bloomberg terminal of its era — papal accounts, royal debts, grain prices across the Mediterranean, all passing through one family's ledgers in Florence.
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