COSIMO DE' MEDICI

Cosimo de' Medici entered Florence on the 6th of October 1434; and from that day the history of the city, for three hundred years, is the history of the Medici.

[56] Cosimo de' Medici was a man of infinite craft. He slowly and stealthily acquired supreme power, by every outward show of democracy. All outward pride of despotism he carefully avoided. He lived in his old residence, nor put on richer apparel nor employed more sumptuous forms of living. He won powerful families to his personal service. His policy was a calculated scheme of proscription, but he saw to it that all harsh proposals came not from him but from his followers. He hounded the Albizzi like vermin. He used the taxes, as assassins use the knife, to destroy his enemies. He saw through the conceit of Luca Pitti, employed him to overthrow the liberty of the people, knowing that his elation at the act would ruin him. By the grim irony of events, Pitti built his famous palace on the hill of San Giorgio, south of the Arno, which was to become the home of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany ! He set aside the ancient enmity of Milan by financing Francesco Sforza, who thus came to the lordship of Milan in 1450.

PIERO DE' MEDICI

Cosimo de' Medici's death in 1464 left his only surviving son, Piero, in power. Piero was middle-aged and in feeble health ; and his five years of rule saw the split in the Medicean party, whereby Pitti, Veroni, Acciaiuoli, and Sederini withdrew from Piero's support. From Pitti's huge palace this party was nicknamed the Mountain, the Medici party the Plain. But Piero's son, Lorenzo de' Medici, was early to prove his capacity. Saving his father from an ugly ambush, the opposing party were overthrown by astute statecraft, and 1468 saw the Medici established in possession of Florence. On the death of Piero de' Medici, on the 3rd of December 1469, [57] Lorenzo de' Medici, his son, only in his twenty-first year, was acclaimed fit to exercise the power of his father and grandfather ; and, after a becoming show of modesty, accepted the burden. He was now as much Duke of Florence as though he bore the title.

LORENZO DE' MEDICI

Lorenzo boldly assumed the bearing of a prince, married into the princely Roman family of the Orsini, and established a magnificent court. He became a patron of art and letters. He foolishly broke with the tradition of his house, and made overtures to his ancient enemy, Venice; the which alienated his old ally, the king of Naples. His rapid seizure of offices of state aroused the rivalry of the noble house of the Pazzi. In 1478 a conspiracy was headed by Jacopo Pazzi, and secretly supported by Pope Sixtus IV. and the king of Naples, whereby Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother Giuliano de' Medici, beloved of the people, were to be assassinated. Mercenaries were hired, headed by Giovanni Battista da Montesecco, to slay the brothers and seize the magistracy. It was essential to kill both brothers. At last the chance came on Sunday the 26th of April 1478, when, both brothers being present in the cathedral, the elevation of the Host was made the signal to strike. Montesecco refused to commit sacrilege by shedding blood in a church ; and two priests took his place. They had not the skill. At the tinkling of the altar-bell, Giuliano was struck down, Francesco Pazzi dealing the death-blow. But Lorenzo, wounded in the shoulder, escaping in the scuffle, reached the sacristy, where his followers slammed the bronze doors in the face of the murderers. Archbishop Salviati, who had gone to the Palazzo to direct the seizure of the magistrates, showed such eagerness that he was [58] suspected and bound, with his followers. Vengeance was swift and terrible. Jacopo Pazzi, rushing into the street, led a procession shouting "Liberty ! "; but the people turned on and seized the leaders and hustled them to the palace. News arriving that Giuliano was dead, ropes were put about the necks of Francesco Pazzi, the Archbishop of Pisa, and the other prisoners, and they were hanged forthwith from the windows. The family of the Pazzi, except Guglielmo, who had married Lorenzo's sister, were blotted out. The two priests were dragged forth from the sanctuary of a monastery to which they had fled, and were barbarously murdered by the mob. Montesecco, who had hurried from Florence, was overtaken, and after giving evidence of the Pope's complicity, was executed. Not one of the murderers escaped. One who had fled to Constantinople was tracked by a spy, brought back, and publicly executed.

The dastardly affair established Lorenzo in the hearts of the people. But Rome and Naples hurled their vast resources against him and Florence. In spite of a splendid resistance, Florence lay at the mercy of the investing troops, when Lorenzo decided on an heroic act. In the December of 1479, he determined to save the city that had fallen upon evil days for his sake. He set out for Naples, to make his peace with Ferdinand, the king, hoping to show that he repented of his Venetian folly. He was completely successful.

Thence, Lorenzo never looked back. He became for twelve years the first statesman in Italy.

In 1492 Lorenzo de' Medici died. It was the year of the discovery of America ; the year of the conquest of Granada ; the year that Alexander VI. was elected Pope of Rome-one of the most momentous years in the history of the world.

[59]

THE FOLLIES OF THE SECOND PIERO DE' MEDICI

The fate of all Italy hung in the balance.

And there succeeded to Lorenzo the Magnificent his vulgar, foolish, and brutish son, Piero de' Medici. The despotism of the Medici rested on statecraft alone-no armies backed their authority. Piero was dowered by every gift of folly to ruin his house ; and he did his best. Swaggering as prince, arrogantly disdainful of citizenship, he played the prince with a rattle. An Orsini by his mother, and mated to an Orsini, he became the tool of Naples, thereby alienating Ludovico Sforza of Milan, and driving Sforza into his desperate appeal to France which brought Charles VIII. and his Frenchmen swarming into Lombardy.

At the coming of the French, our second Piero proved a cur ; his flight from Florence brought back a few troublous years of republicanism to the city, before she relapsed again under the sway of the Medici.