Noble Blood - The Men Who Would Kill the Medici, Part 2

Episode Date: June 27, 2023

The men knew they needed to get rid of Lorenzo de Medici, they just didn't know how. In the end, they decided the right place would be High Mass, on a Sunday, in the Cathedral of Florence. When the archbishop raised the host, the assassins pulled the blades from their cloaks. Sign up for Dana's history writing course!Support Noble Blood— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon— Merch!— Order Dana's book 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Vodam. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot.

But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, The cat, just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be... Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and grim and mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. Quick reminder before we start, this episode is part two of a two-part series on the Potsie conspiracy. so if you haven't listened to last week's episode, you should probably start there. The conspiracy to kill Lorenzo de Medici and his brother Giuliano was in full motion. Girolamo, Potsie and Salvi had enlisted the help of the captain Monteseco, and once the Pope gave his tacit wink of approval,

things were moving ahead full speed, with the men gathering troops and making their plans. Monteseco went to Florence twice to help prepare for the assassination, first to meet with Lorenzo and then to meet with Jacopo de Pazzi, the Pazzi family patriarch, to ensure that he was fully on board. The problem with Monteseco meeting with Lorenzo de Medici was that Medici was actually a very lovely host. Montesico found himself charmed by the humble and generous man that he knew in a few short months he would be tasked with sinking a dagger into. Like Monteseco had been, Jakopo DiPazzi was hesitant at first when approached with the plan to take down the Medici. He understood all too well how powerful the Medici family was, how well-liked they were in Florence,

how razor-thin the margin for error was in an assassination in which they would need to kill both Lorenzo and Giuliano. The irony was the Medici finances were precarious. Yakopo was almost certainly aware that should they choose to wait him out, Lorenzo would be vulnerable, possibly even over in a few years.

But the thing about young men is they want the glamour of violence and action. No one becomes a hero waiting for loans to default. So once the conspirator's minds have been made up that it would be a tyrant's death, they were committed to their plan with a fervor that no logic or patience would penetrate. In the end, Yakopo came around and promised to help with the plan when the time came, probably because he understood that they were going to do it whether or not he supported them, and if they failed, he and the entire Potsie family would be ruined anyway.

The stakes were high, and it was time to pick a side. For the Potsies, they were betting on themselves. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. The logistics of planning the dual assassination would, prove to be challenging, because Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici were rarely together in the same place, and when they were, they were well guarded. But the conspirators had an idea. Pope Sixtus the Fourth had just appointed another of his nephews, a 17-year-old named Raphael, as a cardinal. The new cardinal would need to be celebrated, and so as a sign of false goodwill, a judge of

a gesture of pretending to mend fences between the Medici and the Pope, Girolamo wrote to Lorenzo de Medici and suggested that Medici might want to invite the young new cardinal to his estate and hold a banquet in his honor. The banquet would be a perfect cover because the dinner being in the young cardinal's honor meant that his retinue of papal loyalists and family members would have an excuse to be there.

Meanwhile, men from Perugia and surrounding regions had begun to sneak into Florence so that they would be ready to help lead the revolutionary charge when the assassinations had finally been carried out. The dinner was set up. Lorenzo was there unguarded and without armor. But something was wrong. The conspirators looked around.

Where's a Giuliano? Someone probably asked casually, is he coming soon? No, Giuliano would not be coming that evening. He was in bed with an attack of sciatica, which meant that the assassination was off. If they couldn't get both of the Medici's in one fell swoop, it would never work. The conspirators met out on the back patio

to come up with an emergency contingency plan. Lorenzo would be hosting a dinner the next night, but every minute they waited was another minute that could compromise their plan. Their soldiers were already infiltrating the city, and Medici's spies were everywhere. Sooner or later, the Medici would hear about the plot to assassinate them and destroy them all. Giuliano might not even be at dinner the next night. Time was running out, and they needed to to act quickly. It was too late to back out, and tomorrow night might be too late to carry out the assassinations. Instead, they would attack tomorrow morning. April 26th, 1478. It was a Sunday, the Sunday before ascension day, and Lorenzo and Giuliano would both be at Mass. It was a holy day,

and so there would be throngs of people there. The assassins would be able to squeeze their way through the crowd and kill both brothers as they were praying in the cathedral. At this point, Monteseco balked. He had been hesitant from the beginning for logistical reasons, but now the thought of stabbing a man on a holy day in church was a bridge too far. It's also possible that by this point he sort of loved,

liked Lorenzo de Medici. And so he was out. He wasn't going to go through with the assassination, and so they replaced him. Two priests who didn't have Monteseco's Christian qualms were brought in to do the dirty deed in his place. The next morning, Lorenzo de Medici arrived early to the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiori, standing in the shadow of the magnificent red brick dome, the most of the miracle of engineering, masterminded by Brunelleschi, only a few decades prior at this point. It was the largest dome since the Pantheon in Rome, which had been constructed out of a concrete whose formula had been long since lost to history. The final piece of Brunelleschi's dome, a copper ball done by Verrocchio to be placed atop the lantern, had only been done in 1469,

less than a decade earlier at this point. Ever the attentive host, when Lorenzo heard that the teenage Cardinal, the man of honor, Cardinal Raphaelie, had actually come to his home, expecting them to go to Mass together, Lorenzo returned home so that he and Cardinal Rafaeli

could come back to the cathedral together, arm and arm. The delay gave the assassins the upper hand, more time to establish the scene and get into position. They were ready. Two priests for Lorenzo and for Giuliano, Francesco DiPazzi, and another assassin named Bandini. Archbishop Salviati would go to the palace of the Signoria, the town hall now known as the Palazzo Vecchio. Jacobo de Pazzi would ride throughout the city to try to rally Florentine citizens

to their side. They were ready for the moment of truth. But once again, the assassins found themselves looking around. Juliano was nowhere to be found. I'm sure Potsie looked around, maybe tried to act casual as he asked people around him, where's Juliano? Juliano was still sick in bed. He wanted to come to Mass that morning, but he just didn't seem up to it. Potsie was determined to get him there. Frantic, realizing that time was running out, he raced to the palace where Giuliano was lying in bed. Potzi begged him to come to Mass that morning for the sake of their distinguished guest, the young Cardinal. I'll carry you if I have to, he joked. He walked with Giuliano all the way back to the cathedral, joking and smiling all the way. It seems you've been eating well, Giuliano,

Potzi said, patting the Medici brother's stomach. Really, he was feeling to see if Giuliano was wearing any protection. He wasn't. The cathedral was crowded that day, and the assassins waited nervously for the signal they had agreed upon. The two priests were behind Lorenzo, and Potsie and the assassin Bandini were primed to take down Giuliano. Finally, a bell rang in the church, signaling the elevation of the host. It was the signal.

Bandini was the first to stab, plunging his knife deep into Giuliano. Potzi began stabbing him in the chest, once he fell, so crazed with rage and adrenaline that Giuliano's body would have 19 total stab wounds. Allegedly, Potzi was stabbing so frantically that he stabbed himself in the leg by mistake. Giuliano's servants, in their fear and confusion, had abandoned him, scrambling away to safety. The two priests had tried to stab Loretum. but they lacked the experience that Monteseco would have brought.

One of the assassins grabbed at Lorenzo's sleeve, thinking that he would turn toward him. Instead, Lorenzo spun around the other way, whirling his cape and drawing his own sword to fight off the assassins. The assassin only managed to get a scratch on him before Lorenzo's friends jumped into action behind him and helped protect Lorenzo as he raced toward the security of the high altar. One of Lorenzo's friends was stabbed fatally in the stomach as the assassins tried desperately in vain to follow their target. It was chaos in the cathedral, screaming and shouting. Someone cried that Brunelleschi's dome, that miracle of physics, was collapsing above them. Somehow Lorenzo and a small

group of his friends managed to secure themselves behind the heavy bronze doors of the sacristy. One of Lorenzo's friends began sucking at the shallow wound the assassin had managed to make on Lorenzo, sucking and then spitting the blood onto the floor in case the assassin's blade had been poisoned. Where is Giuliano? Lorenzo said. Where is my brother? Is my brother safe? Where is Giuliano? No one answered. The people had stampeded out of the cathedral. The room was silent. One member of Lorenzo's group of friends was able to climb the organ loft

so that he could look down at the scene to make sure that more enemies weren't waiting outside the bronze doors. He saw Giuliano's body, covered in blood, lying on the floor. Lorenzo's friends surrounded him, a human shield on their way out of his. the cathedral, not to protect him from assassins, but so that Lorenzo wouldn't have to see the mangled body of his little brother. Meanwhile, Archbishop Salviati and Yakopo de Potsi were trying their best to uphold their side of the revolution, attempting to take control of the Palazzo Vecchio and rally the people. On a horse, Jakopo di Patsi rode through the streets, trying to rally the people.

People and liberty, he shouted. People and liberty. He tried to start a chant, but the people of Florence were silent. And then their answer came softly, a murmur from the crowd that became a shout. Polly, they said, Polly. They repeated it, and it became louder. Polly, Polly, Polly. It drowned out, Yacapopo di Potsie's words. Polly, Polly. Polly is ball. the symbol on the Medici sigil. In almost no time, Lorenzo's men had the upper hand at the Palazzo Vecchio. The assassination attempt had succeeded in killing one out of two of its targets, but this was an all-or-nothing game. They had failed, and there would be hell to pay. What the conspirators hadn't quite grasped was how unpopular they were, and how terribly their message would be received.

Lorenzo de Medici didn't even really need to do anything. The people of Florence were outraged at these foreign invaders, these traitors who came in with thugs from foreign territories into their city who killed their golden prince, Giuliano. There was outrage at Lorenzo and the Medici family at the time. There were people in Florence who saw them as, tyrants. But as historian Miles Unger wrote, quote, no matter how compelling the message, the Potsie were the wrong messengers. These conspirators were mad at the Medici for their own

selfish petty reasons. They were the wrong harbingers of revolution. They weren't there to free Florence from oppression. They were there to get rid of a guy who had been thwarting their own personal political ambitions. And they were more loyal to the Pope than they were to Florence. And the people saw that. There was a writer in Florence named Alamano Renuchini. A year after the assassination attempt, he would write a book called On Liberty, in which he would write, quote, It shames me indeed, who was born in this city and in this age, to see the people who once dominated most of Tuscany, as well as regions nearby, led about in circles by the whim of this one youth, referring to Lorenzo de Medici. He was not a Medici fan. He had been there during the assassination,

and even he preferred to protect his own neck rather than join in the Potsie conspiracy. And the consequences of that failed conspiracy were incredibly grisly. The men captured at the Palazzo Vecchio were hanged from the window. Archbishop Salviati was still in his vestiments. The mob took care of justice, quite literally ripping the Potsie men to pieces and piling the body parts on Lorenzo's doorstep as a tribute, along with piles of weapons and other provisions they gathered, as a sign of strength and solidarity. Lorenzo, when he had recovered from his shock, politely greeted the Florentine citizenry and assured them that as grieved as he was for his brother,

he would be strong enough to carry on with state affairs. He thanked them for their support and for his life, and told them there was no need for violence. Quote, I commend myself to you, he said from a second story window. Control yourselves and let justice take its course. Do not harm the innocent. My wound is not serious, end quote. It was a nice thought, but it didn't do much to reign in the mob.

Lorenzo de Medici was able to protect a Potsie brother-in-law and have him merely banished from Florence, and he was able to protect the teenage Cardinal Rafaeli, who hadn't actually been involved in the plan at all, aside from being unwitting bait. But for everyone else, well, the historian Harold Acton describes what happened next as a, quote, orgy of mutilation. Bodies hanged from windows like Christmas ornaments. Heads bobbed down the streets on pikes. One member of the Potsie family tried to escape the town dressed as a beggar,

but he was recognized and hanged. Old Yakopo de Potsie, the patriarch of the family who knew all along it had been a mistake, almost made it out, and when he was captured by guards, he tried to bribe them with gold to just kill him then and there. Once again, his instincts were right, because the guards refused, and when they did, he was dragged naked by a horse through the square. And after Yakopo Di Pazzi was tortured and hanged, he was buried,

but then it started raining and people thought that they were being punished for burying a traitor on consequented ground. So he was dug up and buried again. near the city wall. Then he was dug up again by a group of boys who dragged his corpse around the city and tied his head to the doorbell of his former home, the old Potsie mansion, which, of course, would be raised and looted. They sang dirty songs about him and finally threw his body into the Arno River. It's difficult to imagine a plan to try to regain power going worse. The Potsis weren't just beaten. They were demolished. All of the Potsie symbols were destroyed from the city,

and any Potsie left were forced into exile or forced to change their names. Anyone even married to a Potsie wouldn't be allowed to hold office. Eventually, every conspirator, was tracked down and killed. With the exception of Girolamo, that Lord of Imola, the nephew of the Pope, who had made sure to keep himself actually out of physical harm's way by not being in the city at the time of the actual assassination. But even he would be killed a few years later

in an apparently unrelated assassination scheme. But everyone else was hunted down and eliminated. The two bumbling priests, who had botched Lorenzo's stabbing, made it to a monastery, but eventually even the monks realized that they had to give them up in order to assuage the mobs outside. When Monteseco was captured, he gave a full confession, which might be why he got a slightly more dignified death than public hanging.

He was beheaded in the courtyard of the Bargello, which had been a prison and is now a lovely sculpture museum. The final conspirator caught was actually the one who made the first strike. Bandini, the assassin whose stab had taken down beautiful young Giuliano de Medici. Bandini had made it all the way to Constantinople, but even he couldn't escape his fate. He was arrested by Sultan Muhammad II and at the request of the Florentine ambassador, who happened to be a Medea. cousin, he was returned to Florence, where he was hanged from the window of the Bargello, still wearing his Turkish outfit. Why had they kept him in his costume, his cap and vest and

turquoise jacket? Well, it sent a message. No matter how far you run to Constantinople or beyond, you can't escape the Medici. After the dust had cleared and the blood had been swept from the streets, there was still the business of private mourning to be done. Lorenzo was bereft at the loss of his brother Giuliano, but there was one small glimmer of hope and of joy. After Juliana's death, Lorenzo learned that his brother, Ever the Playboy, had actually fathered an illegitimate child just a few months old. Lorenzo would see that the child was educated alongside his own children, and while Giuliano had never been made a cardinal, his son was. And that illegitimate son, whose father was killed with the tacit approval of the Pope,

would eventually go on to become the Pope himself, Clement the 7th. That's the story of the Potsie conspiracy, but if you want to hear a little bit more about one A-list cameo in this saga, stick around after a brief sponsor break. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place they come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on, I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means. He said, if it was based solely on. talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved.

And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right.

It wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Wodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever.

I went and had lunch with them one day, and I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through, and I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you, which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot. He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit.

If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar. of, you know, the cat just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be... Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. If you were interested in how we knew so much about Bandini's hanging, as in what exactly he was wearing,

it's because there was an artist who just happened to be there taking notes. Though the artist did draw the hanging body, he seemed to be more. interested in the exotic Constantinople clothing Bandini was wearing, than the grotesquery of the execution itself. The artist described in his notes that Bandini wore a, quote, tawny cap, black satin vest, turquoise blue jacket lined with fox. The journal that the artist wrote in is still at the Louvre, but the artist was actually from Florence.

Well, he was from a small town near Browse. by Vinci. The artist's name was Leonardo. Noble Blood is a production of IHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is created and hosted by me, Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Mira Hayward, Courtney Sender, and Lori Goodman. The show is edited and produced by Noami Griffin and Remaer, and Remaer Il Kali with supervising producer Josh Thane and executive producers Aaron Manky, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick.

For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodom. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever, if you ever, reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right. It wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Yeah. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed, human.