A CRIMINAL HISTORY OF MANKIND

The boy Raffaello was told nothing about the plot. He was due to collect Lorenzo at his house on
Easter Sunday and then go on to the cathedral to perform Mass. When the plotters arrived at
Lorenzo’s house, they were told that he had already gone ahead with Raffaello. But his brother was
still in bed. Pazzi and Baroncelli asked to see Giuliano, exerted their powers of persuasion, and
finally got him to dress and accompany them to the cathedral. As they walked in, Pazzi gave
Giuliano a friendly squeeze around the waist: he was actually feeling to see if he had brought his
dagger. Giuliano was unarmed.
At the given signal, Baroncelli shouted ‘Traitor’ and plunged his dagger into Giuliano’s side. Then
other members of the Pazzi family rushed forward and stabbed him another eighteen times.
Giuliano died almost immediately. But the priest Maffei was less successful with Lorenzo. Instead
of striking first, he placed a hand on Lorenzo’s shoulder to steady him for a powerful blow.
Lorenzo, more alert than his sick brother, turned quickly, and received a stab wound in the neck. As
Pazzi and Baroncelli rushed up to stab him, Lorenzo was surrounded by his friends and hustled into
the sacristy, which had bronze doors. The assassins battered on these in vain, then decided it was
time to leave. Lorenzo waited until the cathedral was empty and was led home by his friends.
Meanwhile, the head of the Pazzi family was riding around outside waving his sword and shouting
‘Liberty and the republic’ at the top of his voice. The angry crowd shouted ‘Balls’, not a reference
to that part of the anatomy but to the balls on the Medici coat of arms. When the crowd showed
signs of turning ugly, Jacopo rode out of the city gate to his country estate.
Archbishop Salviati’s part of the plot was to hurry to the Signoria Palace, where the town
councillors - the priors - were meeting and announce that he was taking over the government of the
city. His crowd of hired bravos were to rush in shortly afterwards to intimidate the priors. But
having entered the courtyard, and let Salviati into the palace, they closed the door behind him,
unaware that it had recently been fitted with a spring lock, so that they could not get in. So when,
stuttering and stammering, Salviati tried to make his announcement - looking anxiously over his
shoulder and wondering what had happened to his bravos - the head of the town council called his
guards and arrested the archbishop.
Meanwhile news of Giuliano’s murder had spread, and an angry crowd gathered outside the palace.
When the gate was forced open they found the trapped bravos and massacred them. Some of the
crowd rushed to the Pazzis’ house, where Francesco had retired to bed with a wound in his leg; he
was dragged back to the palace. Then, as the crowd below screamed ‘Balls!’, the body of Francesco
shot out of the upstairs window, a rope around the neck, and stopped with a grotesque jerk. There
was a sound of screaming, and Archbishop Salviati fell out of the same window; he was actually
seen to bite Pazzi in the breast as he dangled on the end of the rope, then try to bite through the
rope with his teeth. Two more of the plotters followed him. In the square, anyone who was
suspected of being in the plot was hacked to death. The boy cardinal had to be escorted back home,
while the crowd shouted threats about lynching. Finally, Lorenzo himself appeared at the window
of the Signoria, his neck bandaged, and asked the crowd to go to their homes. They obeyed him.
The other two Pazzis - Jacopo and Renato - were caught two days later. Jacopo was tortured and
then hanged naked. The innocent Renato, who had opposed the plot, was also hanged on Lorenzo’s
orders. Such sternness was uncharacteristic of Lorenzo; but he had loved his brother very deeply.
The two priests who had tried to stab him were found in hiding; their ears and noses were sliced
off, then they were hanged. The hired killer Montesecco was also caught and tortured; he made a
full confession implicating the pope, and as a result was allowed a soldier’s death by the sword.