Francesco de' Pazzi

Francesco de' Pazzi

## Early life

Francesco de' Pazzi was born to an Italian noble family of the Pazzi who were also bankers. His grandfather Andrea Pazzi was a successful banker and also a rival to Cosimo de' Medici. He and Lorenzo grew up together as friends until the death of his father, after which he came under the care of his uncle Jacopo de' Pazzi, who forbade Francesco to see his friend Lorenzo again out of his hatred towards the Medici family.

Hence, Francesco grows to be a potent rival towards Lorenzo the Magnificent and his brother Giuliano de' Medici.

## Old scores

**Francesco de' Pazzi** is shown returning from Rome to Florence after being ordered by his uncle Jacopo de' Pazzi to oversee their bank affairs in Rome.

While in Florence, when Giuliano de' Medici alongside his brother Lorenzo and friend Sandro Botticelli confront his uncle of being involved in an assassination attempt on Piero de' Medici, Francesco deliberately provokes Giuliano by calling his father "ridiculous", to which he impulsively reacts by injuring Jacopo in the arm, followed by him being in the prison until the Priori's hearing.

Later after Jacopo de' Pazzi proves himself free of guilty, and Lorenzo asking for forgiveness regarding their idle accusations and on behalf of his younger brother's behavior, Francesco has Giuliano beaten off very brutally in the alleys out of his anger over him. However, when Lorenzo summons the Lord Priors in his home to ask for their votes to take his ailing father's place, he forgives Francesco in order to gain a vote from his uncle Jacopo.

## Standing alone

After Lorenzo leaves for the Curia in Rome to negotiate with the Pope, Francesco asks their cousin Francesco Salviati who happens to be serving as a priest in the Curia to sabotage Lorenzo's meeting with the Pope and hence he successfully turns the Pope cold against Lorenzo.

Meanwhile in the joust competition, Lorenzo stood to compete with Francesco who sabotages the contest by cutting the ties of Lorenzo's seat on his horse. Resulting in Lorenzo falling off the horse but however in the next round, he could ride well and Francesco loses his silver helmet to Lorenzo eventually.

## Obstacles and opportunities

A member from the restricted council in the Priori gets indisposed and therefore the Lord Priors elect Francesco to obtain his seat alongside his uncle Jacopo de' Pazzi thus creating more resistance towards Lorenzo. Meanwhile, Lorenzo who wishes to establish a trade alliance with the Milanese duchy presents its proposals to the Priori but Francesco who now holds a strong position in the Priori and his uncle Jacopo refuse to vote in favor.

However, when Guglielmo and Bianca de' Medici run away to get marry, Francesco is ordered by his uncle Jacopo to blackmail Lorenzo regarding his family's honor, but Francesco remains reluctant as he feared of his own younger brother Guglielmo's honor. Later, when Lorenzo himself persuades Jacopo to arrange an official marriage union between the lovers, he disowns Guglielmo as a Pazzi, much to Francesco's dismay who out of his brother's love turns against his uncle and votes in Lorenzo's favor.

## Blood with blood

A miner in the city of Volterra discovers the alum crystals in his mine and Lorenzo is informed by a merchant. To enhance his good relations with the Pazzis Lorenzo offers a joint trade to be carried out by their banks to Francesco while on Bianca's and Guglielmo's wedding. But Francesco remains reluctant due to his uncle's interventions, however during the wedding ceremony Francesco meets Novella Foscari, daughter of an ambassador of the Venetian Doge, invited by the Medicis on their daughter's wedding.

On the side when Lorenzo starts to trade the alum on behalf of the Pope, to worsen the relationships of the papacy and the Medici, Jacopo de' Pazzi hires another trader to deal with the merchants of Volterra thus enraging the Pope who decides to unleash an army to ransack the city much to Lorenzo's dismay, who then implores Francesco to search for the proofs against his own uncle to save the people of Volterra. At first reluctant on betraying his own uncle, Francesco finds the proofs but much to their misfortune the city gets sacked by the papal army.

During all of this, Lorenzo had decided to arrange for an union between Novella and his brother Giuliano to establish a potent alliance with Venice but Giuliano refuses the proposal due to being interested in Simonetta Vespucci thus enraging the Venetian ambassador. Fortunately to help her husband Clarice Orsini implores the ambassador, who was looking for a Florentine banking family for his daughter, to marry Novella off to Francesco as the two seemed to have been taken by each other thus making the Venetian alliance for Lorenzo possible while Francesco willingly accepts the marriage proposal.

## Ties that bind

After a year has passed Francesco now being a good ally to Lorenzo is asked to be a Godfather of Lorenzo's newly born son, Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici much to Giuliano's dismay who does not like the idea of Francesco being too involved in their family matters and therefore stays cold towards Lorenzo and Francesco both. While Francesco being at dire relations with his uncle Jacopo de' Pazzi, his wife Novella visits Jacopo who tries to gain her sympathies while in reality tries to bring certain doubts in Francesco's mind for his wife. Upon learning of his wife meeting with Jacopo, Francesco asks her not to meet his uncle again intimidating her of his evil nature. Meanwhile, Lorenzo who intends to buy the city of Imola from the Duke of Milan asks Francesco to govern it on Florence's behalf to which he eventually agrees.

However, Jacopo finds different ways to plant a doubt of his wife Novella being in an affair with Lorenzo in Francesco's mind and thus finally gets successful in doing so by claiming that Novella spies over him for Lorenzo. Witnessing this falsely, Francesco sends Novella back to Venice to annul his marriage while once again turning Lorenzo's potent and worst enemy.

While Lorenzo rejects the Pope's application for loan to buy Imola out of his own interest in the city, the Pazzi bank grants the loan required to the Pope resulting in Pope withdrawing his papal accounts from the Medici bank and transferring them to the Pazzi bank, but however Lorenzo splits the alum accounts thus saving his bank's fortune but also enraging the Pazzis.

## Alliance

Now a more dire enemy than before to Lorenzo, Francesco along with his tyrant uncle tries every way to oppose Lorenzo's proposals which also include Lorenzo intending to bring Milan and Venice into an alliance with Florence. Witnessing the alliance might be enough to make Lorenzo as a de facto ruler of Florence eventually, Jacopo de' Pazzi along with Francesco himself demands the (re)elections of the existing Gonfalonaire Petrucci who happens to be an ally to the Medici. As electing the Gonfalonaire serving the Pazzi interest would be enough to break Lorenzo's alliance apart.

On the other side, Lorenzo and his brother try to secure the loyalties of the members of the Priori, while Francesco and Jacopo blackmail Luca Soderini to vote in their favor or else his involvement in the assassination of Lorenzo's father would be unconcealed. Followed by Luca staying firm on being loyal to Lorenzo, resulting in Jacopo having him murdered.

Meanwhile to gain vote from the Medici ally and merchant Marco Vespucci, Francesco who had learned of Marco's wife Simonetta Vespucci's affair with Giuliano de' Medici from a house maid informs Marco to turn him against the Medici brothers, thus resulting in Simonetta's death and Marco's rivalry with Giuliano.

However, by the end of the day the Priori's new Gonfalonaire's position was secured by Petrucci again thanks to Lorenzo's tactics to gain enough votes to establish his alliance. While witnessing their defeat in the Priori to oppose the alliance, Francesco and Jacopo have the Duke Sforza of Milan being assassinated and thus decide to finally displace the Medici power in Florence by killing Lorenzo and his brother.

## Betrayal

Francesco along with his cousin Francesco Salviati arrives in the Curia in Rome to meet the army general count Montesseco, with whom they have a secret conversation of plotting to murder Lorenzo by inviting him on Pope's behalf to negotiate peace in Rome. However, a spy who happens to be listening to this discussion escapes upon being nearly caught by the count and eventually intimidates Carlo but was later killed by the count himself followed by Carlo being taken into his captivity

When Lorenzo did not arrive in Rome, due to his mother sensing danger, the plot got delayed to the banquet which Lorenzo had intended to arrange in the honor of a teen Cardinal being sent by the Pope on his behalf.

While at the banquet where the Pazzi uncle-nephew were also invited, Francesco and Jacopo along with other conspirators realized Giuliano missing, who had not attended the event due to him being too grieved over his lover Simonetta's death, thus making the assault further delayed.

Witnessing the only remaining chance to be availed to end the Medicis is to be the Easter mass, the plotters led by Jacopo and Francesco decide to murder the brothers in the cathedral. The next morning on Sunday, when Lorenzo the Magnificent arrives at the gates of the Cathedral with his family, he is welcomed by Francesco who then offers to end their feud and to begin a new start. Witnessing his recent changed behavior Giuliano remained startled while Lorenzo willingly hugs Francesco who then feels the absence of his armor along with hugging Giuliano. Followed by every one of them entering the cathedral.

## Mass

Once in the cathedral, Lorenzo and Giuliano take the pews next to each other where they were accompanied by Lorenzo's friend Francesco Nori, while Clarice and Lucrezia take the pews across the brothers. However, the pews reserved for the Pazzi family weren't occupied by Francesco as he stood behind the Medici brothers along with the plotter Antonio Maffei and carried sharp butchering daggers beneath their cloaks.

Meanwhile, as the cardinal approaches the lifting of the holy host, Francesco and Antonio sensing this as the signal brutally attack the brothers. Francesco stabs Giuliano de' Medici in the back followed by stabbing him forcefully all around the body. While Lorenzo who escaped his death narrowly, gets fatally wounded tends to save his dying brother but was prevented by Francesco, who after stabbing Giuliano now tries to kill Lorenzo but however was attacked by Clarice, who then takes Lorenzo in the sacristy along with Lucrezia.

While Lorenzo being in the sacristy, Francesco delirious out of his hatred and devotion to kill Lorenzo tries to break the heavy locked doors of the sacristy but much to his misfortune he falsely believes Lucrezia's screaming from the sacristy out of of Lorenzo's death and therefore believing his enemy dead leaves the cathedral to address the people in the Priori.

In front of the government palace (the Priori), Francesco and Jacopo along with Francesco Salviati address the panic ridden public of their accomplishment in ending the Medici rule by killing the brothers, but much to their misfortune Lorenzo who had survived his wounds in the sacristy arrives just in time to aware the Florentine public of the assault conducted by the Pazzis to his family resulting in his dear brothers death. Wtnessing the Pazzi as the real tyrants, the public started attacking the plotters, and as Francesco tries to take refuge he was captured by the public who then brings him to Lorenzo the Magnificent. Once in front of Lorenzo, Francesco confesses his sinful act but stays firm on his cause. When Lorenzo asks him of his betraying him as they were once very good friends, Francesco replies that they could never truly be friends as he has been a Medici and he himself been a Pazzi.

Followed by Francesco de' Pazzi being hanged from the windows of the Priori and later his corpse was brutally mutilated by the crowds.