Politics

Lorenzo de' Medici (The Magnificent) (1449-1492)

randson of Cosimo de' Medici. His historical claim to fame was his power struggle within Florence against the rival Pazzi family and his intrigues that included the pope, Sixtus IV.

In 1471, the Medici bank was in charge of managing the papal finances. However, the affability between the papacy and Medici family soon vanished. Sixtus was greedy and, when he found out that Lorenzo was attempting to purchase a strategic bit of land for Florence, he bought it himself, starting a conflict. When the Medici bank would not loan him the money for the land, the pope obtained the money from Lorenzo's rivals, the Pazzi. The pope then incouraged a plot that would have Lorenzo and his younger brother, Giuliano, killed. When attacked in the church, Giuliano was brutally assulted and killed, but Lorenzo managed to escape. Sixtus was infuriated that his plan had not worked, and he immediately excommunicated Lorenzo and declared war on Florence. Lorenzo's gift for deplomacy helped him win over King Ferdinand of Naples, who had sided with the pope previously. Florence and Naples were then united against the pope. Lorenzo's success gained him the title, The Magnificent. He shared his grandfather's love of culure and presided over a Golden Age in Florence. Michelangelo Buonarroti and Leónardo da Vinci were among the artists in Florence at the time. However successful Lorenzo was in matters of diplomacy and politics, under his rule, the bank of Medici went into decline. Lorenzo died at the age of 43 in 1492 due to gout and stomach ailments.