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The Medici weren't the only famous family of the Italian Renaisssance.
Their fame stemmed as much from their longevity as from their
achievements. Their rivals burned just as bright - they just didn't last as long.
Albizzi
The Albizzi were one of the oldest families in Florence and led the republican government for two generations. By 1427, they were the
most powerful family in the city, and far richer than the Medici. They had been the patrons of genius and cultural icons, but the
family was more interested in waging war than sustaining commercial viability. By 1430, their military policy had cost the Florentine
taxpayer a fortune and much of their support. Pragmatic pacifists marshaled around Cosimo de'Medici.
Maso degli Albizzi, patriach of his family, had two sons, Luca
and Rinaldo. From a young age, Luca was friends with Cosimo de'Medici.
They shared a passion for classical learning and good conversation.
During the 1420s, Luca declared his public allegiance to the Medici
family, even marrying Cosimo's cousin. For his hot-headed brother
Rinaldo, this was a humiliation too far. The bitter family rivalry
had just got personal.
Rinaldo's impatience got the better of him. Eager to flush Cosimo
out of Florence, he allowed the head of the Medici family to stay
alive, gathering support whilst in exile. And Rinaldo's rash decision
to besiege the Palazzo Vecchio when he didn't get his way allowed
Cosimo to return triumphant. The Albizzi were banished, never to return
to power in Florence.
Pazzi
Like the Albizzi, the Pazzi were an older, nobler lineage than the Medici. They could trace their ancestry back to Pazzino de'Pazzi, the first
knight to scale the wall of Jerusalem during the First Crusade. The Pazzi were also wealthy bankers, and enjoyed good commercial terms with their
Medici rivals. They even sealed these friendly relations through inter-marriage.
But Lorenzo de'Medici, wary of Pazzi ambition, kept his rivals out of government office during the 1470s. When a greedy nephew of Pope Sixtus IV
approached the younger Pazzi with a plan to seize Medici land, they found the chance for power in Florence irresistible. The ambitious sons of
Jacopo de'Pazzi led an audacious plot against the Medici.
The plot failed. Executed at the hands of furious Florentines, the name of Pazzi was erased from the city, their homes looted and destroyed.
One conspirator was hunted down in the streets of Constantinople, and handed over by the Ottoman Emperor. Even he knew that Lorenzo de'Medici
was not to be messed with.
Perhaps by coincidence, the Italian noun for a hot-headed fool is pazzo - and some have suggested that the Italian-American slang,
patsy, meaning a scapegoat or stooge, is derived from the unfortunate Pazzi assassins.
Borgia
Their name has become a byword for murder and incest, making the Borgia the most notorious family in Renaissance Italy. They were not friends of
the Medici.
Rodrigo Borgia, the corrupt Pope Alexander VI, had at least two illegitimate children. His sociopath son, Cesare, was born just a year after
Giovanni de'Medici, in 1476. Cesare was made a cardinal in 1493 and his presence in Rome under the rule of his father made the city off-limits
to the Medici cousins.
Cesare marched through Rome with weapons barely hidden under his silk robes, taking pot-shots at prisoners and murdering close relations.
Rumored to have committed incest with his beautiful sister, Lucrezia, he stabbed her lover to death at the feet of the Pope, and strangled her
second husband, who was only 18-years-old. After his father's death, Cesare was exiled to Spain, where he died in 1507. Lucrezia went on to
patronize some of the greatest talents of the High Renaissance, including the poet Ariosto, and the artist Titian.
Next: Medieval Murder
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Ruthless Ambition
- God's Bankers
- Losing Face
- Private Lives
- Other Families
- Medieval Murder
Family Tree
Snapshots
Quiz - Who are you?
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