Part 3 (1/2)

When the subject of the emba.s.sy to Rome--the chief diplomatic appointment of the Republic--was broached, Messer Tommaso, with the utmost sincerity, expressed his fervent wish to meet Lorenzo's views in every respect, but he expressed, quite emphatically, his disinclination to undertake such an arduous duty. Not only did he plead the infirmities of age, but declared that his wife, Madonna Dianora, would never leave Florence. Her love of her own city and its people equalled that of her sister, the Domina Magnifica Lucrezia--their social, charitable and literary interests were alike and equal.

Here was a condition of affairs which called for the exercise of the greatest tact and ingenuity, and Lorenzo committed the task of overcoming the scruples of his uncle and aunt to his mother. Her efforts were entirely successful, and Lorenzo, with a deep sigh of relief, handed Messer Tommaso his credentials, and personally conducted him and his suite to the Porta Romano, and thence speeded him upon his journey.

Francesco de' Pazzi was cast in a very different sort of mould--the very ant.i.thesis in character, demeanour, and aspiration to Tommaso de Soderini--he has very appropriately been called ”the Cataline of Florence.” Possessed of immense wealth, much of which had come to him from his father, Messer Antonio, he rapidly dissipated it by selfish extravagance: no man surpa.s.sed him in the virtue or the vice--which you will--of self-seeking.

In the bitterness of an overweening and mortified ambition he rejected, with the utmost discourtesy, Lorenzo's overtures, at the same time remorselessly exposing his intentions, and vowing that no Pazzo should ”go round the corner” for a Medico! Messer Francesco displayed unreservedly the true character of his family: he was in truth the ”Mirror of his race”--”_L'implacabile Pazzi_.”

The descent of the Pazzi was one of the most ancient among the n.o.ble families of Tuscany. The senior branch claimed Greek descent, and its members were early denizens of the hill-country about Fiesole. Leaders of men, they became adherents of the aristocratic party--the Ghibellines--and were consistent and energetic in their allegiance to the Emperor. The junior branch of the Pazzi were dwellers in the Vale of Arno--men of peaceful predilections in agriculture and commerce, throwing in their lot with the Guelphs--the democratic party of the Pope.

Giano della Bella's ”_Ordinamenti di Giustizia_,” in 1293, led to the disqualification of the Pazzi and many other notable families from the exercise of the franchise, and, as a consequence, they were deprived of all share in the Government.

They recognised, even in those early days of the formation of the first of modern states, that the Medici were rivals and opponents not only in domestic and commercial enterprise, but also in political advancement, and no love was lost between the two families. Nevertheless, the Pazzi were beholden to their rivals for the restoration of their civil rights.

On the return of Cosimo de' Medici from exile in 1434, they were reinstated, and thenceforward maintained their position. Messer Andrea, next after Cosimo the most influential citizen of Florence, was elected to the Priorate in 1435, and in 1439 he was called upon to entertain no less a personage than King Rene of France. In 1441 he was _Gonfaloniere di Giustizia_.

Messer Andrea left three sons--Piero, Giacopo and Antonio. Piero served the supreme office of _Gonfaloniere_ in 1462. He was the father of a numerous family--some historians say he had nineteen children by his wife, Madonna Fiammetta de' Guigni! None of them, however, made their mark in the life and history of the city, except the fourth son, Belforte Renato, who was a prominent man but suffered for the ill-doings of his relations.

If Piero and his sons were una.s.suming citizens, Messer Andrea's second son, Giacopo, was of a very different disposition. A man of far greater ability and more vaulting ambition than his brother, he was looked upon as the head of the family. In appearance he was prematurely old and withered up, with a pallid face and palsied frame, with great restless, staring eyes. He perpetually tossed his head about from side to side, as though afflicted with St Vitus' dance. Giacopo was unmarried, a libertine, notorious as a gambler and a blasphemer, a spendthrift, and jealous--beyond bounds--of the popularity and pre-eminence of Piero and Lorenzo de' Medici. He was pointed at as the most immoral man in Florence. In the year of Lorenzo's succession to the place of _Capo della Repubblica_, he obtained by bribery the high office of _Gonfaloniere di Giustizia_ as a set-off, but, by an inconsistency as unexpected as it was transparent, he accepted, on vacating office, a knighthood at the hands of his rival.

Cavaliere Giacopo's relations with Lorenzo were fairly cordial, outwardly at least, for as late as 1474, when at Avignon, he wrote several letters to him, full of grateful expressions for favours received and of wishes for a continuance of a good understanding. None of Cavaliere Giacopo's illegitimate children arrived at maturity, and, on account of the failure of his elder brother's sons to achieve distinction, the proud banner of the family was clutched by the hands of the four boys of the youngest of Messer Andrea's sons--Guglielmo, Antonio, Giovanni, and Francesco. Their mother was Cosa degli Alessandri, a granddaughter of Alessandro degli Albizzi, who first adopted the new surname.

The brothers were very wealthy, they had ama.s.sed large fortunes in commerce, and their houses extended for a considerable distance along that most fas.h.i.+onable of streets--the Borgo degli Albizzi. The Palazzo de' Pazzi doubtless was commenced by their grandfather, whose emblem--a s.h.i.+p--is among the architectural enrichments. The building was finished by their uncle, Giacopo--it is in the Via del Proconsolo.

As bankers, the Pazzi were noted for their enterprise generally, and for their compet.i.tion with the Medici in particular. They had agencies in all the chief cities of Europe and the East, but their reputation for avarice and sharp dealing was proverbial. Perhaps no family was quite so unpopular in Florence. Their traditions were aristocratic, whilst the Medici were champions of the people.

This distinction was referred to by Madonna Alessandra Macinghi di Matteo degli Strozzi, in one of her letters to her son Filippo, at Naples. ”I must bid you remember,” she wrote, ”that those who are upon the side of the Medici have always done well, whilst those who belong to the Pazzi, the contrary. So I pray you be on your guard.”

The growing importance of the Pazzi gave Piero and Lucrezia de' Medici much uneasiness, and it is quite certain that the marriage of their eldest daughter, Bianca--”Piero's tall daughter” as she was called--to the eldest of the three brothers, was a stroke of domestic policy by way of controlling the race for wealth and power.

Lorenzo, very soon after his accession to the Heads.h.i.+p of the State, ”took the bull by the horns” and excluded the Pazzi from partic.i.p.ation in public office. It was an extreme measure and not in accordance with his usual tact and circ.u.mspection, and of course it produced the greatest ill-will and resentment against him and his administration in every member of the proscribed family.

The situation became greatly embittered when, in 1477, Lorenzo interfered in a law-suit which concerned the marriage dower and inheritance of Beatrice, the daughter of Giovanni Buonromeo. By Florentine law the daughter should have inherited the fortune without demur, under the express will of her father, who died intestate; but, at Lorenzo's command, the estate was pa.s.sed on to Beatrice's cousin, Carlo Buonromeo, who was the winner of the second prize in Lorenzo's _Giostra_ of 1468. This decision was in direct opposition to Giuliano de' Medici's opinion, and he did all he could to rea.s.sure Giovanni de' Pazzi, Guglielmo's brother, and Beatrice's husband, of friends.h.i.+p and confidence.

These were not the only incidents which followed one another at the parting of the ways of the two families, but the affair of Giovanni and Beatrice was resented with peculiar bitterness by all the Pazzi. ”Hence arose,” as Francesco de' Guicciardini has testified, ”the wronging of the Pazzi!”

In Francesco, the youngest of the brethren, was exhibited the most violent animosity and hatred. Blessed with superabundant self-conceit, which went so far as to cause him to spend hours a day having his unusually light-coloured hair dressed at the barber's and his face salved and puffed at the apothecary's to conceal his muddy complexion, he was reckoned, in the Mercato Nuovo, as little better than an ill-conditioned _braggadoccio_! His shortness of stature he sought to atone for by his accentuation of the Florentine pout and the Tuscan strut--he was well known, too, for his contemptuous jokes at the expense of others.

Francesco denounced Lorenzo and his Government with unmeasured scorn, and, careless of restraint, threatened that ”he would be even with him, even though it cost him his life.” Macchiavelli says: ”He was the most unscrupulous of his family.” ”A man of blood,” Agnolo Poliziano called him, ”who, when he meditated any design, went straight to his goal, regardless of morality, religion, reputation and consequences.”

Early in March he quitted Florence suddenly, giving out that his presence was required at Rome in connection with the affairs of the Pazzi bank. To say that his departure was a relief to Lorenzo is but half the truth, for he was greatly perturbed with respect to the influence which such a pa.s.sionate and reckless rival would have upon his relations with the Holy See. Francesco was the subject of watchfulness upon the part of the Medici agents in Rome, where Giovanni de'

Tornabuoni set himself to thwart any hostile movement which might be made.

Among prominent men with whom Francesco de' Pazzi was thrown into contact were Archbishop Francesco de' Salviati and Count Girolamo de'

Riari. The Archbishop and Francesco were no strangers to one another; their families had risen to affluence and power side by side in Florence, actuated by like sentiments and engaged in like activities--hatred of the Medici was mutual.

Sixtus had proposed, in 1474, to bestow upon Francesco de' Salviati the Archbishopric of Florence, but the _Signoria_, instigated by Lorenzo, refused to confirm his appointment and declined to grant him the temporalities of the See. The Pope yielded very ungraciously to the representations of the Florentine Government and named Rinaldo d'Orsini, Lorenzo's brother-in-law, to the vacancy. This intervention was adduced by Sixtus afterwards as insubordination worthy of punishment, and he did not forget to take his revenge.

The following year Francesco de' Salviati was chosen as Archbishop-designate of Pisa, and again the Florentines objected--being joined by the Pisans, who conspired to prevent him taking possession.

The Archbishop was, according to Agnolo Poliziano--the devoted historian and poet-laureate of Lorenzo il Magnifico--”An ignorant man, a contemner of all law--human and divine--a man steeped in crime, and a disgrace to his family and the whole State.”