The Wounds that Festered
What made the Medici a target for assassination? For Francesco de' Pazzi it was simple; his view was that Lorenzo, his father and grandfather before him had kept the Pazzi family out of the political centre of Florence. For Pope Sixtus IV it was all about Lorenzo's apparent efforts to thwart his efforts to expand papal power in Italy and fueled by his blatant nepotism
In 1474, Pope Sixtus IV requested a loan of 40,000 ducats from the Medici bank to purchase Imola from the Duke of Milan for his nephew Girolamo Riario. Lorenzo denied the Pope's loan, rumoured to be seeking to purchase Imola for Florence. Infuriated, the Pope turned to the Medici's rivals, the Pazzi whose banking firm leapt at the opportunity to strengthen their chances of usurping the Medici as the papal bankers. At the same time as the Pope purchased Imola and installed Riario as Duke, he also arranged the marriage of his nephew to the Duke of Milan's illegitimate daughter, Caterina Sforza.
Pope Sixtus IV was also infuriated with the Medici, believing that Lorenzo had helped to block the Pope from taking Città di Castello - a town within papal territory ruled by anti-papal rebel Niccolò Vitelli.
The third affront to the Pope's sensibilities came when Lorenzo campaigned against the appointment of Francesco Salviati as Archbishop of Pisa. Lorenzo - and Florence - opposed the appointment because it was being forced upon them without consultation.
These three events led Pope Sixtus IV to remove the Medici and install the Pazzi as the papal bankers. Francesco de' Pazzi saw this as an encouragement that the Pope would look favorably on the removal of the Medici family from political power in Florence.
Next: The Conspiracy