Lorenzo’s personal position in that regime was not yet openly acknowledged. When, for instance, Pope Paul II died the next year, a deputation was sent to Rome by the Signoria to offer his successor, Sixtus IV, the city’s congratulations. Lorenzo was invited to be one of the delegates, but he had no greater privileges nor higher status than any other member of the embassy: Florence was still, in name, a republic; and its citizens remained anxious that it should continue to appear to be so. It was recognized nevertheless that Lorenzo, by his birth, merited special treatment. Too young to be a member of the Cento, he was admitted as a member by special decree. He was also admitted to the Balìa and kept busy with important affairs of state as though he were already a highly experienced politician, writing numerous letters to foreign ambassadors and princes and playing a leading part in the deliberations of the councils.
The influential position he had already achieved for himself by 1472 was demonstrated well enough when there was trouble in Volterra, one of the most restless and independent of those Tuscan towns which, while self-governing except as regards foreign policy, still had to render an annual tribute to Florence. The trouble arose over a contract for mining alum in a cave in the neighbourhood of Volterra; the contract had been granted to a consortium comprising three Florentines, three Sienese and two Volterrans. There was strong feeling amongst the people of Volterra that this consortium had gained its profitable contract by fraud. They therefore elected magistrates who seized the mine and dismissed the men who were operating it. Lorenzo was not a member of the consortium nor does he appear to have had any control over it; but when the commune of Volterra asked him to arbitrate in the dispute, he was sufficiently well disposed towards the consortium to decide that control of the mine must be handed back to its members. The two Volterran members, Inghirami and Riccobaldi, delighted and encouraged by his decision, promptly marched back to the mine with an armed escort and declared themselves representatives of the rightful owners. It was an invitation to violence, and violence immediately broke out. There were savage riots in which several people were killed; the dead body of Inghirami was thrown out of a window onto the square below; and the Florentine Capitano of Volterra had cause to feel grateful that he had not been thrown out with him.
Lorenzo was now determined that the uprising must be put down by force. His orders had been disobeyed. Some of those in whose favour he had pronounced had been savagely murdered, and the Volterran rebels had been joined by Florentine exiles who were urging them to join them in an attack on the Medici. A majority of the Signoria were of the opinion that to use force was both provocative and unnecessary. This was also the opinion of the Bishop of Volterra. But Lorenzo would not listen. The Volterrans were notoriously turbulent and should be taught a lesson; if they were not, other Tuscan towns might follow their example. His advice was taken. An army, led by Federigo da Montefeltro, Count of Urbino, and composedofmercenaries in Florentine pay, marched towards Volterra, whose citizens looked frantically about for allies, but in vain. They even went so far as to offer their town to the King of Naples if only he would save them from Florence, but apart from a little help from Siena and Piombino no comforting response was received from anywhere. After a month’s siege the town surrendered. Lorenzo wrote a letter expressing his relief that it had all ended so satisfactorily; but he wrote too soon.
By the time his letter reached Volterra the town was being wildly plundered. No one afterwards discovered how it was that the terms of surrender were so blatantly violated. Some said that the mercenaries employed by the Volterrans had opened the gates to the Count of Urbino’s men in order to help them plunder the town. By whatever means they entered it, the Count’s men were soon pillaging Volterra, breaking into houses and shops, murdering men and raping women. Some reports had it that the Count himself, having found and stolen a rare polyglot Bible, made no efforts to control them; others claimed that he did have several of his soldiers hanged but that this was no deterrent. In any case, it was many hours before the uproar died down and by then hundreds of people were dead or mutilated, and whole streets were ransacked and in ruins. The horror of the scene of devastation was heightened by the effects of a landslip caused by torrential rain.
On learning what had happened Lorenzo immediately rode over to Volterra. He did what he could to reassure the people that his fellow citizens in Florence profoundly regretted the outrages, and he distributed money to those who had suffered loss. His regret was obviously sincere; but it was impossible to overlook the fact that it was he who had advocated the use of force, that it was he who had employed the Count of Urbino, that it was he who had approved the restoration of the mines to the original concessionaires, and that it was he who had pressed for the withdrawal of Volterra’s rights of self-government. And in Volterra these things are not forgotten even to this day.
X
THE POPE AND THE PAZZI
‘Do what you wish provided there be no killing’
FANCESCO DELLA Rovere, to whom Lorenzo had offered Florence’s congratulations on his election in 1471 as pope sixtus IV, was a big, gruff, toothless man with a massive head, a small, squashed nose and an intimidating expression. Born in a poor fishing community near savona, he had entered the franciscan order at a very early age and, thanks to a highly developed gift for preaching, a taste for learning and piety, some charm and much ambition, he was made general of the order before he was fifty and a cardinal three years later. Since then he had been unremitting in granting favours, offices, money, lands and power to innumerable relations of dubious merit of whom his sister’s family were the most demanding. Six of his nephews were made cardinals, and for those who were not in the church he endeavoured to find profitable lordships in the papal states.
One of these nephews, the witty, amiable and ostentatious Piero Riario, was created Patriarch of Constantinople, Abbot of St Ambrose, Bishop of Treviso, Mende, Spalato and Senigallia as well as Archbishop of Florence. Another nephew, Girolamo Riario, whom many believed to be, in fact, his son, was even more importunate. A fat, uncouth, rowdy young man, Girolamo had his eye on Imola as a base from which to build up larger estates in the Romagna. This small town between Bologna and Forll had recently been sold by Taddeo Manfredi to the Duke of Milan whose natural daughter, Caterina Sforza, seemed to the Pope an ideal bride for Girolamo. Negotations were immediately opened and the Medici bank in Rome was asked to raise the 40,000 ducats necessary for the purchase of Imola.
Lorenzo was much disturbed by this request. So far, his relations with the Pope had been perfectly cordial. He had been greeted ‘very honourably’ in Rome where he had been assured that the Medici were to remain bankers to the Curia and agents for the alum mines at Tolfa. He had been presented with two marble heads, one of Augustus, the other of Agrippa; and he had been offered various treasures from the collections of Paul II, including intaglios, cameos, vases and cups in semi-precious stones, which he was able to buy at a most reasonable price. Lorenzo was naturally anxious that this promising start to his association with the new Pope should not be undermined; but he also recognized that the strategically placed town of Imola, which dominated the road from Rimini to Bologna and which he had hoped to buy himself for Florence, must on no account fall into the hands of the Pope. So when the application for a loan was placed before him he made excuses for not granting it. Undeterred, the Pope turned to the Medici’s leading rivals as Florentine bankers in Rome, the Pazzi, who were delighted to be of service and to obtain the coveted Curial account.