Pazzi Conspiracy fails completely

[Shawn Endresen]

So I've been toying lately with an idea about having the Pazzi Conspiracy fail more dramatically than OTL.

In 1478, a conspiracy involving the Pazzi family, the Archbishop of Florence, possibly the Pope, and a cast of thousands tried to assassinate Lorenzo and Giuliano de Medici. Lorenzo survived by locking himself in the sacristy; Giuliano was butchered on the cathedral floor. Revenge was anticlimactic - the conspirators had seriously overestimated their popular support within Florence, and the mob had killed most of them before Lorenzo got around to it. He went on to rule ably alone, earning the sobriquet 'the Magnificent'.

But I want to have Giuliano survive somehow, so that the brother's partnership can continue. Giuliano did all of the baby-kissing, speechifying and general public relations hoo-ha while Lorenzo handled the money and supervised the civil service. With his brother still handling the circuses, Lorenzo can contnue concentrating on the bread - and notice one of his subjects, a 26-year-old Leonardo da Vinci and get him a formal education and perhaps a government sinecure. Yes, it will be a bit of engineering wank most likely.

 

[Cuāuhtemōc]

Someone has been playing Assassin's Creed lately but I can't say much on it.

 

[The Vulture]

Well, with the Medici clan having a more public face, I can imagine greater public support for them.

With the Pazzi presumably getting ronked, what becomes of the Alberti and Albizzi clans? I suppose they'd be more cautious and subtle than OTL after seeing such an open plot fail completely.

 

[Shawn Endresen]

The Albizzi are in exile; that isn't the same thing as 'harmless', of course, but their power base in Florence is small by this point. The Alberti appear to still be there but they don't seem to be very competitive anymore from what I can find. Opposition is probably going to be centered around Piero Soderini, although it will be interesting to see how well Giuliano de Medici and Savonarola get along.

I haven't played the second Assassin's Creed; if it has a similar premise perhaps I should shelve this for a while.

 

[The Vulture]

I haven't played the second Assassin's Creed; if it has a similar premise perhaps I should shelve this for a while.

A good portion of the game features the Pazzi conspiracy and subsequent street fighting, but it's played straight and there's nothing alternate about it. If anything, it means you should go through with this since more people will at least have some knowledge of your proposed POD.

 

[Fiver]

But I want to have Giuliano survive somehow, so that the brother's partnership can continue.

That's tricky. Guiliano was still limping from a leg injury, taken by surprise, unarmed, attacked by two men, and the assassins had made sure he was not wearing armor. Even if he'd been wearing armor and a sword, Guiliano probably still would have died.

If he hadn't come to church that day, they would have just postponed the attack - they'd already done that several times to make sure they got both brothers. And if the attack hadn't taken place in a church, Lorenzo would have faced an additional attacker who knew what he was doing with a blade.