On Sunday morning, April 26, 1478, Bernardo Bandini and Francesco de' Pazzi stabbed Giuliano de' Medici to death in Florence Cathedral, while Lorenzo, slashed by two other attackers, escaped into the sacristy. Archbishop Francesco Salviati's attempt to seize the Palazzo della Signoria failed when the city refused to rise against the Medici, and Salviati and Francesco de' Pazzi were hanged from its windows.
The plot grew out of a feud between Lorenzo de' Medici and Pope Sixtus IV. Lorenzo had refused to finance the pope's purchase of Imola for his nephew Girolamo Riario, and Sixtus retaliated by removing the Medici as papal bankers and appointing Francesco Salviati, a friend and relative of the rival Pazzi family, as archbishop of Pisa. Riario, Salviati and Francesco de' Pazzi planned to kill both Medici brothers; Sixtus made clear he wanted the Medici gone but refused to sanction murder.
The attack came during High Mass in the Duomo. Giuliano died under repeated stab wounds, but Lorenzo, wounded, reached the sacristy and later his home. Across the city, Salviati's bid to take the seat of government collapsed, Florentines hunted down the conspirators, and Salviati and Francesco de' Pazzi were hanged from the windows of the Palazzo della Signoria.
The failed coup strengthened the family it was meant to destroy. Lorenzo emerged as the unchallenged master of Florence, and the pope's response, excommunication and a war waged with Naples against the city, only rallied Florentines behind him.
Key people: Lorenzo de' Medici, Giuliano de' Medici, Francesco de' Pazzi, Pope Sixtus IV