the medici

George Michel IVHistory 135Professor PuglieseFall 2009

The Medici: Bankers and Political Power-Brokers

Nearly any discussion about the Renaissance will include the Italian city of Florence.

Renaissance Florence cannot be easily understood without mention of one of the city’s most

prominent, influential, and recognizable families – the Medici. From the time of Giovanni di

Bicci de’ Medici, in the late 14th century and on, the Medici family had played an important part

in the government of Florence. However, it was not until April 27th 1532 that the Medici family

became the hereditary rulers of the Florentine state.1 Furthermore, many of the Medicis who are

now considered famous, such as Cosimo the Elder, and Lorenzo the Magnificent were never

officially the ‘rulers’ of Florence, nor was their de facto position as heads of state hereditary.

Instead, the Medici from the late 14th century through to 1532 used their diplomatic and financial

skills as well as their position in Florentine society to effectively change Florence from a

republican oligarchy to a hereditary despotism. This essay will first lay out my own incorrect

assumptions about the government of Renaissance Florence, then address the nature and

structure of government in Florence around the turn of the 14th century, and finally show how the

actions of several notable Medicis led to the family being written into the Florentine constitution

as hereditary rulers.

One difficulty in conceptualizing the Medici ascent to hereditary power is the possible (or

perhaps probable) misconceptions that may be had about the nature of Florentine government at

the time of the Italian Renaissance, the turn of the 15th century. The basic story I was told

1 John Hale, Florence and the Medici (Plymouth: Thames and Hudson, 1977) pg. 121.

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throughout my education2 was that the birth of capitalism allowed rich merchants to use their

financial acumen to wrest power from the Italian nobles and form various merchant republics.

This was certainly not the case in the city-state of Florence, a fact I quickly learned when I first

embarked to write a research paper demonstrating the changing nature of government in the

Italian region during the Renaissance. In Florence, throughout the medieval period and on, the

merchants and other business men were already the leaders of society, and their government was

a republican oligarchy. Furthermore, the nobles of the area, called Grandi, were denied

representation in the republic.3 So, not only was the government already republican before the

Renaissance, the nobles had no effective power. Contrary to the usual narrative, Florence’s

government during the Renaissance changed from a citizens’ republic to a nobles’ despotism.

Also unlike the typical tale, the Medici’s wealth was not sufficient to gain them hereditary

control of Florence. While the Medici’s financial status was certainly necessary for their rise to

power, there were many other, more important factors. These factors and significant Medici’s

contributions to the family’s attainment of power will be addressed hereafter.

To fully understand the progression of the Medici from citizens to rulers to dukes, one

must have at least a rudimentary understanding of the governmental structure of Florence around

the 15th century. It is the upper echelon of government that bears the most importance on the

Medici and Florence. Envisioning the government in Florence can be a difficult task as it is

segmented and often changing. Luckily, from an analytical standpoint, the overall top-level

structure remains substantially the same throughout the late 14th century to the early 16th century

(the period discussed in this essay). John F. Padgett and Christopher Ansell have stated that the

2 New York State Public School and Hofstra University.

3 Christopher Hibbert, The House of the Medici (New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1975) pg. 28.

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government of Florence was “a citywide oligarchy”4. This is an insightful claim, when

considering the most important section of Florence’s central government – the Signoria.5

Florence was divided into four districts, and each of these districts had two priors appointed to

the Signoria. The most prestigious position, although equal in power to the other priors, was the

chairman of the Signoria, the gonfalonier of justice.6 Along with the ‘twelve good men’ and the

‘sixteen standard bearers’ the Signoria “represented the core of the decision-making function of

government”7 There were a number of lower commissions and councils that had various powers

such as hiring mercenaries and protecting the state against treason, but the aforementioned three

(called the tre maggiori) were at the top of the order.

Besides the different offices of the government, the methods of election and length of

terms are important to understanding the power-structure of Florence and the Medicis’ place

within it. Most offices had term lengths from two months to six months. Most interestingly,

nearly all the offices, including those of the tre maggiori, were elected by chance. Literally,

names were drawn from a bag. This served to keep the social elite constantly interested in

politics, for at any time they could be elected. Furthermore, to deal with the constant influx of

different citizens into different offices (almost randomly); there were procedures to create ad hoc

bodies of citizens to advise the Signoria on important matters. The main reason why the

government was more an oligarchy than a truly representative republic was because of the

regulations regarding whose name could be placed in the lot for election to the Signoria. The list

4 John Padgett and Christopher Ansell, "Robust Action and the Rise of the Medici, 1400-1434," The American Journal of Sociology 98 (1993): pg. 1261.

5 Hale, op. cit., pg 15.

6 Ibid., pg 16.

7 Ibid.

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of requirements was numerous and excluded the majority of the city’s population. Among these

requirements was that the citizen be over thirty, he had to be a member of a major or minor

guild, not be bankrupt or owe taxes, and not have served in the Signoria within the last three

years or have had a family member serve within the last year.8 All of these regulations kept

power in the hands of the wealthier, but largely prevented any one family or party from

consistently dominating the government.

The complexity of the Florentine government makes the Medici’s obtainment of ducal

hegemony all the more impressive and interesting. The first Medici to substantially lay the

foundation for the families advancement was Giovanni di Bicci de Medici. While many

historians and researchers suggest that Cosimo di Giovanni de Medici was the first Medici to

significantly establish the Medici, Giovanni’s contributions, especially financially should not go

unmentioned. Giovanni first began to build the families fortunes by small-scale money lending

throughout Florence in the 1380s.9 He furthered the Medici bank by opening a branch in Rome

around 1395. This expansion of the bank to the realm of the Pope would have enormous

consequences for the Medicis later. By 1399 Giovanni had “branches in Venice and Rome,

and…had entered the field of international banking on a major scale”10 Being a restrained, quiet,

and politically passive character, Giovanni and subsequently his son, Cosimo, were a few of the

only Medicis to not be excluded from the government around the turn of the 15th Century. Other

Medicis had been involved in various attempted coups and conspiracies against the leading

family of the time, the Albizzi, and as a result faced imprisonment, execution, and a twenty year

8 Ibid., pg 18.

9 Gene Brucker, "The Medici in the Fourteenth Century," Speculum 32 (1957): pg. 21.

10 Ibid., pg 22.

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expulsion from the Signoria.11 Giovanni was primarily a businessman first and a politician

second. His hard work and dedication to the Medici bank as well as his political policies helped

pave the way for his son Cosimo to assert considerable influence over the government of

Florence. Gene Brucker, a noted Florentine scholar, sums up the import of Giovanni expertly:

He withdrew as much as possible from the turmoil of partisan strife and concentrated upon his business affairs. With his calculated policy of modesty and restraint, he did not attract undue suspicion or hostility from the ruling group. Moreover, his moderation gained for him the support of a large number of citizens, who formed the nucleus of a personal party, as distinguished from the family blocs of the past. The fruits of Giovanni's prudent policy, which was a complete contrast to the turbulence and aggressiveness of the Medici in the previous century, were reaped in full measure by his son, Cosimo, Pater Patriae.12

With a considerable fortune, the ability to participate in government, and business ties

throughout Italy and other parts of Europe, Cosimo de Medici was in an excellent position to

influence Florentine politics and increase his family’s prestige and status. Cosimo was, it seems,

capable of capitalizing on all of the advantages he has been given. Cosimo’s place as the

forerunner of the Medici family begins when he was forty in 1429, with the death of his father

Giovanni. Cosimo, before he become a powerhouse in Florentine politics, was actually exiled

from Florence in 1433. By the time of Giovanni’s passing, the Medici party had grown to be

recognized as a threat to the dominators of the oligarchy at that time, the Albizzi. As a result, on

September 7th 1433, Cosimo was imprisoned by the Albizzi and there was discussion of

executing him. Fortunately for the Medici, he was only sentenced to be exiled to Padua for ten

11 Ibid., pg 26.

12 Ibid.

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years as well as having all other members of the Medici clan exiled from government.13

However, Rinaldo Albizzi, the mastermind behind the exile of the Medici, lost considerable

favor with the people after his political attack on Cosimo and quickly found himself struggling to

remain in power. Rinaldo bribed, threatened, and openly used violence to keep his party in

power, largely bringing the city into disorder. It was in 1434 that the election for Signoria led to

several pro-Medici priors being elected as well as a pro-Medici gonfalonier of justice.

Immediately a special Parlamento (a meeting of all male Florentine citizens) was called to

address the crisis the Albizzi had wrought on Florence. Nearly a year after his exile, Cosimo was

invited back into the city and returned in early October.14

One of several reasons why it would appear that Cosimo was the de facto ruler of

Florence was because of his dominance in the realm of foreign diplomacy. This was due to his

banking connections as Mark Jurdjevic writes: “The immense wealth of the Medici bank made

possible all the acts of largesse for which Cosimo came to be known, [and] it brought Cosimo

into favorable contact with princes and popes…”15 Another reason for Cosimo’s prestige and

respect throughout Florence was his generous patronage of the arts. This idea of civic humanism

(“active, participatory, patriotic citizenship as well as the ethos and educational ideal that goes

with it”16) greatly supported Cosimo’s position as the de-facto head of the Florentine


14 Ibid., pg 24.

15 Mark Jurdjevic, "Civic Humanism and the Rise of the Medici," Renaissance Quarterly 52 (1999): pg. 1009.

16 "Civic Humanism," Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 27 Nov. 2009 <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/humanism-civic/>.

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government17, for he patronized many humanists and he himself was a collector of classical texts

such as those of Aristotle and Plato.

The government of Florence did not change substantially under the ‘rule’18 of Cosimo,

however there were some significant changes in representation throughout his period of

importance. In the 1450s there was much debate among Florentine heads of state about to how

wide representation in government should be allowed. There were those who wanted the

government to be open to many more citizens, losing its oligarchical tone, and others who

wanted it to remain in the hands of the few. This issue was in some ways resolved in 1458 when

a new body between the tre maggiori and the lower councils was created, known as the Cento.

This council allowed narrower representation than lower councils, but was more open than the

Signoria.19 This indirectly allowed Cosimo more control over the government as here was new

body with powers over war, taxation, and most important elections, he could staff (or attempt to

staff) with pro-Medici supporters. Ironically, Cosimo himself had little to do with the Cento’s

creation, and he did not serve on many government councils throughout his life. This makes his

position of importance all the more enigmatic. It wasn’t government reform, or dedicated

membership in government bodies that allowed Cosimo to dominate politics; it was his financial

influence due to his bank, foreign prince’s (largely mistaken) recognition of him as the leader of

Florence, and the Signoria frequently calling upon Cosimo for consultation that made him

arguably the most important citizen of Florence, and its de-facto leader.20

17 Jurdjevic, op. cit., pg 999.

18 A problem-laden term, I am using to signify Cosimo as a sort of ‘first citizen’ of Florence, a man of supreme importance to the state rather than an actual ‘ruler’.


20 Ibid.

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Piero di Cosimo de Medici’s role in the building of the Medici dynasty is brief; he only

outlived his father by five years, but it is not without importance. Piero, for the most part,

assumed the role his father had taken. The position was that of a Counselor and Diplomat for

Florence. During his ‘reign’21, Piero had to deal with a significant challenge to Medici power. A

rival group, called ‘The Party of Hill’ succeeded in 1465 of abolishing a government body

known as the Accoppiatori, this body was responsible for electing members for the Signoria, and

largely allowed the Medici to pack the Signoria in their favor due to strict regulations on who

could be elected to the Accoppiatori.22 Furthermore, such a victory emboldened the “Party of the

Hill” to attempt an armed coup on the Medici, who despite losing the Accoppiatori, were still in

power. This coup failed when Lorenzo de Medici spotted the conspirators and rallied the Medici

defenders. The Medici remained in power.23 Further cementing Medici power, the act of

conspiracy allowed for Piero to have a number of his adversaries exiled from their planned crime

against the Florentine state.24 Also like Cosimo, to curry favor with the people Piero was a great

patron of the arts.25 Piero passed away on December 1st 1469, having had a small but important

role in the Medici family; the young Lorenzo was set to succeed him but would face opposition

as well.26

21 See note 18.

22 Hibbert, op. cit., pg 104-105.

23 Ibid., pg 106.

24 "History of Florence, by Niccolo Machiavelli," EBooks@Adelaide: Free Web Books, Online, 28 Nov. 2009 <http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/machiavelli/niccolo/m149h/>.

25 Hibbert, op. cit. pg 108.


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Ever since the time Lorenzo was fifteen years old he had been used by his father, Piero,

to go on special diplomatic missions.27 This was both to aid in the young Lorenzo de Medici’s

education, as well as give him a head start with forming bonds with other heads of state. With the

death of Piero, the members of Florentine government met and decided that Lorenzo should

assume the position his father had held in the government, the age requirement was even waived

for him since he was not yet twenty-one years old.28 This not only allowed Lorenzo to

automatically become the de-facto head of Florentine government, it also showed the system’s

acceptance of the Medici family as unofficial ‘rulers’ of the city-state. One of Lorenzo’s biggest

challenges came with the attempt on his life in 1478. After having excluded a rival merchant

family from the “magistracy at Florence, and otherwise annoying them,”29 the Lorenzo and his

brother became the targets of a Pope-backed Pazzi30assassination conspiracy. Despite the death

of Lorenzo’s brother, Lorenzo survived and with him the Medici family legacy. Had Lorenzo

been assassinated, Florentine politics may have progressed very differently.

While Lorenzo arguable did extremely well as a foreign diplomat for Florence, pleasing

and appeasing important members of Italian and European high society, he failed to dedicate the

same effort and garner the same results when it came to the Medici bank. Luckily for Lorenzo,

the institution which had helped jettison his family onto the stage of the Florentine government

was not his only source of wealth, nor did the bank (especially the prosperous and influential

Rome branch) go defunct during his ‘reign’.31 While his banking failures led to embezzlement

27 Ibid., pg 49.

28 Hibbert, op. cit., pg 123.

29 John Symonds, Renaissance in Italy, vol. 1 (London: Ballantyne P, 1937) pg. 311.

30 The rival family.


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and other unscrupulous activities32, Lorenzo was particularly admired and respected for his

actions and abilities on the stage of foreign diplomacy, most notably averting Florence from war

with Naples and the Papacy.33 As Hibbert states from 1480 on, “it was a peace that throughout

the last ten years of his life Lorenzo did his utmost to maintain, endeavouring [sic] to thwart the

Pope’s attempts to embroil Italy in petty conflict.”34 Throughout the rest of Lorenzo de Medici’s

life, and to his credit, Florence was a peaceful place, safe from petty Italian wars – a city focused

on the arts and learning.

The importance of each of the individual Medici front men from Giovanni through to

Lorenzo has been summed up expertly by the astute Scholar, Jonathan Hale when he wrote:

Giovanni had made the money; Cosimo gained the influence; Piero the Elder had weathered the constitutional challenge to the concentration of so much authority; Lorenzo had demonstrated the advantages to Florence of such a concentration.35

Curiously, after the death of Lorenzo, the individual Medici’s as heads of the family seem to be

noticeably less important and influential in the family’s progression and achievement of

hereditary (and then ducal) authority. The Medicis from Lorenzo through to Alessandro were

primarily playing off of the accomplishments and status achieved by the aforementioned family

members. From the period of 1492 through to 1532, the most important event for the Medici

family and their ascent is arguably their attainment of the Papacy. “Giovanni de' Medici, second


33 Ibid., pg 159.

34 Ibid., pg 160.

35 Hale, op. cit. pg 76.

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son of Lorenzo … became the first of the Medici Popes…at the age of 38 on 11 March 1513.” 36 Leo X,

as Giovanni became known, was not only the official head of the Roman Catholic Church, he

was also the unofficial head of the Florentine Republic. By using his position of Pope to engage

in all sorts of nepotism and political patronage, Leo X was able to again strength the reputation

of the Medici and Florence’s desire to recognize the family as their rulers. This was extremely

important, especially when considering that the Medicis were on a decline in influence and

power after the death of Lorenzo, it had seemed that Giovanni’s line and power was “petering

out in an epigonate of clerics and bastards”37

It was the second of the two Medici Popes, Clement VII who would see the family

achieve the status of hereditary rulers of the Florentine State. When Giulio de’ Medici became

Pope on November 18th, 1523, Italy was being torn apart by what would later be known as the

Italian Wars. France, Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire had ambitions on the peninsula, and

the various Italian States were (as they often were) at each other’s throats. Originally Clement

had backed France against the Empire and Spain, but switched sides openly in 1529, with the

realization that France could not be of any assistance to the papacy.38 Part of Clement VII’s

treaty with Charles (the Holy Roman Emperor), was designs to install the Medici in Florence, “if

necessary by force.”39 Florence, not as receptive to the ‘rule’ of the Medici as it had been in the

days of Cosimo and Lorenzo, prepared serious defenses against the Pope and his approaching

36 "Medici Popes - Leo X and Clement VII," Adrian Fletcher travels Renaissance & Medieval Italy, France, Spain and Britain 1,000 pages packed with Outstanding Photos, Stories, Books, Food, Restaurants and Travel Tips., 10 Dec. 2009 <http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Italian%20Images/Montages/Firenze/Medici%20Popes.htm#Pope%20Leo%20X>.


38 Ibid., pg. 112.


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Imperial army. Florence was besieged for ten months and then surrendered, accepting all of

Clements and the Emperor’s terms, which originally included that Alessandro de Medici (19

years old at the time), would be the head of all deliberative governmental bodies.40 Originally,

nothing was said of succession rights for the Medici family and Alessandro was not the duke of

Florence.41 Clement waited until he felt that Florence was stable and allowed the dramatic

repercussions of the ten month starvation of the city set-in and then set the wheels in motion for

making Florence a dukedom of the Medici.42 A special council was called in April 1532 to

reform the constitution and the result was for Alessandro to become the Duke of the Florentine

Republic and “this position as to be inherited by his son or, failing a male heir, his next of kin.”43

The Medici had become rulers, dukes, of what had once been an oligrachical republic.

The Medici’s ascent to hereditary rule is not a tale of meritocracy as much as it is a tale

of circumstance, nepotism, and what some would call luck. The story of Florence is also not a

tale of liberalism, of wealthy and cunning merchants wresting political power from the hands of

a landed aristocracy. If anything, Florence reached a high-water mark of representative

government in the late medieval period when the commune was a dominate government body.

This is not to say that the Medicis were unremarkable and merely the benefactors of forces

beyond their control. Several of the Medicis, especially Giovanni, Cosimo, and Lorenzo, as

shown in this essay were especially crucial in forming the foundation of the dynasty. The

Medicis being able to reap the later benefits of favorable circumstances can largely be seen as a

direct result of their wealth, and the subsequent favorable ‘rule’ of individuals such as Lorenzo.


41 However, he was Duke of Penne.


43 Ibid., pg. 121.

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It can be said that in the end, the Medicis were able to consolidate an oligarchy to represent only

them, and once having done that, establish themselves as hereditary rulers. While the means and

the ends are often misunderstood, the achievement is no less grand.

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Works Cited

Brucker, Gene. "The Medici in the Fourteenth Century." Speculum 32 (1957): 1-26.

"Civic Humanism." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 27 Nov. 2009 <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/humanism-civic/>.

Hale, John. Florence and the Medici. Plymouth: Thames and Hudson, 1977.

Hibbert, Christopher. The House of the Medici. New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1975.

"History of Florence, by Niccolo Machiavelli." EBooks@Adelaide: Free Web Books, Online. 28 Nov. 2009 <http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/m/machiavelli/niccolo/m149h/>.

Jurdjevic, Mark. "Civic Humanism and the Rise of the Medici." Renaissance Quarterly 52 (1999): 994-1020.

"Medici Popes - Leo X and Clement VII." Adrian Fletcher travels Renaissance & Medieval Italy, France, Spain and Britain 1,000 pages packed with Outstanding Photos, Stories, Books, Food, Restaurants and Travel Tips. 10 Dec. 2009 <http://www.paradoxplace.com/Perspectives/Italian%20Images/Montages/Firenze/Medici%20Popes.htm#Pope%20Leo%20X>.

Padgett, John, and Christopher Ansell. "Robust Action and the Rise of the Medici, 1400-1434." The American Journal of Sociology 98 (1993): 1259-319.

Symonds, John. Renaissance in Italy. Vol. 1. London: Ballantyne P, 1937.

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