Lorenzino de' Medici (22 March 1514 – 26 February 1548),
also known as Lorenzaccio, was an Italian politician, writer, and dramatist, and a member of the
Medici family
The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th ...
. He became famous for assassinating his cousin,
Alessandro de' Medici, Duke of Florence in 1537. He was in turn murdered in 1548 in retaliation for his deed.
Biography
Childhood and youth
Son of
Pierfrancesco and
Maria Soderini, Lorenzino lost his father when he was only eleven (1525). He was then raised by his mother at the
Villa del Trebbio along with his younger brother
Giuliano and his two sisters
Laudomia and
Maddalena. In 1526 his mother decided to move to Venice with Giuliano and the future
Cosimo I de' Medici
Cosimo I de' Medici (12 June 1519 – 21 April 1574) was the second and last duke of Florence from 1537 until 1569, when he became the first grand duke of Tuscany, a title he held until his death. Cosimo I succeeded his cousin to the duchy. ...
to escape the arrival of the
Landsknechts
The (singular: , ), also rendered as Landsknechts or Lansquenets, were German mercenaries used in pike and shot formations during the early modern period. Consisting predominantly of pikemen and supporting foot soldiers, their front line was f ...
. Their departure was timely because, only one year later, the
Sack of Rome enormously weakened
Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII (; ; born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the most unfortunate o ...
(formerly known as Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici) and as a consequence, the Medici were expelled from
Florence
Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025.
Florence ...
.
In 1530 Lorenzino moved to
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, where in 1534 he mutilated the heads of some of the ancient statues of the
Arch of Constantine. Only the intercession of his cousin Cardinal
Ippolito saved Lorenzino from the anger of the Pope, who had promised to condemn the vandal to death. Nevertheless, after this virtually inexplicable action, Lorenzino was disgracefully expelled from Rome.
Relationship with Alessandro de' Medici
After leaving Rome, Lorenzino returned to Florence, where he soon established a close relationship with his cousin
Alessandro, who had become lord of Florence in 1530 and duke in 1532. The two were partners in riotous escapades, but the authenticity of their friendship is doubtful and their relationship had more than one dark side.
[Parks, 'Foreword', p. 4] In 1536, the duke sided against Lorenzino in a legal controversy on the inheritance of
Pierfrancesco the Elder, Lorenzino's great-grandfather, which caused substantial financial damage to Lorenzino. In the same year, Alessandro married
Margaret of Parma, the natural daughter of the Emperor
Charles V.
Assassination of Alessandro
On the evening of 6 January 1537, Lorenzino lured Alessandro to his apartments with the promise of a night of passion, and left him alone pretending that he was going to fetch a woman who had already agreed to meet him. According to most historians, the woman was Caterina Soderini, wife of Leonardo Ginori, but others think it was Laudomia, Lorenzino's sister. In the meantime, Alessandro fell asleep and, having previously sent away his men, he was completely defenceless when Lorenzino came back with his servant Piero di Giovannabate, also known as Scoronconcolo. The two men assaulted the duke with swords and daggers, and Alessandro was killed even though he reacted ferociously and fought with all his might.
Many hypotheses have been proposed to explain the reasons for the murder, from the personal resentment caused by jealousy or patrimonial reasons, to Lorenzino's desire to make a sensational gesture to immortalize his glory.
Lorenzino himself, however, stated in his famous ''Apology'' - written only a few days after his crime - that he acted for political reasons; he killed the duke to free Florence from the man that many considered to be a tyrant.
The Florentine republican exiles generally had the same explanation; they considered Lorenzino a hero, since in so doing he could have made the reintroduction of the republic possible.
Dominant figures in the republican exiles, such as
Benedetto Varchi, even compared Lorenzino's cause and actions to
Brutus, the killer of
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...
who held the same republicanism ideal.
Exile
After the murder, Lorenzino took the horses he had previously prepared and left Florence along with Piero and another servant. He first arrived in
Bologna
Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...
, where the jurist
Silvestro Aldobrandini, another republican exile, did not believe him. Then Lorenzino continued his journey until he reached
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
, where he was welcomed with open arms by the very rich banker
Filippo Strozzi, the leader of the exiles, who promised him that he would marry his sons
Piero and
Roberto to Lorenzino's sisters Laudomia and Maddalena de' Medici. Among the many other exiles that exulted over the duke's death were the famous men of letters
Iacopo Nardi and
Benedetto Varchi: the latter said that Lorenzino was greater than
Brutus. Also the poet
Luigi Alamanni praised Lorenzino from
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, whereas the sculptor
Jacopo Sansovino promised to dedicate a statue to him.
With Alessandro's death, the main branch of the
Medici family
The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th ...
was extinguished. The lack of a suitable lineal descendant created the conditions for the rise to power of the seventeen-year-old
Cosimo, a member of the cadet branch of the family who was chosen as the new duke with the approval of the Emperor Charles V.

After a few days in Venice, Lorenzino decided to go to
Mirandola
Mirandola (Emilian language#Dialects, Mirandolese: ) is a city and ''comune'' of Emilia-Romagna, Italy, in the Province of Modena, northeast of the Modena, provincial capital by railway.
History
Mirandola originated as a Renaissance Defensiv ...
, where he was hosted by Count
Galeotto Pico and remained for around two weeks. He then returned to Venice and from there, on 16 February 1537, he left to go to
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...
, with the
Ottoman ambassador in Venice and Giorgio Gritti, son of Doge
Andrea Gritti. The choice to leave Italy was due partly to the risk of being killed and partly to a diplomatic mission to the Ottoman Sultan
Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman I (; , ; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the Western world and as Suleiman the Lawgiver () in his own realm, was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman sultan between 1520 a ...
on behalf of the King of France. A few months later, the
Battle of Montemurlo, won by Cosimo's army, ended the hopes of the exiles. Lorenzino's patron Strozzi was taken prisoner. He died in 1538 (suicide, according to the official version) after being tortured in the attempt to establish an unlikely connection between him and the Duke's assassination.
In September 1537 Lorenzino went to
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, to the court of
Francis I of France
Francis I (; ; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed and father-in-law Louis&nbs ...
, where he could count on the political support of the king and on the hospitality of many Florentines, especially his maternal uncle, the
bishop of Saintes Giuliano Soderini, and the royal treasurer Giuliano Bonaccorsi. Contrary to what was previously believed, in this period Lorenzino went often to Italy and carried out important political-diplomatic missions on behalf of Francis I. Most importantly, he was in Italy from February to July 1542 to act as a go-between for the king and the Florentine exiles in Venice, with the aim of organizing a military venture against Cosimo.
Death

In 1544 Lorenzino returned for good to Venice, where he was in close contact with the other Florentine exiles and established a friendship with the papal legate
Giovanni Della Casa. In Venice, a nest of imperial and Medici spies, Lorenzino was much more vulnerable than in France, and the attempts to kill him and revenge the death of Duke
Alessandro multiplied. The situation got even more complicated when, between the end of 1547 and the beginning of 1548, almost all the Florentines left Venice and moved to France, thus leaving Lorenzino isolated. Consequently, on 26 February 1548, Lorenzino was murdered in Venice by two hired killers. One of them, Francesco da Bibbona, left a detailed account of the deed which includes precious information on the execution of the murder.
For several centuries, it has been believed that the Medici secretary
Giovanni Francesco Lottini had organized the murder, but new research has demonstrated that he played no part in it. Moreover, both his contemporaries and historians of the following centuries have always believed that Lorenzino's assassination had been ordered by Duke Cosimo I, as revenge for the murder of his predecessor. On the contrary, a study by Stefano Dall’Aglio has shown that the entire operation was orchestrated by the Emperor Charles V, who could not forgive the death of his son-in-law, the husband of his daughter
Margaret
Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...
. It was Charles V who explicitly ordered the murder, writing from
Augsburg
Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...
unbeknownst to Cosimo, and gave detailed instructions to his ambassador in Venice, Juan Hurtado de Mendoza, who was in charge of the operation.
Issue
Lorenzino had an illegittime daughter by
Elena Barozzi:
*
Lorenzina de' Medici (1547/1548 - 1590). She was born around the time of her father's death and was raised by his relatives. She married Giulio Colonna, but died without having had children.
Works
Lorenzino was also a writer. In his ''Apology'' he defended himself, explaining that he had committed the murder for the love of liberty: he had followed the example of
Brutus – one of the assassins of
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...
– and had murdered the duke after pretending he was his faithful servant and friend. The ''Apology'' is considered one of the loftiest examples of
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
eloquence and a masterpiece of anti-tyrannical thought. It was written in two subsequent versions, the first of which, not very different from the definitive one, dates back to January 1537, a few days after the murder.
He also authored a play entitled ''Aridosia'', written around 1535 and successfully presented in Florence, first at the Spedale dei Tessitori and later at
Palazzo Medici.
Cultural depiction
Lorenzino's assassination of Alessandro, as well as his republicanism and anti-tyrannical spirit, inspired French playwright
Alfred de Musset to write the play ''
Lorenzaccio''.
[https://archive.org/details/completewritings04mussiala English text of Lorenzaccio]
References
Bibliography
* Dall'Aglio, Stefano. "Solving a Renaissance Murder Mystery." ''History Today'' (Feb 2020) 70#2 pp 38–49.
* Dall'Aglio, Stefano, ''The Duke's Assassin. Exile and Death of Lorenzino de' Medici'' (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015), .
*
Other languages
* Bredekamp, Horst, 'Lorenzinos de’ Medici Angriff auf den Konstantinsbogen als Schlacht von Cannae', in ''L’art et les révolutions'' (Strasbourg: Societè Alsacienne pour le Développement de l’Histoire de l’Art, 1992), 4, pp. 95–115.
* Dall'Aglio, Stefano, 'Il presunto colpevole. Giovan Francesco Lottini e l'assassinio di Lorenzino de' Medici', in ''Rivista Storica Italiana'', CXXI (2009), pp. 840–856.
* Dall'Aglio, Stefano, 'Nota sulla redazione e sulla datazione dell' ''Apologia'' di Lorenzino de' Medici', in 'Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance', LXXI (2009), pp. 233–241.
* Ferrai, Luigi Alberto, 'La giovinezza di Lorenzino de' Medici', in ''Giornale Storico della Letteratura Italiana'', II, 1883, pp. 79–112.
* Ferrai, Luigi Alberto, ''Lorenzino de' Medici e la società cortigiana del Cinquecento'' (Milan: Hoepli, 1891).
* ''Racconto della morte di Lorenzino de' Medici, tratto da una relazione del capitano Francesco Bibbona, che l'uccise'', in Cesare Cantù, 'Spigolature negli archivi toscani', in ''Rivista Contemporanea'' 20 (1860), pp. 332–345.
External links
*
Entry on Lorenzino de' Medici on the Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle on Lorenzino de' Medici on ''The Weekly Standard''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medici, Lorenzino
Assassins of heads of state
Italian assassins
Italian male writers
1514 births
1548 deaths
Lorenzino
Executed Italian people
People executed by Florence
Nobility from the Republic of Florence
Executed assassins
16th-century people from the Republic of Florence
16th-century executions by Italian states
16th-century Venetian writers
16th-century Italian writers
16th-century Italian male writers
People murdered in 1548