The Italian Renaissance | The Medici Restored (Lecture 28)

Lecture 28: The broadly based republic established by Savonarola survived, but the factional disputes within the large Council of Five Hundred resulted in instability. To ensure continuity of policy, a new office, standard bearer of justice for life, was created, but it was not sufficient to preserve the city’s liberty in a European environment of war and expansion. In 1512, the Medici were returned, with the head of the family, Cardinal Giovanni de’Medici (d. 1520), taking control and turning the clock back to the days of his father, Lorenzo the Magnificent. Just months later, Giovanni was elected pope as Leo X; thereafter, the fate of Florence and the papacy became inseparable, as Leo was succeeded in 1521 by his cousin Giulio as Clement VII (d. 1534). With the leaders of the Medici now in Rome, Florence was governed either by papal representatives or by young or lesser members of the family, who often were incompetent or insensitive to Florentine traditions.

Secondary Sources:
J. R. Hale, Florence and the Medici: The Pattern of Control.

Supplementary Reading:
Christopher Hibbert, The House of Medici: Its Rise and Fall.