The Pazzis after failing their coup

by Barbranca

What happened to them after being exiled? I think they had to change their surnames, what surnames did they chose? We know their descendents?

Dufils

Hi there!

The Pazzi were ordered to do more than just change their surname and coat of arms as a result of the assassination. With Lorenzo de Medici's brother, Giuliano, dead as a results of Pazzi hands, he set to annihilate the family from existence only the next day. As you know, all Pazzi members were ordered to change their surname, but on top of this all their liquid assets and properties were seized by Lorenzo's Florentine government; every sign bearing the Pazzi name or insignia was destroyed, and the family had everything from their horses to their household items sold off.

And if all this wasn't bad enough, a new law was introduced that looked three generation back at the creator of the Pazzi bank, Andrea di Guglielmino, and declared that anybody who married one of the women descended from him was an admonitus (suspect) and that the man in question as well as all his male descendants were barred to ever holding any public office both in the city of Florence and its surrounding lands. This essentially denied the Pazzi women the right to marry as no other male of their social class would risk ruining their wealth over that, so the next best thing she could do was join a convent.

A thing to remember though is that this exile from Florence was not permanent. Piero de Medici (Lorenzo's son) was overthrown in 1494 with Savonarola replacing his position. Following this, the Pazzi family members were allowed to return to the city (most of the prominent members had retreated to the outskirts of Florence and still in the Tuscan region). After this, they slowly built back their reputation in Florence mainly through the political scene, although it would never reach the levels it had prior to the conspiracy.

There of course remained numerous descendants of the Pazzi, but the most prominent post-conspiracy would probably be that of Maria Maddalena de Pazzi, who is now a saint and became renowned for her visions.

Sources:

Martines, Lauro: April Blood (2004)

Acton, Harold: The Pazzi Conspiracy: The Plot against the Medici (1979)