http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pazzi_Conspiracy
This is a poorly-penned summary of the 15th century Pazzi Conspiracy, which aimed to overthrow Florence’s Medici family. I say poorly penned only because my old history professor told it in such stunning fashion that it sounded like the screenplay The DaVinci Code wishes it had become. It’s stories like this that turn me violent whenever I hear someone say history is dull.
On April 26, 1478, during High Mass at the Duomo, Giuliano de’ Medici was stabbed nineteen times by a gang that included a priest, and bled to death on the cathedral floor, while his brother Lorenzo escaped with serious, but non life-threatening wounds. He appeared shortly after, locked safely in the sacristy by the humanist Poliziano. A coordinated attempt to capture the Gonfaloniere and Signoria was thwarted when the archbishop and the head of the Salviati clan were trapped in a room whose doors had a hidden latch. The coup d’