- After finding his city Florence threatened to fall into the grasp of his enemies anytime, and his family including his children not much shielded, Lorenzo makes an unforeseen decision.
- Ardinghelli having achieved a Priori majority against sending native militia reinforcements from the city walls garrison to the outnumbered mercenaries at the front, Lorenzo resigns until the panicking people revolt, forcing the Priori to accept his terms to return: an emergency council of ten, giving his party full powers for the duration of the war, and invites Tommaso Peruzzi to join, with bank lawyer Bruno Bernardi acting as Lorenzo's general counsel, even in constitutional matters. Having sent his family to the Pistoia country villa, Lorenzo takes a warning seriously and arrives just in time to fight off an attack from Riario's henchmen, led by Giulio's mother's murderer, identified by the boy who won both Lorenzo's trust as true Medici and Boticelli's heart as gifted, devoted artist. Returning to Firenze, he realizes the war can only be won if Naples deserts the pope, hence decides to visit its notoriously sinister king Ferrante. As the suffering of the poor increases, beyond charity, the prior of San Marco has the rebellious friar who insists on keeping contagious patients around forcibly transferred.—KGF Vissers
- The war is waged between Florence and Pope Sixtus aided by Naples' armies led by Riario and lasts for several months in the outskirts of Florence. During which the Florentine mercenaries led by Guiscardi get outnumbered while Riario convinces his fellow leader Alfonso de Aragona to attack the city as soon as possible, but much to the vain Alfonso denies rush. Lorenzo upon witnessing the outnumbered army proposes reinforcements by recruiting men from Florence's garrisons in the Priori, but as usual is opposed by Ardinghelli and Spinelli, who claim the lack of money and convince other Prior lords to vote against Lorenzo's proposal of reinforcements and are eventually succeeded in doing so. Clarice suggests Lorenzo of using the money from the bank to reinforce the mercenaries but much to his dismay Lorenzo finds the bank weak enough to bear the expense of withstanding the reinforcements. Meanwhile, Riario keeps on pressurizing the Pope to grant him the lead of the armies so that he can attack Florence sooner to feed his desires. However, Pope Sixtus asks Caterina to convince her husband for holding on, which she successfully does. On the other hand, Clarice reassures the wounded in San Marco's convent, and is aided by priest Savonarola. Lorenzo asks his ex-lover and wife of Ardinghelli to convince her husband for letting him recruit men to defend the city, but much to his misfortune she fails. Savonarola upon witnessing few cases of pox in the convent reports to Lorenzo who then forbids the heavily pregnant Clarice from visiting the place and sends her, his sons Giovanni and Piero along with his nephew Giulio to a countryside village Pistoia, accompanied by Carlo and the children's tutor Angelo Poliziano. Later, Lorenzo unexpectedly resigns from the Priori thus leaving his fellows like Tomasso Peruzzi and his followers with surprise thus turning them against Ardinghelli and Spinelli, who are then attacked by the crowds in the street. Meanwhile, in Pistoia Clarice and the children greet the estranged Bianca and her daughter into the villa, to which Carlo objects but is silenced by Clarice. In Florence, Lorenzo meets the famous emerging artist Leonardo da Vinci. Back in Pistoia, Poliziano keeps on teaching the children, however Giulio shows a lack of interest in learning or getting along with other children and runs away from the villa in order to find his previous home. Followed by Clarice blaming Poliziano for not teaching the Bible to the children and despises Lorenzo of being such ignorant towards religion, while doing so she falls into an unexpected labor. During which in Florence, people demand the return of Lorenzo resulting in the lord Priors to ask Lorenzo's terms for rescinding his resignation. Lorenzo presents his demand to dissolve the existing Priori and to launch an emergency council of Ten people to deal with the war challenges, thus securing more power to himself by governing the council himself. Gonfalonaire Pettrucci along with other members like Bastiano Soderini, Tomasso Peruzzi eventually submit to Lorenzo's demands with also expelling the tyrants Ardinghelli and Spinelli out of the council. Tomasso who then despises Lorenzo of ruining the republic system of the city is invited by Lorenzo to join the council. Lorenzo then receives a messenger from Pistoia reporting of Clarice's worsened condition and leaves to attend her quickly, while ordering the deployment of men from the city garrison for reinforcement. On the other side, Riario is informed by one of his man about Lorenzo's departure to his family villa, who then sends few men to murder the whole Medici clan in Pistoia. Upon reaching Pistoia, Lorenzo attends to his wife in labor, while Carlo searches the lost Giulio and finally discovers the distressed boy. However, during Carlo was counseling the boy, both of them discover few men asking for the Medici Villa with Giulio recognizing one of the man to be the murderer of his mother. Carlo upon realizing this to be a threat reports back to Lorenzo, who then hides Clarice who is in labor, along with the children and other family members including Bianca in the crypts. Meanwhile, Lorenzo faces the attack along with his guards and kills all the attackers while one of them survives and reports back to Riario. In the crypts, Lorenzo finds his family safe with Clarice given birth to a daughter, whom they both name Maddalena. When Riario discovers of his plan being failed, he bribes the mercenary head Guiscardi to desert the Florentine army. Upon returning back to Florence, Lorenzo discovers that his plans of reinforcements and victory are all drained out and therefore decides to travel to Naples himself to meet the tyrant King Ferrante and persuade him to abandon supporting the Pope. Tomasso and other council members object his reckless decision, with Lucrezia and Clarice asking him to avoid being in trouble but an adamant Lorenzo finally convinces them of his ambition of saving his beloved Florence at any cost.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content