00:10Imagine a family so powerful, they bought the Catholic Church.
00:16A family so rich, they funded the Renaissance.
00:20And a family so ruthless, they survived assassinations, banishments, and holy mobs.
00:27This is not a fiction show.
00:30This is the true story of the Medici.
00:34In the 15th century, Florence, Italy was the center of the world.
00:39It was a city of art, money, and murder.
00:43But before they became royalty, the Medici were nobody.
00:47They were middle-class merchants.
00:49Yet, within a few decades, they would rule Florence from the shadows.
00:54They would produce four popes, two queens of France, and fund genius minds like Michelangelo and Galileo.
01:02How did a family of bankers change human history forever?
01:06However, the answer is simple.
01:09They mastered the game of money, power, and art.
01:13And it all started with a massive gamble on a pirate.
01:20Meet Giovanni de Bici de' Medici.
01:23He was the founder of the Medici Bank.
01:26Giovanni was smart.
01:28He knew that in Florence, old noble families held all the power.
01:33To beat them, he needed an edge.
01:36So, he made a dangerous bet.
01:40He met a man named Baldassar Cosa.
01:43Cosa was a former pirate who wanted to become a cardinal in the Catholic Church.
01:48He needed money to buy his way up.
01:51Most bankers said no.
01:54Giovanni said yes.
01:56He loaned the former pirate a fortune.
01:59The gamble paid off.
02:01In 1410, Cosa was elected Pope John XXIII.
02:06The pirate was now the leader of the Christian world.
02:09And how did he reward Giovanni?
02:12He made the Medici Bank the official bank of the Vatican.
02:16Suddenly, every church across Europe was sending its money straight to the Medici.
02:22The tax money of millions flowed into Florence.
02:25Giovanni became one of the richest men alive.
02:28But he gave his son Cosimo one golden rule.
02:33Stay out of the public eye.
02:35Never look like a ruler.
02:38Rule from the shadows.
02:40Giovanni died in 1429.
02:43Cosimo took over.
02:44And Cosimo was about to learn that too much money makes you deadly enemies.
02:52Cosimo was different from his father.
02:55He loved art, philosophy, and power.
02:59The old noble families of Florence grew terrified of him.
03:03The leader of these nobles was a man named Rinaldo Degli Albitzi.
03:08In 1433, Albitzi struck.
03:12He arrested Cosimo on false charges of treason.
03:16Cosimo was locked in a tall tower.
03:19Outside, the nobles debated his execution.
03:23They wanted him dead.
03:24But Cosimo remembered his father's lessons.
03:28He didn't use weapons.
03:30He used gold.
03:32He bribed his jailer.
03:34He bribed the guards.
03:35He even bribed the top officials of the city.
03:39Instead of being executed, Cosimo was simply banished from Florence.
03:44He packed his bags and left.
03:46But he took his bank with him.
03:49Within one year, Florence fell into a massive financial crisis.
03:54The city needed money.
03:55And only one man had it.
03:58The people demanded Cosimo's return.
04:02In 1434, Cosimo walked back into Florence.
04:06The nobles who exiled him were now banished themselves.
04:10Cosimo was now the unofficial king of Florence.
04:13He followed his father's advice.
04:16He held no public office, wore simple clothes, and walked the streets like a regular citizen.
04:21But he used his wealth to buy love.
04:25He built massive churches.
04:27He hired artists like Donatello.
04:29He funded the completion of the famous Florence Cathedral Dome.
04:33By funding beauty, he made himself untouchable.
04:37When Cosimo died in 1464, the city engraved two words on his tomb.
04:44Pater Patriae, father of the fatherland.
04:49The peak of Medici power came with Cosimo's grandson, Lorenzo.
04:55History calls him Lorenzo the Magnificent.
04:59Lorenzo was a true Renaissance man.
05:02He discovered a young, poor, 13-year-old boy carving stone in his gardens.
05:08Lorenzo took the boy into his palace and raised him like a son.
05:12That boy's name?
05:14Michelangelo.
05:15Lorenzo also funded Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli.
05:19Florence was glowing.
05:21But a rival banking family, the Pazzi, wanted to destroy them.
05:26And they had a powerful ally, Pope Sixtus IV.
05:29The Pazzi and the Pope planned a cold-blooded murder.
05:35The date was April 26th, 1478.
05:39High Mass at the Cathedral of Florence.
05:42Thousands of people were inside.
05:44Lorenzo and his handsome younger brother, Giuliano, walked to the altar.
05:48The signal was the raising of the Holy Bread.
05:52Suddenly, priests pulled out daggers.
05:55They were not holy men.
05:56They were assassins.
05:57They swarmed Giuliano first.
06:00They stabbed him 19 times.
06:03He died on the cathedral floor in a pool of blood.
06:07Another assassin lunged at Lorenzo, cutting his neck.
06:10But Lorenzo drew his sword, wrapped his cloak around his arm for defense,
06:15and fought his way into the secure sacristy room.
06:18He slammed the heavy bronze doors shut.
06:21Lorenzo survived.
06:23The Pazzi family thought the city would celebrate the death of the Medici.
06:27They were dead wrong.
06:30The people of Florence loved Lorenzo.
06:34They went wild with rage.
06:36They hunted down the assassins.
06:38They dragged the Pazzi conspirators through the streets and hanged them from the windows of the government palace.
06:45Lorenzo was now absolute ruler.
06:49But his war with the Pope was just beginning.
06:55The Pope declared war on Florence.
06:59He excommunicated the entire city and sent an army.
07:04Lorenzo did something incredibly brave.
07:07He sailed alone to the enemy camp in Naples.
07:10He convinced the King of Naples to make peace, leaving the Pope with no army.
07:16Lorenzo saved Florence.
07:18But he realized a terrifying truth.
07:20To protect his family, he needed to control the Vatican itself.
07:25He used his money and influence to get his son, Giovanni, made a cardinal at just 13 years old.
07:33Years later, that boy became Pope Leo X.
07:37The Medici now ran the Catholic Church.
07:40But they ran it like a business.
07:43Pope Leo X loved luxury.
07:46He spent all the Vatican's money on art and parties.
07:49To get more money, he started selling indulgences.
07:53Basically, certificates that promised people their sins were forgiven if they paid cash.
07:58This corruption sparked a revolution.
08:01A German monk named Martin Luther got so angry that he nailed his 95 theses to a church door.
08:08This started the Protestant Reformation, which split Western Christianity forever.
08:13The Medici's greed had literally broken the church.
08:19For the next two centuries, the Medici transitioned from bankers to official royalty.
08:26They became the Grand Dukes of Tuscany.
08:29But as the generations passed, the family changed.
08:34The early Medici were brilliant, hard-working bankers who loved art.
08:38The later Medici were lazy, heavily inbred rulers who cared only about titles.
08:45By the 1700s, the Medici bank was long gone.
08:50The family wealth was drying up.
08:53In 1737, Gian Gastoni de Medici died.
08:58He had no children.
08:59He was the last male ruler of the family.
09:03The Grand Dynasty was over.
09:06But the last surviving member, his sister Anna Maria Luisa, did one final, magnificent act.
09:14She signed the Family Pact of 1737.
09:18She left the entire massive Medici art collection, thousands of paintings, sculptures, and buildings, to the state of Florence.
09:27But she added one strict condition.
09:31Nothing can ever leave Florence.
09:34The art must stay here for the education and enjoyment of the public of all nations.
09:42Because of that one contract, Florence remains a living museum today.
09:49Millions of tourists visit every year to see the treasures bought with Medici gold.
09:54The Medici were not saints.
09:57They were corrupt, power-hungry politicians who ruled through bribery and fear.
10:04But without them, the world would look entirely different.
10:08They created the modern banking system.
10:11They protected Galileo.
10:13They gave Michelangelo the tools to sculpt David.
10:17They used dirty money to fund the most beautiful things humanity has ever created.
10:23They truly were godfathers of the Renaissance.
10:30If you enjoyed this deep dive into history, hit the like button.
10:34Subscribe for more stories of power, wealth, and empires.
10:38And let us know in the comments.
10:40Do you think the Renaissance would have happened without the Medici?
10:43Thanks for watching and see you in the next chapter.
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