Lorenzo has antagonized Pope Sixtus IV, who…

Lorenzo has antagonized Pope Sixtus IV, who supports an assassination plot against the Medici by the rival Pazzi family in 1478.

As the opening stroke of the Pazzi Conspiracy, Giuliano de' Medici is assassinated on April 26, 1478 in the Duomo of Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore, by Francesco de' Pazzi and Bernardo Bandini.

Stabbed nineteen times, he is killed by a sword wound to the head.

Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, Giuliano's illegitimate son by his mistress Fioretta Gorini, born a month after his father’s murder, will go on on to become Pope Clement VII.

The Portrait of Giuliano de Medici by Botticelli, believed to be the earliest of a number of versions by Botticelli and his workshop, had probably been painted soon before Giuliano is assassinated.

(It belongs to the Staatliche Museen of Berlin, and is in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.)

Lorenzo survives his wounds and restores order by the brutal extermination of his opponents.