Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo de' Medici (1449 – 1492) was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance. Known as il Magnifico (the Magnificent) by contemporary Florentines, he was a diplomat, politician and patron of scholars, artists, and poets.

His life coincided with the high point of the early Italian Renaissance; his death marked the end of the Golden Age of Florence. The fragile peace he helped maintain between the various Italian states collapsed with his death. Lorenzo de' Medici is buried next to his brother Giuliano in the Medici Chapel in Florence.

Secretly, Lorenzo de' Medici was an ally of the Assassins, particularly the House of Auditore. Lorenzo worked closely with Giovanni Auditore da Firenze, a close friend and ally, against the corrupted Borgia. After Giovanni's death, Lorenzo was saved by his son Ezio during the Pazzi Conspiracy. This caused a long-term relationship between them, with Ezio carrying out several assassination contracts in cities such as Forlì and Venice for Lorenzo.

Early life
Lorenzo was the most brilliant of Cosimo de' Medici's grandsons, and was already a successful diplomat as a child. His father, Piero the Gouty, was ill and absent from Lorenzo's and his brother Giuliano's lives, but managed to significantly increase the number of those opposed to the Medici reign of Florence. Lorenzo's mother, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, was a poet, and managed to instill in him a love of art and beauty that would greatly influence his adult lifestyle. Like his brother, he enjoyed horseback riding and jousting, but spent more time studying art and literature. Lorenzo was Piero's and Lucrezia's third child, and his brother Giuliano was the fourth. They had two older sisters. Sometime in his youth, Lorenzo fell into the Arno river and was saved from drowning by Giovanni Auditore, an event which started the friendship between the two families.

Working with Giovanni
Lorenzo de' Medici was ruling over Florence, but several parties had conspired against the Medici family, trying to overthrow and move themselves into a position of power in their place. Lorenzo assigned Giovanni Auditore da Firenze, a close ally and an Assassin, to investigate.

Giovanni successfully captured one of Rodrigo Borgia's men, and handed him over to Lorenzo for interrogation. The man revealed an assassination plot to kill Galeazzo Maria Sforza, the Duke of Milan and a powerful ally of Lorenzo's. Lorenzo then sent Giovanni to Milan in order to prevent the assassination. Unfortunately, Giovanni failed, and the assassination was successful; though Giovanni did manage to retrieve an encrypted paper from the thug that led the assassination.

Pazzi Conspiracy
"Francesco de Pazzi! I'll kill him! I'll wipe his entire family from the city! They'll be ERASED!"

- Lorenzo de' Medici, after the Pazzi Conspiracy was instigated.

On April 26, 1478, Francesco de' Pazzi unsuccessfully tried to assassinate Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano, striving to become the ruler of Florence. In a frenzy, he leaped on Giuliano and stabbed him nineteen times, killing him. Lorenzo was wounded by two of the other conspirators, Stefano da Bagnone and Antonio Maffei, but rapidly drew his sword in a defensive attempt to stop them. He was quickly joined by Ezio Auditore da Firenze, the son of the late Giovanni, and the two men fought off Francesco and the Pazzi guards. After emerging victorious from the battle, they proceeded onward to the Palazzo Medici to seek sanctuary. With the gate opened by Lorenzo's servant Poliziano, Lorenzo was safely tended to inside his palazzo, and Ezio continued onward to assassinate Francesco de' Pazzi on Lorenzo's request.

Soon after, Ezio met with Lorenzo on the Ponte Vecchio. There, Lorenzo told him how he had been saved from drowning when he was six years old by one of Ezio's kinsmen. He also gave Ezio the names of several Pazzi conspirators, who Ezio left to kill.

In 1479, Ezio returned to Florence and happened past the Palazzo Medici. Noticing that a red cross had been painted on one of the palazzo's doors, Ezio went inside, and found the corpses of some of Lorenzo's servants in the courtyard. He soon realized that Pazzi hitmen were searching for Lorenzo, who had gone into hiding. Ezio battled his way through the palazzo, killed the Pazzi soldiers and found Lorenzo hiding in one of his treasure rooms. Lorenzo once again thanked him, and as a reward, permitted Ezio to take whatever he wanted from the treasure room. After claiming his reward, Ezio left to continue his hunt for Jacopo de' Pazzi.

Working with Ezio
In 1480, Ezio successfully found and killed Jacopo de' Pazzi, therefore successfully killing all of the major Pazzi conspirators. He met with Lorenzo in the Palazzo Medici's external courtyard, and Lorenzo thanked him once again and rewarded him with the Medici cape.

Ezio worked as Lorenzo's personal Assassin by performing Assassination Contracts – which mainly involved weeding out the few remaining minor Pazzi conspirators – until Lorenzo died in 1492.

Trivia

 * In order to ensure that the player always has the ability to complete all of the Side Missions, the player is allowed to perform assassination contracts for Lorenzo in memory sequences that take place after Lorenzo's death. The Palazzo Medici Secret Location, which features Lorenzo, can be completed after Lorenzo's death as well.
 * Though the people of Florence still love him even today, Lorenzo appears to be quite unpopular with other ruling powers in Italy. Besides the Templars and the Pazzi family, he was an enemy of Girolamo Riario, Lord of Forlì, and Giovanni Mocenigo, Doge of Venice. Additionally, according to Lineage (specifically Rodrigo's meeting with the Pazzi conspirators just prior to the Pazzi Conspiracy), and reliable historical accounts, the Pope does not bear goodwill towards Lorenzo and supports Rodrigo Borgia's movement against the Medici.
 * In his database entry, it is revealed that Lorenzo loved to write poetry, and this may have contributed to his downfall.
 * Though they had started to turn on Lorenzo, the people of Florence were so devastated by Lorenzo's early death that, according to historical accounts, the entire population of the city attended his funeral. His legacy remains today as one of the defining figures of Italian culture and art.
 * Soon after the mission where he gives you the Medici cape, you will be able to see Lorenzo walking the streets of Florence. When you activate your eagle vision, he is marked with blue; though you are still able to kill him, given time.
 * If Lorenzo's assassination contracts are all completed in order, from Florence to Tuscany to Forlì to Venice, certain trends become apparent. In Florence and Tuscany, most missions revolve around putting down supporters of the Pazzi family. Most of the Forlì missions involve preventing Girolamo Riaro from causing trouble (foreshadowing the revelation that he has ties with the Templars). But in Venice the tasks become somewhat mundane; such as dealing with someone who is harassing a friend of Lorenzo's and killing a Judge who commissioned paintings that made him seem more important than he actually was. The very last mission has Ezio kill a bounty hunter who had been after him, and Lorenzo does not send Ezio any more missions after this. It could be that Lorenzo realized that he had been abusing Ezio's skills, and had put his friend in danger as a result.