Note 40 — Chapter I · —How the King of France cajoled the English after the Duke of Burgundy’s Death, for fear they should have interrupted him in the Conquest of the Territories belonging to the said Duke.—1477.

The history of the Medici family is too well known to require recapitulation in this place. The family of the Pazzi was one of the noblest and most respectable in Florence: numerous in its members, and possessed of great wealth and influence. Of three brothers, two of whom had filled the office of gonfaloniere, only one was living at the period referred to in the text; and this man, Giacopo de’ Pazzi, who was regarded as the chief of the family, though far advanced in years, was, if we may credit the account of Politiano, an unprincipled libertine, who having, by gaming and intemperance, dissipated his paternal property, sought an opportunity of averting or concealing his own ruin in that of the republic. For a full account of the conspiracy of the Pazzi, see Roscoe’s Life of Lorenzo de’ Medici, in Bohn’s Standard Library.