WE hear a great deal about so-called ‘black ops’ in the twenty-first century, but I was recently doing some research on the infamous Medici family and discovered that one such episode took place in Florence in 1537. After the latest family tyrant, Alessandro de’ Medici, was viciously stabbed to death in his bed by his distant cousin, Lorenzino de’ Medici, the Council was determined not to permit another member of the bloodline to subject the city to further years of brutal dictatorship and repression.

When a secret ally of the family, Francesco Guicciardini, was unable to persuade the Council to accept the young Cosimo I de’ Medici (pictured) as Alessandro’s replacement, he engineered an organised conspiracy. Summoning his loyal soldiers, all of whom were busy guarding the front of the Palazzo della Signoria, the wily Guicciardini got them to engage in a fabricated scuffle beneath the windows of the Council chamber. Shortly afterwards, he had two or three of them yell “Cosimo, son of the great Giovanni, must be Duke of Florence! Cosimo! Cosimo! Cosimo!” A louder and more authoritative voice was then heard to cry out: “Hurry up, the soldiers can’t be held any longer!”

Needless to say, this settled the matter and the beleaguered city fell prey to the latest in a long line of Medici rulers.