The wedding ended and they were all stabbed in the celebrations: how the most brutal betrayal in the Renaissance was imagined

There is peace in Perugia. Yes, there is, but at what cost? George RR Martin he did not invent intrigues in the palace; even red weddings where things are clearly going wrong. The video game Assasin’s Creed 2 also doesn’t get too many licenses: there’s no more liters of blood in Ubisoft’s work than in Florence in the fifteenth century.

Torn body; edible hearts; dead people landed on the ground from the windows; dozens and dozens of lunges. Betrayal, jealousy, power. This story (which still can’t understand why it wasn’t popularized in cinema or TV) has nothing missing.

Me: Braccio I

understand the family tree Baglioni it’s like trying to understand baseball without seeing a major league game. Nobles from the Umbria region, in Italy, ruled Perugia between 1438 and 1540. They always did so without “official titles”, albeit with the endorsement of the Holy See and the Medici of Florence. The ruler, in his time, was called “Lord of Perugia”.

Throughout this period there were many important Baglioni, more than a dozen Lords of Perugia. But in this story we are only called by a few family members: Braccio I, guide, rudolph, Astorre, Gian Paolo Y griffonetto. Some, have to do with politics; others, almost always supporting the characters.

Braccio I he ruled like almost all Baglioni: with mostly a military man and little a prince. Grifonetto’s grandfather, who lived into his sixties, had a good handle on arms and was almost fearless. For his duel, in 1479, the thirty -seven flags he had stolen from his enemies in war in their victorious battles were dragged around the city for several days.

II: Times of turmoil in Perugia

After the death of Braccio I, his brothers Guido and Rodolfo remain in power. They both ruled for a short period of peace until they appeared to be ambushed by other families and members of their own family who wanted to take the throne from them. and the red wedding.

Who posed behind the scenes the most brutal betrayal of the Renaissance was the Duke of Camerino Giulio Cesare Varano. Good at his mouth and not using weapons much, Varano easily convinced the two young and humble Baglioni that they should rebel against his blood. Along with one, his nephew Barciglia, his intelligence was enough to make him envious; with others, griffonettoby telling him that was his wife Zenobia Sforza her uncle, the lover, is fooling her Gian Paolo.

Track the lizard’s goal: remove from power the Lords of Perugia Guido and Rodolfo.

The group of conspiracies created by Giulio Cesar consisted of a series of powerless Baglioni and greedy followers of the Varano discourse.

The perfect time for the attack: the wedding son of Guido Astorre BaglioniY Lavinia Orsinimember of a powerful Roman family.

III: Twelve days of celebration

A red wedding is really a way of rounding things around. What happened is not the same as in Game of Thrones. The conspirators planned their infidelity by taking advantage of Guido and Rodolfo’s avoidance during festive hours and attacked them just days after the lavish celebration for Astorre and Lavinia’s wedding.

The wedding took place with great rejoicing and boasting on June 28, 1500 in the main square of Perugia. There are twelve days of celebration involving the districts of Porta Sole, Porta Santa Susanna, Puerto de San Pedro. In most there are storms.

Meanwhile, quietly, Varano, Barciglia, Grifonetto and Filippo Baglioni -a somewhat angry Baglioni bastard-, among others, they agreed to raid the homes of the elderly Baglioni on July 14. So that no one would suspect them, the small group joined the Perbangan lords at San Luca, the Church of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, to take a plenary indulgence and dine with them peacefully.

IV: The Red Wedding

The dead, the main: Astorre, Lavinia and Guido. That is, husband, wife and Lord of Perugia.

On the night of July 14 and 15, the conspirators quietly entered the homes of the Baglioni and killed almost all of them.

Most were stabbed to death. Guido, seventy -five years old, defended himself to the best of his ability. Gismondo, his son, was removed without any objection. Simonetto, Rodolfo’s son, tried to flee – and still fought – but he could not before the number of enemies.

Filippo committed the most heinous crime: He beat the newlywed Astorre to death, tore his heart and ate a piece of it. This and the bodies of other fallen Baglioni were thrown out of the windows of their houses for all to see.

Gian Paolo, prey par excellence of the predatory Grifonetto, is not on the list of victims (supposedly Gian Paolo is the lover of his wife Zenobia, remember?).

The captivating character escapes of the attacks of his nephew assisted by a servant who facilitated entry through a window overlooking the ceilings. The lover climbed to the top of his house, walked on the roofs and from above entered an adjoining house, where he was assisted by several students. He finally reached Porta Eburnea and from there he walked towards the house of his brother Troilus.

They are also not on the list of those who fell gentlyanother son of Guido, because he fled on horseback, and rudolphwho came in disguise to the Monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli and took refuge in Cannara.

IV: There is peace in Perugia

With several deaths to their credit, Varano, Filippo, Barciglia and Grifonetto returned to Perugia to liquidate the slips and present themselves to the people as liberators. But these attempts to keep Umbria did not last long..

Gian Paolo, who ran out of windows, climbed rooftops, walked on rooftops, went to a nearby town and found his brother, too. he was able to build an army with the clear intent of removing the grandson of Braccio I, that is, his nephew, and all others who committed the massacre while he and his relatives were asleep.

It was then that the remaining powerful Baglioni struck without warning against the lower Baglioni. Gian Paolo’s troops captured the Grifonetto in Perugia without difficulty -not so with Barciglia- and that is when a confrontation almost as cinematographic as Commodus and Máximo in Gladiator took place: Grifonetto and Gian Paolo met.

Clearly, Grifonetto no longer cared about his wife’s sentimental situation, especially his uncle. I just want to live. In front, the young man, deeply remorseful, knelt before Gian Paolo apologizing. Before he had done this to his mother Atalanta and the result was not very encouraging for him.

His uncle, who was furious to say the least, did not want to have anything to forgive him and, in order not to do the same as his nephew did, he carefully ordered his men to kill Grifonetto with knives. And they do it that way.

V: “Transfiguration of Christ”

Grifonetto does not die once he is stabbed by the knives of his uncle’s soldiers.

Upon death, the young man was able to apologize to his mother Atalanta and his wife Zenobia, who, sorry for denying him, would “shoot” him when he was on the road seconds from entering purgatory.

Atalanta begged him to forgive his murderer and then Grifonetto, bathed in blood and in the middle of his last breath, laid his hand on his mother to bless her with it. And so does it.

There is peace in Perugia.

The work “Transfer of Christ”, which Raphael completed in 1507, Atalanta assigned to the master to remember his son Grifonetto and, perhaps, forgive him.