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    When the time came, Cosimo was to give his own sons similar advice; but, despite his apparent modesty and the guarded reticence of his manner, he was far more ambitious than his father and was determined to put his money to different uses. The Albizzi watched his progress with suspicion and concern.

III
     
ENEMIES OF THE ALBIZZI
     

    ‘
He has emblazoned even the monks’
privies with his balls
’
     
    T HE HEAD of the Albizzi family, Rinaldo di Messer Maso, was a haughty, proud, impulsive man, reactionary and priggish. 1 He had proved his worth as a soldier and a diplomat, and was firmly resolved both to maintain the power of the oligarchy – if necessary by halving the number of the lesser guilds – and to defeat Florence’s rivals in battle. He had already pushed the
Signoria
into an inconclusive war with Milan; and in 1429 he urged a war with Lucca which had sided with Milan against Florence, her ancient enemy and principal competitor in the silk trade. The idea of conquering Lucca was popular in the city; and Cosimo himself was later to lament that its rich territories, stretching from the mountains to the coast, remained stubbornly independent despite all attempts to subjugate them by force. But he doubted that the moment was propitious for war; and, although he consented to serve on the emergency committee, the Ten of War, he did so with evident reluctance, hinting that under the direction of the Albizzi the Florentine army could not possibly win. His caution was justified. The Lucchesi appealed to Milan for help, and, in response to their request, Duke Filippo Maria Visconti dispatched to Lucca the great
condottiere
, Francesco Sforza. The Florentine mercenaries were no match for Sforza, whom the
Signoria
were reduced to buying off with a bribe of 50,000 florins; and when this merely led to the Duke of Milan finding another talented general for the Lucchesi – Niccolò Piccinino – the Ten ofWar were driven to devising a complicated plan to divert the river Serchio and thus sweep away Lucca’s ramparts by a sudden inundation of water. This plan also failed as its critics had predicted: the garrison rushed out of Lucca at night, pulled down the Florentines’ dam and sent the waters cascading into the enemy camp. By the autumn of 1430 Cosimo had decided that it would be unwise to remain associated any longer with the conduct of the disastrous and enormously expensive campaign. So, making the excuse that he wished to let others have their turn serving on the war committee, he left Florence for Verona.
    In his absence his enemies spread rumours in Florence that he was using his enormous wealth to overthrow the government by hiring
condottieri
to invade the Republic. There were those who believed these rumours; and there were many more who, while not believing them, were prepared to use them as an excuse for ridding Florence of an over-successful rival. A deputation of disgruntled
Grandi
and
Magnati
called upon the elderly Niccolò da Uzzano, the most respected statesman in Florence, to seek his advice and enlist his support in their proposed attack on Cosimo. Niccolò received the deputation at his palace in the Via de’ Bardi; he listened to them politely, but was wary and discouraging: even if it were possible to get rid of the Medici, would it really be desirable to increase thereby the power of the Albizzi who might even become tyrants like the Visconti of Milan? Besides, it might very well not be possible to get rid of them. If it came to a contest between the adherents of the two families, it was doubtful that the Albizzi would get the best of it. The
Minuto Popolo
, grateful for past favours, were still on the Medici’s side. They had other supporters too: several of the most prominent families in the city, the Tornabuoni and the Portinari amongst them, were closely associated with them in various business undertakings;