Piero Soderini (18 May 1450 – 13 June 1522) was the Lord of Florence from 1498 to 1512, succeeding Girolamo Savonarola and preceding Giovanni de Medici.
Biography[]
Piero Soderini was born in Florence, Republic of Florence on 18 May 1450 to an old family who had become famous in medicine. In 1481, he became Prior of Florence, and he later became a favorite of Piero de Medici, who made him ambassador to France in 1493. During the reign of Girolamo Savonarola and the Bonfire of the Vanities, Soderini was one of those who plotted against the fanatical monk, and he assisted in his overthrow in 1498. In 1502, he was elected gonfaloniere for life of Florence, and he created a national militia to guard the city, replacing foreign mercenaries. In 1509, Florence conquered Pisa, ending the long rivalry between the two nations. Soderini was grateful to France for its assistance in his rise to power, and he sided with France during the Italian Wars; in 1512, a Spanish army restored Giovanni de Medici of the House of Medici to power during the War of the League of Cambrai, driving Soderini into exile. He died in Rome in 1522, having been banished from his hometown for life.