The Renaissance Billionaires

The Renaissance Billionaires

Epic Renaissance
  Aug 18, 2025  #Renaissance #History #Borgia
;; Think today’s billionaires are powerful? ;; Forget Musk and Bezos.The Medici, Borgias, Sforzas, and Fuggers make them look tame. These were the original Renaissance billionaires—families whose fortunes bought cathedrals, crowned emperors, and rewrote history. ;;;

In this episode of Epic Renaissance, we reveal how the Renaissance elite lived like gods:

; The Medici of Florence, who invented modern banking and financed Michelangelo & Botticelli

;; The Fuggers of Augsburg, mining kings who bankrolled emperors and shaped Europe’s destiny

;; The Sforzas of Milan, mercenaries who rose to ducal power with silk, steel, and intrigue

;; The Borgias of Rome, popes and princes infamous for scandal, poison, and unchecked ambition

From palaces dripping with gold leaf to feasts of flaming peacocks and sugar castles, this is the story of wealth so vast it bent nations and the Church itself. These dynasties didn’t just live in the Renaissance—they owned it.

***

The Godfather of the Renaissance: How Cosimo de’ Medici Took Over Florence

The Rest Is History
Premiered Jun 9, 2025  The Rest Is History
Members can watch part 2,3 & 4 now!
   / @restishistorypod 

What are the origins of one of history’s most glittering, and for a time, most powerful families in Europe; the Medici? How were they able to seize supreme power in the Republic of Florence , one of the most dazzling cities in the world, during the 15th century, at the height of the Renaissance? When did Florence’s explosive growth begin, and how? Who was Cosimo Medici, the Godfather of the family, who through cunning, blood, betrayal and sheer will, pulled his family to the forefront of Florentine politics?

Join Dominic and Tom for the first episode of their new series on one of history’s most glamorous, most colourful, most devious, and frequently most dastardly families in history - the Medici - and their rise to the highest echelons of wealth and power in Renaissance Europe.

0:00 Intro
4:53 What was Renaissance Florence like?
15:52 Who were the Medici Family?
20:47 Cosimo de’ Medici
26:05 The Medici’s Rivals
31:13 Cosimo de’ Medici is exiled
35:00 Cosimo returns and takes power
45:44 Money, art and culture

***
The Medicis - The Family that Bankrolled the Renaissance

History Tea Time with Lindsay Holiday
1 Jul 23, 2024
Please consider supporting me at   / lindsayholiday 

The Medicis were constantly reinventing themselves. From wool merchants to bankers, to politicians to Popes, and finally to royalty. All along, nurturing and paying the bills of some of the greatest artistic and scientific minds of the renaissance. Lets get to know the many prominent members of this Italian dynasty, uncover their scandals and  numerous unsolved murders and divulge their ultimate demise.
Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici
Lorenzo the Magnificent
Catherine de' Medici
Alessandro de' Medici
Cosimo I de' Medici
Giuliano de' Medici
Marie de' Medici
Ferdinando I de' Medici