When Piero passed in 1469, his 20-year-old son Lorenzo took over the family. Known as “il Magnifico”, Lorenzo embodied the ideal Renaissance man. Poet, statesman, soldier, and philosopher, he successfully navigated the murky waters of Renaissance politics and narrowly avoided an assassination attempt in 1478 known as the Pazzi Conspiracy, which also involved Pope Sixtus IV and the Duke of Urbino. Lorenzo used this extreme act of violence to justify his extreme measures of control over Florence in an attempt to protect it from external forces. In 1489, his 14-year-old- son Giovanni was elevated to the rank of Cardinal and later went on to become Pope Leo X, which proved to be the most crucial event in the history of the Medici family.