Francesco Guadagni

Francesco Guadagni was a Florentine merchant and banker. He was the son of Simone, the founder of family’s fortune in Lyon, France. Simone returned to Florence in 1463, and the next year Francesco was born.

As a teenager, Francesco was sent abroad to learn his trade. His father sent him to Lyon, to start his career in the Capponi bank. Francesco returned to Florence in 1494, after the fall of the Medici family. Back in Florence, the government chose Francesco as ambassador to Charles VIII (r. 1483 – 1498), King of France, who had just conquered the Kingdom of Naples and was marching towards Milan. Francesco’s official task was to pay homage to Charles and to remind him of his often renewed promise to give the city of Pisa to the Florentine commissaries. The following year he was sent to another diplomatic mission to Charles who was in Lyon at that time. His mission was to negotiate alliance between Florence and France, in view of recent threats against Florence by the Holy Roman Empire and the city of Milan. He was also to remind Charles to return the money he had borrowed from Florence.