After the fall of the Medici, Girolamo Savonarola rules the Florentine state.

The city is in tatters by the time Savonarola is deposed.

The state is now presided over by Piero Soderini, who is elected ruler for life.

This period sees a democracy in Florence, which has very little corruption.

The republican government succeeds where Savonarola had failed, when the Secretary of War, Niccolò Machiavelli, captures Pisa.

It is at this time that Machiavelli introduced a standing army in Florence, replacing the traditional use of hired mercenaries.

Soderini is repudiated in September 1512, when Cardinal Giovanni de Medici captures Florence with Papal troops during the War of the League of Cambrai.

The Medici rule of Florence is thus restored.