The Peruzzi Bloodline – Banking Kings into Collapse | Full Documentary

Video Description

They ruled Europe without armies, moved fortunes without coins, and bent kings through ink and trust. In medieval Florence, the Peruzzi family built a financial empire so vast that its collapse would shake an entire continent. This historical documentary traces the rise and fall of the Peruzzi bank, pioneers of medieval finance whose letters of exchange, intelligence networks, and sovereign loans reshaped European commerce. From Florence and Avignon to London and Bruges, their credit underwrote papal politics, royal treasuries, and the opening campaigns of the Hundred Years’ War. Their greatest gamble came with massive loans to Edward III, binding their fate to war, wool, and royal honor. When the English crown defaulted, trust collapsed—and with it, one of history’s first global banking empires. Subscribe for more stories of power, ambition, and legacy. #History #HistoricalDocumentary #Peruzzi #Florence #MedievalFinance #BankingHistory #RenaissanceItaly #EdwardIII #HundredYearsWar #FlorentineBankers #Empires #Power #Downfall Timestamps: 00:00 – Power Built on Trust, Not Swords 01:55 – Florence and the Birth of Financial Power 03:50 – Letters of Exchange and Invisible Empires 06:10 – Banking the Papacy and Europe’s Kings 08:35 – Edward III and the Cost of War 11:05 – Default, Panic, and Systemic Collapse 13:40 – Shockwaves Through Florence 16:05 – Lessons That Shaped Renaissance Banking Sources: – Academic History Books – Studies on medieval Florentine banking and commerce – Archival Records – Florentine merchant ledgers and banking contracts – Medieval Chronicles – Accounts of Edward III and early Hundred Years’ War finance – Economic History Research – Analyses of pre-modern credit systems and sovereign debt