After serving the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII, Francesco I PIco was appointed as imperial vicar in 1311 and entered the city of Modena to administer it.

All the Guelphs and citizens of Modena were now exhausted and all turned to the lord of Mantua for protection, offering the keys of the city in exchange.

The lord of Mantua, Rinaldo Bonacolsi, known as 'il Passerino' due to his diminutive stature, was a man much feared for his ferocity and implacability.

Someone who was a friend of the lord of Mantua told him that he had seen Francesco I wandering around La Mirandola and so he was captured together with his two sons, taken to the city of Modena stripped naked and tied to the backs of mules and made to pass among the Modenese plebs who whipped them, kicked them, threw stones, used pitchforks, all to avenge the wrongs they had suffered in the past.

Francesco I Pico and his two sons Prendiparte and Tommasino were then taken by order of the Bonacolsi (27 November 1321) to the fortress of Castel d'Ario (Mantua), where they were locked up alive without water or food and ended up devouring each other.