Pope Julius II
Pope Julius II was called the Warrior Pope, led armies in person, and commissioned the greatest concentration of art in the history of the papacy. Born Giuliano della Rovere in 1443 near Savona to a modest family, his fortunes changed when his uncle became Pope Sixtus IV in 1471 and made him a cardinal at twenty-eight, heaping benefices on him. He was the bitter enemy of Rodrigo Borgia, and when Borgia became Alexander VI in 1492 Julius fled to France and spent a decade in exile plotting against him. He was elected in 1503, after the brief pontificate of Pius III, in a conclave completed in hours and widely believed to have involved extensive bribery. His aim was to restore the Papal States as a territorial power. He personally led campaigns to recover Perugia and Bologna in 1506, wearing armour and directing sieges. He formed the League of Cambrai against Venice in 1508, then reversed alliances and formed the Holy League in 1511 to drive the French out of Italy, which largely succeeded. His patronage is what survives. He commissioned Bramante to demolish the ancient basilica of St Peter's and rebuild it, laying the foundation stone in 1506. He ordered Michelangelo, who wanted to sculpt, to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512, and commissioned from him a vast tomb that was never completed. He set Raphael to fresco the papal apartments, producing the School of Athens. He founded the Swiss Guard in 1506 and convened the Fifth Lateran Council. He died in 1513, and Erasmus satirised him as barred from heaven.
- Lived: 1443 CE – 1513 CE
- Nationality: Italian
- Roles: pope, military_leader, patron
