Pope Leo XI
Pope Leo XI reigned for twenty-seven days in April 1605, one of the shortest pontificates on record. Born Alessandro Ottaviano de' Medici in Florence in 1535, he belonged to a junior branch of the ruling family — his mother was a daughter of Jacopo Salviati, and Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France, was his cousin. His mother opposed his wish to enter the church and resisted it for years, and he was in his forties before he was ordained. He served Grand Duke Cosimo I as ambassador to Rome for fifteen years, and came under the influence of Philip Neri, whose Oratory shaped his devotional life. He was made Bishop of Pistoia in 1573, Archbishop of Florence in 1574, and a cardinal in 1583. Clement VIII sent him as legate to France from 1596 to 1598, where he worked to consolidate Henry IV's conversion, to secure the publication of the decrees of Trent, and to promote the Peace of Vervins between France and Spain. Henry regarded him highly, and that connection determined what followed. At the conclave of March 1605 the French crown pushed his candidacy hard, spending an amount reported at three hundred thousand écus. Spain opposed him precisely because of the French connection, and his Medici blood also counted against him with those wary of another dynastic pope. He was elected on 1 April at sixty-nine. He caught a chill at his installation ceremony at St John Lateran, took to his bed within days, and died on 27 April. Roman wits called him the Lightning Pope, and the epitaph noted that he was a flower that lasted a single month.
- Lived: 1535 CE – 1605 CE
- Nationality: Italian
- Roles: pope, cleric
