Pope Julius II (5 December 1443 – 21 February 1513), born Giuliano della Rovere, was Pope from 1 November 1503 to 21 February 1513, succeeding Pope Pius III and preceding Pope Leo X. Pope Julius was known for his active foreign policy, ambitious building projects, and patronage of the arts, and he had St. Peter's Basilica destroyed and rebuilt and had Michelangelo paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Biography[]
Early career[]
Della Rovere in 1492
Giuliano della Rovere was born in Albisola, Republic of Genoa in 1443, the nephew of Pope Sixtus IV. In 1471, he became the Bishop of Carpentras in the Comtat Venaissin enclave within France, and he also held the Archbishopric of Avignon, the Bishopric of Lausanne, the Bishopric of Coutances, and at least six more bishoprics. At the papal conclave of 1492, he was supported by King Charles VIII of France and King Ferrante I of Naples as the next Pope, but Rodrigo Borgia won the title through simony. Della Rovere, Orsino Orsini, and several other cardinals plotted against him, and Orsini was assassinated by Borgia's son, Cesare Borgia, at a banquet held two days after the Borgia's election as "Pope Alexander VI".
Opposition to the Borgias[]
Della Rovere and King Charles VIII
Della Rovere spent the next few years travelling across Italy seeking aid from other states in overthrowing the Borgia family; he unsuccessfully approached King Alfonso II of Naples, Duke Piero de Medici, and Duke Ludovico Sforza, but he found an ally in King Charles. He incited Charles to undertake the conquest of Naples in exchange for his assistance in deposing the Pope, and he accompanied the King's 25,000-strong French army during its campaign in Italy, having been shown the French artillery. He secured the King's support, but King Charles warned him that the war would be fought in the French way, and that Italy would be deafened by the sound of his cannons.
Papacy[]
Pope Julius in 1504
In 1503, he won the papacy after tricking Cesare Borgia into supporting him, claiming that he would continue to support Borgia's campaigns in the Romagna region. He had the Borgia apartments sealed until the 19th century, refusing to sleep in the same beds as the Borgias and their mistresses. Julius succeeded in winning the support of the Roman nobility, and he set about expelling the Republic of Venice from the towns of Faenza, Rimini, and other towns and fortresses that it had occupied after Pope Alexander's death. In 1504, he concluded an offensive alliance against Venice with France and the Holy Roman Empire in the War of the League of Cambrai, and he personally led a campaign to Perugia and Bologna in 1506, freeing them from their despots. In 1509, Pope Julius sent forces to reconquer the Romagna from Venice, and the dominion of Venice in Italy was lost at the Battle of Agnadello on 14 May 1509. In 1510, due to changing alliances, the Pope absolved Venice and placed France under papal interdict instead. In 1511, he allied with Ferdinand II of Aragon and Venice against France, and Henry VIII of England and Maximilian I of Germany also entered the alliance. In 1512, he hired mercenaries from Switzerland to invade the Duchy of Milan, and he issued papal bulls allowing for Aragon to invade Navarre. Julius died in 1513.