Who he was
Giulio de' Medici was born a few months after his father, Giuliano, was killed in the Pazzi conspiracy, and he was brought up by his uncle Lorenzo the Magnificent. When his cousin became Leo X he was made a cardinal and became the guiding hand of papal policy. Learned, capable and hard-working but often hesitant, he was elected in November 1523. His reign fell in a time of great danger, caught between the rival powers of Francis I of France and the Emperor Charles V.
What he is remembered for
His alliance against the emperor was followed in 1527 by the Sack of Rome, when imperial troops pillaged the city and he took refuge in Castel Sant'Angelo; he later made peace and crowned Charles V at Bologna in 1530. He refused to annul Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, and when Henry went ahead and married Anne Boleyn he declared that marriage null; England's break with Rome followed. He was a patron of Raphael and Michelangelo, and ordered the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel.
Sources
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