Pope Julius II

• 1. The Warrior Pope Emerges

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  Giuliano della Rovere was born on the 5th of December 1443 in Albisola, a small coastal town near Savona in the Republic of Genoa, into a noble but impoverished family known as the House of della Rovere. He was the son of Raffaello della Rovere and Theodora Manerola, a woman of Greek ancestry, and grew up with three brothers and a sister, yet his path to power was paved with rough edges and coarse language that would define his character. Educated by his uncle, Fr. Francesco della Rovere, a Franciscan friar who took him under special charge, Giuliano studied sciences at the university in Perugia before being appointed Bishop of Carpentras in 1471. His rise was rapid and controversial; within months of his uncle Pope Sixtus IV's election, Giuliano was elevated to the cardinalate on the 16th of December 1471, holding no fewer than eight bishoprics simultaneously, including Lausanne, Coutances, and Catania, in an act of serial simony and pluralism that scandalized the Church. He was not a man of quiet piety but a figure of military ambition, modeling himself after heroes like Frederic Colonna rather than theologians, and his early years were marked by a violent temper and a willingness to engage in the brutal power struggles of Renaissance Italy. By 1483, he had an illegitimate daughter, Felice, born

• 2. The Struggle For Power

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  to Lucrezia Normanni, a secret that would haunt his legacy and fuel the rumors of his moral failings that would follow him to the papacy.

  Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere's ascent to the highest office of the Church was a masterclass in political maneuvering and ruthless diplomacy, forged in the fires of the Italian Wars and the treacherous court of Pope Alexander VI. After the death of Innocent VIII in 1492, he was a key player in the conclave that elected Rodrigo Borgia as Pope Alexander VI, a man he would come to hate with a passion that would define the next decade of his life. Della Rovere's rivalry with the Borgia family was intense; he was accused of plotting against them, and in 1494, he fled Rome to seek refuge in Avignon, where he allied with King Charles VIII of France to overthrow the Borgias. His journey was fraught with danger, as he traveled from Genoa to Avignon, raising troops and negotiating alliances that would eventually lead to the French invasion of Italy. Despite the risks, he managed to survive the purges of the Borgia regime, even as his brother Giovanni was stripped of his titles and his own benefices were temporarily revoked. By 1503, after the death of Pope Pius III, Giuliano della Rovere emerged as the most powerful cardinal, having secured the support of Cesare Borgia through promises of money and continued backing for Borgia policies in the Romagna. His election on the 1st of November 1503 was swift, taking only a

• 3. The Architect Of Renaissance Rome

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  few hours, and he took the name Julius II, choosing it not in honor of Pope Julius I but in emulation of Julius Caesar, signaling his intent to rule as a warrior-pope.

  Pope Julius II transformed the papacy from a spiritual authority into a military power, personally leading armies into battle to reclaim the Papal States and expel foreign invaders from the Italian peninsula. His first major campaign was in 1506, when he marched on Perugia and Bologna to free them from the despots Gian Paolo Baglioni and Giovanni II Bentivoglio, using French mercenaries to achieve his goals. He then formed the League of Cambrai in 1508, an alliance with King Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, to fight against the Republic of Venice and reclaim Venetian territories in the Romagna. The League achieved a decisive victory at the Battle of Agnadello on the 14th of May 1509, where the dominion of Venice in Italy was practically lost to the pope. However, the alliance soon fractured, and Julius II had to form a new Holy League in 1511 to counter the French, hiring Swiss mercenaries to drive the French army out of Milan. His military campaigns were marked by personal bravery and strategic brilliance, but they also caused

• 4. The Council And The Sword

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  him serious illness and exhaustion, as he rode at the head of his troops, issuing the imperial war-cry, "Drive out the barbarians." By the end of his pontificate, the Papal States had been centralized and expanded, and the Church had reasserted its dominance in the Italian Wars, though Julius II never achieved his dream of a unified Italian kingdom.

  While Julius II was known as the Warrior Pope, his legacy is equally defined by his patronage of the arts, which transformed Rome into the cultural capital of the Renaissance. In 1506, he laid the foundation stone for the new St. Peter's Basilica, demolishing the old Constantinian basilica that had stood for over 1,100 years, and commissioned Donato Bramante to design the new structure. He also commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a project that began in 1508 and would become one of the greatest masterpieces of Western art. Julius II's patronage extended to Raphael, who created the Raphael Rooms and painted the frescoes in the Stanza d'Eliodoro, depicting the traumatic events of 1510, 11 when the Papacy regained its freedom. The pope also established the Vatican Museums in 1506 and organized the Swiss Guard for his personal protection, creating a constant corps of soldiers to defend him. His urban renewal program, known as Renovatio

• 5. The Final Days And Burial

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  Romae, included the creation of two new straight streets, the Via Giulia and the Via della Lungara, on the left and right banks of the Tiber. Julius II's vision for Rome was grand and ambitious, and he saw himself as a second Julius Caesar, heir to the majesty of Rome's imperial glory, and in the likeness of Christ, whose vicar the pope was.