Sede vacante (Pt.2)
Rome, the Papal States, September to October 1570
-- 19 September, Pope Urban VII had reigned as Pope for sixteen days[1], most of which after his coronation had been spent in bed, drifting in and out of consciousness while the Papal Court and the visiting Cardinals were simply waiting for his now inevitable death, while engaging in quiet but intense political jockeying in anticipation for another Papal Conclave.
Alongside which came the usual rumors of poison and a brief spat of anti-semitism by the locals of Rome who tried to 'storm' the Jewish Ghetto of the city before being stopped by a combination of the city guards, their own drunkenness, and the fact that it was after sunset, and by law the only gate in or out of the ghetto was locked after sunset[2].
By the late evening of 19 September, Pope Urban breathed his last, he was 59 years old[3]. But the exact cause of his death was then, and still is, debatable. Did his body simply succumb to illness exacerbated by the conditions of the conclave? Or was he actually poisoned? And if he was poisoned then by whom?
The atmosphere of St. Peter's was thick with rumor and innuendo, even as the now reduced members of the Cardinalate gathered to elect a Pope.
Again.
As soon as the Second Conclave of 1570 began it ran into some turbulence in the form of Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle and Alessandro Farnese, who once again read the letter from Philip II of Spain to the Conclave, the one vetoing Farnese's candidacy for the Papacy.
Cardinal Farnese simply snatched the letter out of Granvelle's hands and in a smug tone reread the part stating, 'this time' out loud and informed Granvelle that the letter was CLEARLY about the previous conclave and when that conclave ended, so to did that letter's mandate. After all Philip II of Spain was known as a man of honor, Farnese's own kinsman no less, and thus he would personally work to reassure Philip II of his own good nature and deal with whatever 'ill advisors' were whispering poison in the King's ear against him.
Thus indirectly establishing that he, Farnese was very much a candidate for the Papacy to the stuttering and stammering Granvelle, got to work to secure the Papal Tiara for himself.
This is where he ran into problems, granted he established that Philip's veto from the last conclave no longer had official weight, never the less the word of the King of Spain did carry quite a bit of unofficial weight with the Cardinalate, especially with the looming threat of Ottoman invasion in the next year hanging over their hands, and the simple fact that of the great powers in Europe, only Spain and Philip II were willing to protect them.
Many of Farnese's allies were reluctant to earn to ire of Philip II, even while not thrilled with Granvelle's heavy handed tactics.
But if the 'Pro-Spanish' and 'Italian' facts were smarting, the French were in worse shape, they had pinned most of their energy in the last conclave on Ippolito II d'Este, who had the merits of both being the Italian Cardinal of Santa Maria in Aquiro AND the Cardinal-Protector of France, but when it had quickly been made apparent that Ippolito's time had passed, the French had splintered badly.
This time the French were better prepared, they had ANOTHER Italian candidate to trot out with extensive ties to France, Luigi d'Este, the nephew of Ippolito, the Bishop of Ferrara, the son of Ercole d'Este and Renée de France, the daughter of Louis XII (thus making Luigi a cousin of Charles IX of France). While Granvelle and Farnese were squabbling, Luigi made significant showings in the balloting as September began to approach October, each one netting him a steadily growing network of Cardinals who were quickly getting sick and tired of the austerity of the Conclave, the bickering, and the whole 'the Turk is attacking Cyprus and will come for Italy next' thing was giving France it's best chance at getting a hold on the Papacy in a good long while.
Seeing this, Granvelle would demonstrate that while he was an ill-tempered man, a Habsburg loyalist, and someone who could make enemies out of anyone, he did have a good brain when he chose to put it to work and could see that the grudge match with Farnese wasn't getting him anything, but he couldn't afford to back down now, besides making him look weak it risked Farnese rallying and getting the Papacy, which Granvelle knew that Philip II did not want. But he knew that the last thing the Habsburg dynasty wanted was France with a friendly Pro-French Pope in St. Peter's.
The problem was that the list of alternative Italian candidates was a bit thin, most of the Italian cardinals were either too young, like Michele Bonelli who while papabile was only 29, or like Ferdinando de' Medici who was only a Cardinal due to his family wanting to keep control of certain ecclesiastical lands and had not taken his final vows on the off-chance that he needed to be yanked out of the church to inherit the de' Medici's secular holdings.
The other batch were either too old, or simply didn't have the right connections or influence to get their hands on the Papal Tiara, however there was one man who stood out from pact a bit, a man that gave Granvelle an idea, but first he needed to talk to Farnese in private.
What exactly was said during their private meeting is unknown, but the end result is not in doubt, within the day during the second balloting the Archbishop of Milan, Charles Borromeo made a strong appearance in the voting.
Charles Borromeo was a man of strong faith and piety, a champion of the Counter-Reformation he was already notable for working alongside men such as Philip Neri and Ignatius of Loyola[4], not to mention his ties to the former Paul IV and working alongside many English Catholic clergy and thinkers that had fled their homeland due to Elizabeth's persecutions of Catholics.
In fact in the previous conclave the Archbishop of Milan had been considered papabile, but ultimately had fallen to the wayside and thus hadn't bothered to campaign for the Papacy this go around, falsely assuming that he didn't have a chance against Farnese and the French.
This changed things, along with meeting with Farnese and his various allied Cardinals and Bishops, and Granvelle himself as the balloting began shifting against Luigi d'Etse and towards himself.
Now in the face of this, the French could still have turned to their King for a veto of Borromeo and effectively dared Philip to publicly acknowledge that his veto of Farnese was invalid and put it on Luigi, this giving Farnese the initiative to become Pope.
But the elephant in the room was the looming war with the Turk, Christendom needed to show it's unity and strength and bickering over which Cardinal would become Pope for months on end would endanger all of it.
As a sweetener, Borromeo quietly signaled to the French that they would not be completely left out in the cold... But that would be dependent on which French Cardinals came around to support him, and how quickly they did it.
Thus on 6 October in the year of our Lord 1570, despite being described "As austere, dedicated, humorless and uncompromising as the Carafa Pope."[5] Charles Borromeo secured the votes needed to be elected as Pope.
Borromeo's Papal name was the first of many waves that he would make during his tenure as Pope, the name? At first legend has it that Borromeo floated 'John' in honor of St. John the Baptist, but was protested by almost the entire Cardinalate due to the memory of the Antipope John XXIII[6] who had only died a century ago, so Borromeo stated that would be known as Ambrosius, in honor of St. Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan, thus Pope Ambrose I became the first Pope to use a name no one had used before since Pope Lando[7].
It was the first of many waves that Pope Ambrose I would find himself making.
Notes
[1] Pope Urban's reign ties with RL's Pope Boniface V, making Urban VII and Boniface V the second place holders of shortest papal reigns in history.
[2] Yes, this was a thing in Rome, you can thank Pope Paul IV for it. Then again this was a thing in a lot of places in Europe, as awful as these Ghettos were, they did also afford some protection from time to time.
[3] In RL, Girolamo di Corregio died in 1572 in Rome, presumably of old age.
[4] And like them, Charles Borromeo would eventually be declared a saint, despite certain controversies that will pop up in a different form in this TL as well.
[5] Referring to Pope Paul IV, and the comparison is apt since Paul IV was an influence in Borromeo's early career.
[6] The Antipope John XXIII was single handedly responsible for NO ONE taking up the name 'John' until RL's John XXIII did it in the late 1950s, and even then he had to clarify that HE was the true 'John XXIII' and not 'John XXIV'.
[7] This happened quite recently in RL with Pope Francis.
Author's Note: I normally don't do direct Author Notes (unless I screw up something obvious), but I will confess that it's been over a month since the last update. This is due to a combination of RL issues, general distraction, and some laziness on my part. I apologize for the last thing and I am still committed to this story, I will get better about working on it regularly.