- Innocenzo Cybo
Innocenzo Cybo (1491 - 1550) was an Italian cardinal.
Born in
Florence toFranceschetto Cybo andMaddalena di Lorenzo de' Medici , he was therefore grandson of bothPope Innocent VIII andLorenzo il Magnifico . Educated at the Medici court, he was named cardinal by his unclePope Leo X . In 1520 he wasarchbishop of Genoa , and thenPapal legate inBologna .He accumulated bishop-sees, i.e. Saint-Andrews and Edinburgh, Marseille, Aleria (Corsica) and Ventimiglia.
Just before the Sack of Rome of 1527, he took refuge in
Massa Carrara , host of his sister-in-law and mistressRicciarda Malaspina .He had an important role in the incoronation of Emperor Charles V in Bologna in 1530.
Two years later he was sent by another Medici, pope
Clement VII , to govern Florence during the absence of DukeAlessandro de' Medici . At the conclave following Clement's death, he tried to acquire the papacy, but was beat by Paul III, and subsequently he decided to return to Florence. But here his relationships with Grand DukeCosimo I de' Medici deteriorated, and he moved again to Massa Carrara in 1540. Two years later his loyalty to the Imperial cause was prized with the title of Cardinal protector of Germany.In Rome he had his residence in
Palazzo Altemps . Returned in that city in 1549 to compete again in the papal elections (butJulius III was elected), he died a few months later, leaving four children.References
*Dowden, John, "The Bishops of Scotland", ed. J. Maitland Thomson, (Glasgow, 1912)
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