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The Tudor Society
  • March 11 – Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici becomes Pope Leo X

    Detail from a portrait of Pope Leo X by Raphael

    On this day in Tudor history, 11th March 1513, Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici was proclaimed Pope Leo X after being elected on 9th March. He was crowned pope on 19th March and held the office until his death by pneumonia on 1st December 1521. He was one of the leading Renaissance popes.

    Giovanni was the second son of Lorenzo de’ Medici, or Lorenzo the Magnificent, a member of the prominent political banking and political Medici family, and ruler of the Republic of Florence.

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  • A pope kind to Jews, a Catholic martyr, an Elizabethan actor and a bishop supporting the Welsh

    In the second part of This week in Tudor history, I talk about Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici, who became Pope Leo X in 1513 and who was known as a patron of the Arts and his generosity to Jews, Christopher Bales, a Catholic priest and martyr from Elizabeth I’s reign; Richard Burbage, an Elizabethan actor who was friends with William Shakespeare, and Arthur Bulkeley, a Tudor bishop who supported reform and the use of the Welsh language in sermons.

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  • Henry VIII – Defender of the Faith

    On 11th October 1521, Pope Leo X conferred upon King Henry VIII the title of Fidei Defensor, “Defender of the Faith”.

    Letters and Papers contains a record of “Wolsey’s speech on presenting the bull for the title of Defender of the Faith”:

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