Early in his papacy, Alexander, who was seen as an anti-nepotist at the time of his election, lived simply; later, however, he gave jobs to his relatives, who eventually took over his administration.

Born in Siena, a member of the illustrious banking family of Chigi, son of Count Flavio Chigi-Ardenghesca (1549 - 1615), Gonfaloniere, Capitano del Popolo, and wife Laura Marsigli, and a great-grandnephew of Pope Paul V (1605–1621),[3] Fabio Chigi was privately tutored and eventually received doctorates of philosophy, law, and theology from the University of Siena.

There, he supported Urban VIII's condemnation of the heretical book Augustinus by Cornelius Jansen, Bishop of Ypres, in the papal bull In eminenti of 1642.

[11][12] Pope Innocent himself stated that the Peace "is null, void, invalid, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all time.

[14][15] He was created cardinal by Innocent X in the Consistory of 19 February 1652, and on 12 March was granted the title of Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria del Popolo.

"[18] Upon his election, he was crowned on 18 April 1655 by the Cardinal Protodeacon Gian Giacomo Teodoro Trivulzio before taking possession of the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran on the following 9 May.

[18] A number of pontiffs are renowned for their urban planning in the city of Rome—for example, Pope Julius II and Pope Sixtus V—but Alexander VII's numerous urban interventions were not only diverse in scope and scale but demonstrated a consistent planning and architectural vision that the glorification and embellishment of the city, ancient and modern, sacred and secular, should be governed by order and decorum.

The various urban and architectural projects carried out during Alexander's reign were recorded in engravings by Giovanni Battista Falda and the first volume was published in 1665.

Nonetheless, Alexander's family heraldic emblems of the mons or mountains with stars and oak leaves, adorn Borromini's[28] church of Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza and many other works of his reign.

After her abdication the queen came to reside in Rome, where she was confirmed in her baptism by the Pope, in whom she found a generous friend and benefactor, on Christmas Day, 1655.

While the pontiff had originally hoped that Christina would become an inspiration for those considering conversion to the faith, he was dismayed that her interests were primarily political, even to the point that she helped plot the conquest of Naples with Cardinal Mazarin.

Alexander VII's pontificate was shadowed by continual friction with Cardinal Mazarin, adviser to and effectively chief minister of Louis XIV of France (1643–1715), who had opposed him during the negotiations that led to the Peace of Westphalia and who defended the prerogatives of the Gallican Church.

However, he prevented Louis XIV from sending the usual embassy of obedience to Alexander VII, and, while he lived, foiled the appointment of a French ambassador to Rome, diplomatic affairs being meantime conducted by cardinal protectors, generally personal enemies of the Pope.

By his abuse of the traditional right of asylum granted to ambassadorial precincts in Rome, Crequi precipitated a quarrel between France and the papacy, which resulted in Alexander VII's temporary loss of Avignon and his forced acceptance of the humiliating Treaty of Pisa in 1664.

He also continued to take the Jesuit part in their conflict with the Jansenists, whose condemnation he had vigorously supported as advisor to Pope Innocent X.

Alexander VII confirmed that they were too, by the bull Ad sanctam beati Petri sedem (16 October 1656) declaring that five propositions extracted by a group of theologians from the Sorbonne out of Jansen's work, mostly concerning grace and the fallen nature of man, were heretical, including the proposition according to which to say "that Christ died, or shed His blood for all men" would be a semipelagian error.

Alexander VII disliked the business of state, preferring literature and philosophy; a collection of his Latin poems appeared at Paris in 1656 under the title Philomathi Labores Juveniles.

He also encouraged architecture, and the general improvement of Rome, where houses were razed to straighten and widen streets and where he had the opportunity to be a great patron for Gian Lorenzo Bernini: the decorations of the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, titular churches for several of the Chigi cardinals, the Scala Regia, the Chair of St. Peter in St. Peter's Basilica.

"[41] Among those included were the previous decrees placing various heliocentric works on the Index ("...which we will should be considered as though it were inserted in these presents, together with all, and singular, the things contained therein...") and, according to Roberts, using his Apostolic authority he bound the faithful to its contents ("...and approve with Apostolic authority by the tenor of these presents, and: command and enjoin all persons everywhere to yield this Index a constant and complete obedience...")[42] Thus, for the geocentrists, Alexander turned definitively against the heliocentric view of the solar system.

[45] [better source needed] Alexander VII's Apostolic Constitution, Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum (8 December 1661),[46] laid out the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in terms almost identical to those utilized by Pope Pius IX when he issued his infallible definition Ineffabilis Deus.

In his decree, Alexander VII confirmed the authority and rulings from the Council of Trent while advising on matters ranging from sacramental confession, heresy, to proper courtship practices.

During his papacy, the pope also dispatched a mission consisting of Carmelite friars to Syria in order to evangelize and spread the faith in the Middle East.

[51] A precise and detailed account of the pope's last days is given in the Diary of the principal Master of Ceremonies, Fulvio Servantio, an official eyewitness to all the proceedings.

Short Account of the Life and Death of Pope Alexander VII:[53]Promoted to the cardinalship eight of those select persons, whom he supposed, for their great worth and labours, bestowed for the good of the Papal See, had merited the advancement to so high dignity.

But his disease increasing, four days after, he was assaulted by a grievous fit, from which he concluded that his sickness was mortal, and not withstanding, it grew more and more violent daily, yet for all this, he had thoughts of performing the long ceremonies of Holy Thursday, to prepare himself for death, as he said, by meditating on the sacred mysteries of the passion of Jesus Christ, and would have executed his intentions in despight of his pains, if his physicians and chyrurgeons, together with his confessor had not persuaded him to the contrary; remonstrating to him the inconveniencies which might arise, from the hard labours which are inseparable from such prolixe ceremonies.

And although he was perswaded by them all that time, yet was he resolved with that little strength he had left him (though much broken and extenuated by his disease) on Easter-day upon the Gallery of Monte Cavallo, where this function is used to be performed, with a solemn benediction in Pontificalthus, to bless the people, which there flocked in exceeding great multitudes, being driven there-unto not only out of devotion, but also by a desire of seeing their pastor yet whole and alive.

[54] At last, they being all departed, and only his familiar friends and ghostly-fathers continuing in the room with him, he altogether applied himself to his devotion, often repeating these words, Cupio disolvi et esse cum Christo ["I desire to be discharged from my debt and to be with Christ"].

And those which assisted him he caused continually to read spiritual books, & divers prayers, and psalms, especially the penitential psalms, &c. After he had received both the Eucharist and the Extreme Unction, he disposed himself for his Transit, with a marvelous undantedness; and had already even lost his Speech, when one of his religious men standing by exhorted him to do an act of contrition, and to aske God pardon of his sins, he collecting his breath, which was flying away, with a most lanquisting voice, which could hardly be understood, answered Ita ["Yes"].

And on Sunday the 22. of May, about 22. of the clock, he quietly rendred his spirits to his Creator, in the 60 year of his age, and 13 of his pontificate; and the same evening, the usual ceremony being performed by the cardinal lord Chamberlain, the corps were arrayed in the accustomed vestments, put into a litter of crimson velvet open on all sides, compassed round about by the penitentiary fathers, with lighted torches in their hands, accompanied by the guards and light horses, followed by the artillery, and with the Rexe Guard of Curiassiers, being carried to the Vatican, and there the next morning opened, there was found on one part of the lungs, fastned to one of his sides, a touch of a black spot; one of his kidneys wasted, and some carnosities of fleshy kyrnels instead of it, from whence the passage of the urine was hindred; and an ulcer of the reins, which of all his other diseases was the worst: from thence, being embalmed and pontifically appareled, he was carried the next day to the cathedral of St. Peter, and placed in the chapel of the most Holy Sacrament, where was a concourse of an infinite number of people, to kiss his feet, and take from him whatsoever they could lay hands on, to preserve to themselves as holy reliques.

We have employed the moneys of the apostolical chamber solely in the service of the Catholic religion, and the embellishment of Rome and the building of churches.