Francesco Sforza (cardinal)

[1] Following his wife's death, his half-sister Costanza Sforza, duchess of Sora, who was married to Giacomo Boncompagni, the legitimized son of Pope Gregory XIII, encouraged him to pursue an ecclesiastical career.

He became a cleric in Rome and rose quickly in the church, first becoming a canon of the cathedral chapter of San Nicola in Carcere before he had even been ordained as a priest.

He received the red hat and the deaconry of San Giorgio in Velabro on 6 January 1584,[1] but later exchanged it for Santa Maria in Via Lata.

Contemporary newspapers reported that a disagreement between Cardinals Ascanio Colonna and Sforza di Santa Fiora during the conclave nearly became violent.

[2] In the second papal conclave of 1590 he was a member of the Gregorian faction and threw his support to Niccolò Sfondrati, who was elected Pope Gregory XIV.

Sforza'a brother-in-law and French ally, Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany secretly engineered the election of Ippolito Aldobrandini as Pope Clement VIII.

He represented Pope Clement VIII at the baptism of his nephew Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.