Pope Innocent IX

Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti spent decades as a canon lawyer and diplomat in the service of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. As papal legate to Venice, he negotiated the formation of the Holy League — the alliance of Spanish and Italian maritime powers that challenged Ottoman control of the eastern Mediterranean and triumphed at the Battle of Lepanto. He served as chief administrator under Pope Gregory XIV until that pope's death in 1591. On 29 October 1591, at seventy-two, he was elected Pope Innocent IX. He died two months later on 30 December, one of the shortest reigns in papal history.