Pope Pius IV

Born Giovanni Angelo Medici in Milan on 31 March 1499, his family claimed kinship with the Florentine Medici and borrowed their coat of arms, a connection modern historians can't verify but which the Medici of Florence accepted at the time. Pope Paul III made him Archbishop of Ragusa and dispatched him on diplomatic runs to the Holy Roman Empire and Hungary. Elected pope on 25 December 1559, he spent his six-year reign steering the Council of Trent to its conclusion, leaning on his nephew Cardinal Charles Borromeo as a close adviser. He also launched building projects across Rome, including work to shore up the city's water supply. He died in December 1565.