Alexander VII, originally Fabio Chigi 1599-1667
Italian pope

He was born in Siena. As nuncio in Cologne, he had protested against the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), which ended the Thirty Years War. His papal election (1655) was said to have been settled by belief in his opposition to nepotism, to which he later succumbed. He supported the Jesuits against the Jansenists and forbade the translation of the Roman Missal into French. He was also responsible for the construction of the colonnade in the piazza at St Peter's, Rome, and wrote some Latin poems which were published.