Francesco Della Rovere was born into a poor family in Liguria in north-west Italy in 1414, the son of Leonardo della Rovere of Savona.[1] A Franciscan who became Minister General of his order, then cardinal, he had a reptation for unworldliness until he was elected pope in 1471. As Sixtus IV he was both wealthy and powerful, and at once set about giving power and wealth to his nephews of the Della Rovere and Riario families. Within months of his election, he had made Giuliano della Rovere (the future pope Julius II) and Pietro Riario both cardinals and bishops; four other nephews were also made cardinals.[2]: 252 [3]: 128 He made Giovanni Della Rovere, who was not a priest, prefect of Rome, and arranged for him to marry into the da Montefeltro family, dukes of Urbino. Sixtus claimed descent from a noble Della Rovere family, the counts of Vinovo in Piemonte, and adopted their coat-of-arms.[4]
Guidobaldo da Montefeltro adopted Francesco Maria I della Rovere, his sister's child and nephew of Pope Julius II. Guidobaldo I, who was heirless, called Francesco Maria at his court, and named him as heir of the Duchy of Urbino in 1504, this through the intercession of Julius II. In 1508, Francesco Maria inherited the duchy thereby starting the line of Rovere Dukes of Urbino. That dynasty ended in 1626 when Pope Urban VIII incorporated Urbino into the papal dominions. As compensation to the last sovereign duke, the title only could be continued by Francesco Maria II, and after his death by his heir, Federico Ubaldo.
^ abcDella Róvere (in Italian). Enciclopedie on line. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed May 2018.
^Vincent Cronin (1992 [1967]). The Florentine Renaissance. London: Pimlico. ISBN0712698744.
^Christopher Hibbert (1979 [1974]). The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin. ISBN0140050906.
^Giuseppe Castellani (1931). Della Rovere (in Italian). Enciclopedia Italiana. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed May 2018.
^François Ch. Udinet (1989). Della Rovere, Domenico (in Italian). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, volume 37. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed May 2018.
^Giovanni Romano (1989). Della Rovere (in Italian). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, volume 37. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. Accessed May 2018.