Francesco Barberini, iuniore (12 November 1662 – 17 August 1738) was an Italian Cardinal of the family of Pope Urban VIII (1623–1644) and of the Princes of Palestrina.
He gave up his birthright (as eldest son) for an ecclesiastic career thereby making his brother, Urbano Barberini, heir to the Barberini estate. When his sister-in-law, Felice Ventimiglia Pignatelli d'Aragona separated from Urbano, she sought refuge with Francesco and joined a convent within his bishopric. She later bequeathed her dowry to the Cardinal.
He was created cardinal by Pope Alexander VIII on 13 November 1690 with the dispensation of having an uncle (Carlo Barberini) in the Sacred College and for not having yet received the minor orders.[2] He was named cardinal-deacon of Sant'Angelo in Pescheria although not ordained to the diaconate until ten years later.
On 1 July 1726 he was appointed Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia e Velletri. That same year he arranged the kidnapping of his twelve-year-old niece, Cornelia Constance Barberini, in a custody dispute with her mother, Maria Teresa Boncompagni, in order to arrange a marriage between Cornelia and Giulio Cesare Colonna di Sciarra.[4]
In 1704 he commissioned Bernardino Cametti to create funerary monuments for his grandfather Taddeo and great-uncle Antonio Barberini in the family Church of Santa Rosalia in Palestrina.
