ALBERONI, GIULIO car dinal and statesman, the son of a gardener, born near Piacenza, probably at the village of Fiorenzuola. He took priest's orders, and found his way to Rome in attendance on the son of a bishop. During the War of the Spanish Succession Alberoni rendered substantial services to the Duke of Vendome, commander of the French forces in Italy, and in 171 I he followed him into Spain as his secretary. Two years later Alberoni was appointed con sular agent for Parma at the court of Philip V. of Spain, and helped to arrange the king's marriage with Elizabeth Farnese of Parma, by whose influence he was made a member of the king's council, bishop of Malaga, and in 1715 prime minister. Alberoni's foreign policy was to undo the work of the Treaty of Utrecht. He desired to gain the succession of Elizabeth to Parma and Piacenza, then in the hands of Austria. To this end he made hurried attempts to reform the administration and the military and financial organization of Spain. But the impatience of Eliza beth left him no time to mature his plans. In 1718 Alberoni equipped a small expedition to help the Scottish Jacobites against George II., but the fleet was wrecked on its way from Cadiz. The Spanish ambitions in Italy led to the Quadruple Alliance of England, France, Austria and Holland, all of which needed a long period of peace for recovery from the last war, and after the landing in 1718 of Spanish troops at Palermo, French armies and English ships invaded Spain. After the Spanish collapse Alberoni was exiled, and went to Italy, where he took refuge in the Apennines, Pope Clement XI., who was his bitter enemy, having ordered his arrest. On the latter's death Alberoni ap peared at the Conclave and took part in the election of Innocent XIII. 0721), after which he was imprisoned for a time by the Pope, at Spain's demand. At the next election, he was himself proposed for the papal chair, and secured io votes at the Con ; clave which elected Benedict XIII. He died on June 16, 1752. Alberoni left a number of manuscripts, but the genuineness of the Political Testament published under his name at Lausanne in has been questioned.
An Histoire du Cardinal Alberoni up to 1719 was published by Jean Rousset de Missy at The Hague in 1719. A laudatory life, Storia del Cardinale Giulio Alberoni, was published by. Stefano Ber sani, a priest educated at his college, at Piacenza, in 1861. Giulio Alberoni a it suo secolo, by Giovanni Bianchi (Igor), is briefer and more critical. See also Lettres intimes de J. Alberoni, edited by M. E. Bourgeois (1892).