1492 conclave

A papal conclave was held from 6 to 11 August 1492 to elect a new pope to succeed Innocent VIII, who had died on 25 July 1492. Of the 27 eligible cardinal electors, all but four attended. On the fourth ballot, the conclave elected Cardinal Rodrigo Borja, the vice chancellor of the Roman Catholic Church. After accepting his election, he took the name Alexander VI.

The first papal conclave to be held in the Sistine Chapel, Cardinal Rodrigo Borja was elected unanimously on the fourth ballot as Pope Alexander VI. The election is notorious for allegations that Borja bought the votes of his electors, promising them lucrative appointments and other material gifts. Concerns about this conclave were among the reasons that Pope Julius II—who was at the time of the election one of the foremost candidates and participants, as Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere—enacted stronger rules against simony in 1503, shortly after Alexander VI's death in the same year. In the 1492 conclave, Charles VIII of France reportedly bankrolled 200,000 ducats (plus 100,000 ducats from the Doge of Genoa) for the election of Giuliano della Rovere.