FRANCHI, ALESSANDRO. — Cardinal, born in Rome on 25 June 1819, died there on 31 July 1878. A student of the Roman Seminary, he earned a degree in theology after defending a public disputation. Called by Cardinal Lambruschini to the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, he became a minutant in the Secretariat of State. In 1853 he was sent as chargé d'affaires ad interim to Spain and played a significant role in the negotiation of the Concordat with the Holy See.
Elected in 1856 as titular archbishop of Thessalonica and apostolic internuncio to the Tuscan court, he remained in Florence until the departure of the Grand Duke (1859). Returning to Rome, in 1860 he assumed the position of secretary of the Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs.
In 1868 he became apostolic nuncio to Spain, and after leaving that nation following the abdication of Queen Isabella, he was sent (1871) to Constantinople as extraordinary ambassador to the sultan. At the consistory of 22 December 1873, Pius IX created him cardinal, assigning him the title of S. Maria in Trastevere. The following year he was given the prefecture of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. At the conclave of 1878 he was among the papabili, and Leo XIII, immediately after his election, appointed him Secretary of State; but he was able to hold this highest office for only a few months before his death.