Beginning in 1644 and for eleven years after, Maidalchini directed Vatican business, appointed cardinals, negotiated with foreign ambassadors, and helped herself to a heaping portion of the treasury of the Papal States. Knowing of Pope Innocent's absolute dependence on his sister-in-law, Cardinal Alessandro Bichi angrily declared on the day of his election, "We have just elected a female pope." Cardinal Sforza Pallavicino bewailed the "monstrous power of a woman in the Vatican."
underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.
