on relatively poor terms with Innocent XI. As a further overture to the French monarch, Alexander VIII also named two more French cardinals, a move that largely irked Leopold I of Habsurg and saw the emperor withdraw his ambassador to the Holy See. Moreover, the pontiff was less concerned with the emperor's actions primarily because the emperor had primarily been indifferent to defending against the Ottoman Empire in favor of hostility with the French. Death and burial Alexander VIII died on 1 February 1691. His grandiose tomb in Saint Peter's was commissioned by his grandnephew, Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, and designed by Count Arrigo di San Martino. The bas-relief at the base and the flanking figures (1704) were sculpted by Angelo de' Rossi, while the bronze statue of the pope was cast by Giuseppe Bertosi. On 16 October 1690, the day that he celebrated a canonization Mass, it was noticed that Alexander VIII appeared to look relatively sluggish and hence seemed like he had fallen ill. While it was hypothesized that he may have had a minor stroke, his doctors suggested that the pope rest but were unsure of what exactly had caused the pope to fall ill. On 20 January 1691, Cardinal Forbin Janson informed King Louis XIV that the pope was seriously ill, and on 22 January, that his condition had dramatically deteriorated and that his nephew was pessimistic about his uncle's chances. On 27 January, it was reported that gangrene had set in while Alexander VIII met with twelve cardinals on 30 January. Alexander VIII died at 4:00pm on 1 February 1691 while a plague from Naples had spread to Rome, infecting the pope and hastening his death. Episcopal succession Pope Alexander VIII was the principal consecrator of: See also Cardinals created by Alexander VIII References External links Ottoboni family 1610 births 1691 deaths Cardinal-bishops of Frascati Cardinal-bishops of Porto Cardinal-bishops of Sabina People of the Great Turkish War Burials at St. Peter's Basilica 17th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the Republic of Venice 17th-century popes Italian nobility Ottoboni family University of Padua alumni Popes