Uberto Gambara was born in Brescia on 23 January 1489, the son of Gianfrancesco Gambara and Alda Pio di Carpi.[1] Veronica Gambara was his sister.[2] When he was 10 years old, he was destined for a career in the church. He was named provost of Verolanuova and chaplain of San Giacomo in 1502.[3] He briefly left the ecclesiastical state, fighting alongside his brother Brunoro in the French army of Gaston of Foix, Duke of Nemours then invading Brescia.[2]
He then reentered the ecclesiastical estate, traveling to Rome during the pontificate of Pope Leo X.[3] The pope named him nuncio to the Kingdom of Portugal, a post he would continue to occupy during the papacies of Pope Adrian VI and Pope Clement VII.[3] The latter pope then named him nuncio to the court of Francis I of France.[2] In 1527, he became nuncio to the Kingdom of England.[4] There, he coordinated with the papal legate to England, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York.[2] On 15 December 1527 he carried Cardinal Wolsey's letter to Pope Clement VII in which Wolsey secretly expressed his wish to be granted special powers allowing him to annul the marriage of Henry VIII of England and Catherine of Aragon, thus allowing the king to marry Anne Boleyn.[3]
Pope Clement VII was imprisoned by imperial troops following the Sack of Rome (1527).[1] During this period, Gambara traveled to Paris to attempt to raise military assistance to free the pontiff.[1]
On 8 May 1528 he was elected bishop of Tortona, coinciding with the pope naming him governor of Bologna, holding this post until 1533.[2] He was present at the imperial coronation of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor in Bologna on 24 February 1530.[1] At the end of his governorship, he was finally consecrated as a bishop in February 1533 in Bologna by Gian Matteo Giberti, Bishop of Verona.[5]
