Alexander IV, Pope

ALEXANDER IV, Pope. - On the death of Innocent IV, which occurred at Naples, where he had gone to defend the rights of the Holy See over the Kingdom, the cardinals who had accompanied him there were obliged to proceed with the election of a successor in that same city. Indeed, on 12 Dec. 1254 they elected Rinaldo de' Conti, bishop of Ostia, a relative of Gregory IX, who had created him cardinal in 1227. He took the name A. and proved far less prudent and of a more yielding character than his predecessor; he found himself at once struggling against Manfred, son of Frederick II, who at first claimed to act in the Kingdom as defender of the rights of Conradin of Hohenstaufen. The Pope, however, on 9 Apr. 1255 renewed the investiture to Edmund, son of Henry III king of England, who had already received it from Innocent IV, thus entering into conflict with Manfred; he left Naples in May to repair to Anagni, while he left in the Kingdom as legate Cardinal Ottaviano degli Ubaldini. But the legate was not capable of standing up to Manfred, who managed to rid himself of his adversaries and to form an alliance with Genoa and Venice, so that, when the rumor of Conradin's death spread, on 11 Aug. 1258 he had himself acclaimed and crowned at Palermo king of Sicily and Apulia. With this act, however, Manfred violated the rights of the high feudal lordship always upheld by the Church, placing himself in open conflict with Pope A., who on 10 Apr. 1259 solemnly excommunicated Manfred and his adherents; a sentence he renewed on 18 Nov. 1260, including in it the Sienese and the Florentine Ghibellines who, with Manfred's aid, had won the battle of Montaperti against Florence; that victory increased the credit that the new king was acquiring throughout central Italy and even in the north. A.'s relations with Rome were also difficult, where the Bolognese Brancaleone degli Andalò held sway as senator and captain of the people. When the latter was forced to leave office and was imprisoned by the Romans toward the end of 1255, the Brescian Emanuele de Maggi was elected senator. He, however, incapable of controlling the tumults, was killed in 1257, and the Pope, who had gone to Rome, was forced to repair to Viterbo. Brancaleone was recalled at the end of May; he acted in concert with Manfred; and on his death in 1258 he arranged that his uncle Castellano be designated senator. The latter, however, was driven out in Apr. 1259, and finally, with the Pope's consent, two Roman nobles, Napoleone Orsini and Riccardo Annibaldi, were elected senators.

Meanwhile another event had come about to complicate the affairs of Europe. In 1256 William of Holland, emperor, had died; A. had opposed the candidacy of Conradin; the German princes were divided: some elected Richard of Cornwall, brother of Henry III of England, others Alfonso X the Wise, king of Castile, but the elected had no credit in Germany. A., at first uncertain, showed himself favorable to Richard and had him appointed senator of Rome for life in 1261, in the hope that he might counterbalance the power that Manfred had by then conquered in Italy.

Like Gregory IX, A. showed great favor toward the Franciscans; he canonized St. Clare, condemned William of Saint-Amour, doctor of Paris who had dared to write against the privileges of the Mendicants, and had the chairs restored to the latter in those universities of which they had been deprived. A. died at Viterbo on 25 May 1261.

Pio Paschini