TEBALDESCHI, FRANCESCO. – A Roman, he was created cardinal at Montefiascone by Urban V on 22 September 1368. Papal legate in Rome in 1376, he facilitated Gregory XI’s return from Avignon.
He was archpriest of St Peter’s in the Vatican and one of the four Italian cardinals who took part in the Conclave of April 1378. Indeed, on the afternoon of 8 April, while the enraged Roman populace was invading the rooms of the Vatican where the Conclave was being held, he was presented as having been elected Pope and, amid the tumult, was about to receive the customary homage. Protesting that he was not the elected one, he indicated as such the man who subsequently became Urban VI; meanwhile, the cardinals were withdrawing. While his Italian colleagues were approaching the rebellious cardinals, T. died on 7 September 1378, protesting that Urban VI was the legitimate Pontiff.