FRANCESCO TEBALDESCHI. — A Roman, he was created cardinal at Montefiascone by Urban V on 22 September 1368. Papal legate in Rome in 1376, he facilitated the return of Gregory XI from Avignon.
He was archpriest of St Peter’s in the Vatican and one of the four Italian cardinals who took part in the April 1378 conclave. Indeed, on the afternoon of 8 April, while the exasperated Roman populace was invading the Vatican apartments where the conclave was being held, he was presented as the one elected pope and was about to receive homage amid the tumult. Protesting that he was not the one elected, he pointed to the man who was later Urban VI; meanwhile, the cardinals were withdrawing. While his Italian colleagues were joining the rebel cardinals, Tebaldeschi died on 7 September 1378, protesting that Urban VI was the legitimate pope.