Pope innocent iii biography of william

1214 ended badly for King John. Attempts to appease his continental enemies had not had the desired results and he was at war in France. As a consequence, John sought a reconciliation with the Lusignans, agreeing to grant them Saintes and Oléron and to marry his daughter Joan to Hugh X de Lusignan, the son of Hugh IX de Lusignan, who had been betrothed to John’s wife, Isabelle d’Angoulême, in return for their support. A similar peace offering, of the earldom of Richmond, to Pierre, Duke of Brittany, was less well received and the duke remained aloof. John’s campaign was successful at first, with him entering Angers unopposed before he laid siege to Roche-au-Moine. However, he was forced to retreat on 2 July, with the approach of the army of Prince Louis of France and the refusal of the Poitevins to fight by his side.

Although he was able to keep his own army intact, John’s fate was sealed on 27 July when his half-brother William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury, and John’s German and Flemish allies faced King Philip II of France at the battle of Bouvines. They were decisively defeated. Otto IV managed to escape, but William Longespée was captured and taken to Paris, along with the counts of Flanders and Boulogne. With the threat in the north neutralised, Philip was now able to join his army to that of his son, Prince Louis, and challenge John in the south. John had no choice but to seek peace and a 5-year truce was agreed on 13 October, with Ralph of Coggeshall reporting rumours that it had cost John 60,000 marks.

At home, John’s policy of reform of the sheriffs and forest officials in 1212–1213 had resulted in a significant reduction in royal revenue, and the military campaign had drained John’s treasury further. He was no longer a wealthy king. In October 1214 John returned to England; the defeat by the French at the Battle of Bouvines had ended the king’s hopes of regaining the lost Angevin empire. Baronial opposition to John now gathered pace

With modern popes being essentially moral teachers and exemplars, it is sometimes hard for us to realize that popes once exerted power over kingdoms and empires. An anti-Trump comment by the current Pope Francis II might have power to shift political opinion among some U.S. Catholics, but many medieval popes could overthrow empires and kings.

Arguably the most powerful pope in history, Pope Innocent III’s reign transformed many aspects of the medieval Catholic church and European history. Born Lotario Dei Conti di Segni in 1160, the future Innocent was educated at Paris and Bologna, and, as a young man, worked for the papal administration in Rome under several popes. His talents brought him wide respect among his peers, leading to his election as pope in 1198 at the young age of 37, after only two ballots.

Pope Innocent III reigned as pope for almost 20 years (1198-1216), during a remarkably turbulent age. Jerusalem had fallen to Saladin’s Muslim armies in 1187, and the Third Crusade (1189-1192), under the leadership of Richard Lionheart of England, though it saved the crusader kingdom, had failed to reconquer the holy city. Pope Innocent therefore spent much of his early years as pope mobilizing preachers and resources for another crusade to rescue Jerusalem.

Unfortunately, through a series of disastrous decisions, Pope Innocent’s Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) went drastically astray and ended up conquering Constantinople from the Greek Orthodox Byzantine empire. The city was brutally sacked, and a weak and short-lived “Latin Empire” was established at Constantinople. But the long-term impact of the Fourth Crusade was to weaken Christian military power in the east, thereby opening the path for the eventual Ottoman Turkish conquest of Constantinople, Greece and the Balkans.

Pope Innocent, though initially appalled by the catastrophe of the Fourth Crusade, was eventua

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(Lotario de' Conti)

One of the greatest popes of the Middle Ages, son of Count Trasimund of Segni and nephew of Clement III, born 1160 or 1161 at Anagni, and died 16 June, 1216, at Perugia.

He received his early education at Rome, studied theology at Paris, jurisprudence at Bologna, and became a learned theologian and one of the greatest jurists of his time. Shortly after the death of Alexander III (30 Aug., 1181) Lotario returned to Rome and held various ecclesiastical offices during the short reigns of Lucius III, Urban III, Gregory VIII, and Clement III. Pope Gregory VIIIordained him subdeacon, and Clement III created him Cardinal-Deacon of St. George in Velabro and Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, in 1190. Later he became Cardinal-Priest of St. Pudentiana. During the pontificate of Celestine III (1191-1198), a member of the House of the Orsini, enemies of the counts of Segni, he lived in retirement, probably at Anagni, devoting himself chiefly to meditation and literary pursuits. Celestine III died 8 January, 1198. Previous to his death he had urged the College of Cardinals to elect Giovanni di Colonna as his successor; but Lotario de' Conti was elected pope, at Rome, on the very day on which Celestine III died. He accepted the tiara with reluctance and took the name of Innocent III. At the time of his accession to the papacy he was only thirty-seven years of age. The imperial throne had become vacant by the death of Henry VI in 1197, and no successor had as yet been elected. The tactful and energetic pope made good use of the opportunity offered him by this vacancy for the restoration of the papal power in Rome and in the States of the Church. The Prefect of Rome, who reigned over the city as the emperor's representative, and t

Head of the Catholic Church from 1198 to 1216

Not to be confused with Antipope Innocent III.

Pope Innocent III (Latin: Innocentius III; 22 February 1161 – 16 July 1216), born Lotario dei Conti di Segni (anglicized as Lothar of Segni), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 until his death on 16 July 1216.

Pope Innocent was one of the most powerful and influential of the medieval popes. He exerted a wide influence over the Christian states of Europe, claiming supremacy over all of Europe's kings. He was central in supporting the Catholic Church's reforms of ecclesiastical affairs through his decretals and the Fourth Lateran Council. This resulted in a considerable refinement of Western canon law. He is furthermore notable for using interdict and other censures to compel princes to obey his decisions, although these measures were not uniformly successful.

Innocent greatly extended the scope of the Crusades, directing crusades against Muslim Iberia and the Holy Land as well as the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in southern France. He organized the Fourth Crusade of 1202–1204, which ended in the sack of Constantinople. Although the attack on Constantinople went against his explicit orders, and the Crusaders were subsequently excommunicated, Innocent reluctantly accepted this result, seeing it as the will of God to reunite the Latin and Eastern Orthodox Churches. In the event, the sack of Constantinople and the subsequent period of Frankokratia heightened the hostility between the Latin and Greek churches; the Byzantine Empire was restored in 1261, albeit in a much weaker state.

Biography

Early life

Lotario de' Conti was born in Gavignano, Italy, near Anagni. His father, Count Trasimondo of Segni, was a member of a famous house, the Counts of Segni, which produced nine cardinals and four popes, including Gregory IX, Alexander IV and Innoc