Alexander IV
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Alexander IV (real name: Renaldo de’ Conti di Segni): (b. 1199, Anagri; d. May 25, 1261, Viterbo). Pope. (rDec 12, 1254-May 25, 1261). He was elected pope at Naples on Oct. 25, 1254. A member of the noble Signi family, he was the nephew of Pope Gregory IX. Hostile to the Hohenstaufen King Manfred of Sicily, who he considered a usurper, Alexander sought his own candidate for the Sicilian throne. He made an unsuccessful offer to Edmond, the son of King Henry III of England. Manfred responded to Alexander’s trouble-making with some of his own, stirring up factional unrest in Rome. In 1260, Rome had become so unsafe that Alexander was forced to flee to Viterbo where he died the next year.
It was by Alexander’s command that the Inquisition was established in France. He was a strong supporter of medicant friars, especially the Franciscans.
Alexander was said to have been a man of weak character.