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Historical person

Alexander IV

Pope Alexander IV, born Rinaldo Conti, was pope from 1254 to 1261. A member of the Conti family, he had been a cardinal before succeeding Innocent IV and governed the papacy during a period of continuing conflict in Italy and wider disputes over imperial and ecclesiastical authority.

Alexander IV’s pontificate was dominated by the unresolved struggle with the Hohenstaufen dynasty in southern Italy and by efforts to uphold papal authority against Manfred of Sicily. He also supported the mendicant orders and confronted controversies over university teaching and ecclesiastical privileges. His death in 1261 left many of these political conflicts to his successor Urban IV.

In Ian Morson’s Falconer’s Judgement, While Pope Alexander IV lies dying and church factions manoeuvre over the succession, a student protest at Oseney Abbey ends with the death of Bishop Otho’s brother.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Alexander IV (1 series)

William Falconer Medieval Mysteries in Order

by Ian Morson 9 books 4.2(1,415)

The William Falconer mysteries follow a Regent Master at the early University of Oxford between 1261 and 1275. Falconer approaches murder through observation, logic and experiment at a time when natural philosophy, Aristotelian teaching and church authority are contested. His cases involve students, clerics, royal officials, theatrical companies,…

All books in this series