1241 papal election
The election took place during the first of many protracted sede vacantes of the Middle Ages, and like many of them was characterized by disputes between popes and the Holy Roman Emperor.
[2] Specifically, the election took place during the war between Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and the Lombard League and deceased pontiff, Pope Gregory IX, with Italy divided between pro-Papal and pro-Imperial factions known as the Guelphs and Ghibellines.
During the sede vacante, Frederick II surrounded Rome with his armies, blocking the arrival of some cardinal electors known to be hostile to his interests.
Unable to reach a consensus, the cardinals were locked in a monastery called the Septasolium (corrupted in both medieval and modern narratives into Septizodium) by the Roman civic officials, eventually settling on one of their oldest and most feeble members.
This served as a pretext for his excommunication by Gregory IX, and thinly veiled skirmishes between supporters of the pope and emperor (Guelphs and Ghibellines, respectively) throughout the Italian peninsula, particularly in Lombardy.
Before his death, Gregory IX had called for a synod to denounce Frederick II, and the emperor had gone to great lengths to disrupt the gathering, including the imprisonment of captured prelates and cardinals.
[8] It is even alleged that the citizens of Rome, angered by rumors that a non-Cardinal would be elected, threatened to dig up the corpse of Pope Gregory IX and place it in the Saepta Solis with the cardinals.
The two cardinals had been apprehended at sea aboard captured Genoese galleys,[13] while traveling to a general council that Gregory IX had called for Easter 1241 to denounce Frederick II.
[15] The main faction of cardinals was composed of the Gregorians (Rinaldo Conti de Segni, Sinibaldo Fieschi, and Riccardo Annibaldi, who supported the election of Romano Bonaventura[12]), who wished to continue Gregory IX's hostility towards the Holy Roman Emperor.
Frederick II naturally objected to the election of Cardinal Romano Bonaventura due to his "persecution" of the University of Paris while legate to France, his alleged debauching of Queen Blanche of Castile, and his role in the dispute between Gregory IX and the emperor.
His real opinion of the Cardinal is revealed in a letter he wrote after the Battle of Giglio: as a Legate in England and France Oddo had conspired a good deal against the honor of the Emperor; he had raised a crowd of prelates to bring them to Rome to participate in Gregory IX's Council; in Genoa he had conspired against those Genoese who were supporters of Frederick; he had raised and armed a fleet to transport the prelates to Rome, and to reduce the Genoese.
[12][23] Cardinal Castiglione's advanced age and deteriorating health are thought to have contributed both to his status as papabile and his ultimate election, making him an ideal compromise candidate, "stop-gap",[24] or "provisional Pope".
When confronted by a group of begging friars bearing a message from the Archbishop of York and Bishop of Lincoln, Frederick II reportedly said: "Who is hindering the welfare of the Church?
[32] Although Frederick II was now free to crush the Lombards without a pope to oppose him, he soon diverted much of his cavalry and infantry north of the Alps where the Tartars had begun to seriously threaten his lands.
[34] It took a year and a half before the cardinals were successful in reconvening in Anagni (Frederick II was in possession of Rome) and electing a successor to Celestine IV, due in no small part to Frederick II's continuing to keep da Pecorara and Oddone as hostages:[35] choosing Cardinal Fieschi as Pope Innocent IV in 1243.
