[1] In 1326 the Avignon Pope John XXII sent him as his Legate a latere to Italy, then much troubled by civil wars, with the task of bringing peace.
[3] Born about 1285, he was given exactly the same name as his father's brother, Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, better known as Pope Nicholas III, who had died in 1280.
[1] From 1326 to 1334 Orsini was Pope John XXII's legate a latere in Italy, with particular faculties over the provinces of Romagna, Tuscany, Sardinia, and Marca Umbria, which were troubled by civil wars, and was given the task of pacifying them.
The Pope declined to be commanded, and Orsini attempted to enter Rome but was turned away, retaliating by placing an interdict on the city.
In the summer of 1328, his remaining support melted away when Robert, King of Naples, sent a fleet to blockade the port of Ostia, while Orsini massed forces outside the city.
Ten days later an Angevin army led by William, Count of Eboli, marched into Rome in the name of Robert of Naples.
[6] As Orsini's power increased, he expanded the influence of his family in Rome and also pursued a policy of aggrandizing the Roman commune itself in the region.
In the later months of 1329 and early 1330, the militia of Rome raided the towns of the Campagne and Maritime Province to extract new taxes from them.