Aeneas Silvius was an author, diplomat, and orator, and private secretary of Antipope Felix V and then the Emperor Frederick III, and then Pope Eugenius IV.

His father Silvio was a soldier and member of the House of Piccolomini, and his mother was Vittoria Forteguerri, who had eighteen children including several twins, though no more than ten were alive at one time.

[6] He then attended the university of Florence where he studied under Francesco Filelfo, and where he became friends with Poggio Bracciolini, Leonardo Bruni, and Guarino da Verona.

[8] In 1435, he was sent by Cardinal Niccolò Albergati, Eugenius IV's legate at the council, on a secret mission to Scotland, the object of which is variously related even by himself.

The journey to Scotland proved so tempestuous that Piccolomini swore that he would walk barefoot to the nearest shrine of Our Lady from their landing port.

Only when he arrived at Newcastle did he feel that he had returned to "a civilised part of the world and the inhabitable face of the Earth", Scotland and the far north of England being "wild, bare and never visited by the sun in winter".

He gave a speech advocating the choice of Pavia as the site of a meeting between council members and the Greek delegation, to discuss church union, which caught the attention of the duke of Milan, as he had hoped.

[15] In 1440, he composed a work in defense of the authority of the general council of Basel, the Libellus dialogorum de generalis concilii auctoritate et gestis Basileensium.

[20] Of his activities at this period in his life, Ferdinand Gregorovius, the historian of medieval Rome, wrote, "Versed in the affairs of the Empire and the Roman Curia, in which occupations he incessantly strove to acquire benefices that should raise him out of poverty, Piccolomini was not inspired by any ardent longing for virtue, nor was he stirred by the sublime genius of an exalted nature.

[23] He played a leading role in concluding a compromise in 1447 by which the dying Pope Eugenius accepted the reconciliation tendered by the German princes.

[33] In August 1455, Aeneas again travelled to Rome on an embassy which included Johann Hinderbach to proffer the obedience of Germany to the new pope, Calixtus III.

[34] He brought strong recommendations from Frederick and Ladislaus V of Hungary (also King of Bohemia) for the nomination of Aeneas to the cardinalate, but delays arose from the Pope's resolution to promote his own nephews first, which he did on 17 September 1456.

[40] On the evening of the death of Cardinal Capranica, the Milanese ambassador indicated it would be possible to carry the election of Piccolomini, who was being supported by the king of Naples.

According to Aeneas' account, the wealthy cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville, Archbishop of Rouen, though a Frenchman and a blood cousin of the king of France, seemed certain to be elected.

[47] After allying himself with Ferdinand (Ferrante), the Aragonese claimant to the throne of Naples, in opposition to the French House of Anjou,[48] his next important act was to convene a congress of the representatives of Christian princes at Mantua for joint action against the Turks.

The pope influenced Vlad III Dracula, whom he held in high regard, to start a war against Sultan Mehmed II of Turkey.

His presence was urged by the disturbances occasioned by Tiburzio di Maso, who, when captured, confessed that he had planned to overthrow the papal government and plunder the cardinals and merchants.

[71] In particular, the Pope engaged for most of his reign in what looked like a personal war against Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, with the result of the almost complete submission of that condottiero.

Pius II also tried mediation in the Thirteen Years' War of 1454–66 between Poland and the Teutonic Knights, but, when he failed to achieve success, cast an anathema over Polish and Prussians both.

Pius II was also engaged in a series of disputes with King George of Bohemia and Archduke Sigismund of Austria (who was excommunicated for having arrested Nicholas of Cusa, Bishop of Brixen).

But Louis XI had expected that Pius II would in return espouse the French cause in Naples, and when he found himself disappointed he virtually re-established the Pragmatic Sanction by royal ordinances.

So did George Kastriot Skanderbeg the leader of Albanian resistance, who on 27 November 1463 declared war on the Ottomans and attacked their forces near Ohrid.

[80] In April 1462, a public pageant was staged for the pope to receive the relics of the head of Saint Andrew when it was brought from Patras in the Peloponnese to Rome by Thomas Palaeologus.

[81] Pius II succeeded in reconciling the Emperor and the King of Hungary,[82] and derived great encouragement as well as pecuniary advantage from the discovery of mines of alum in the papal territory at Tolfa, c.

[83] However, France was estranged; the Duke of Burgundy broke his positive promises; Milan was engrossed with the attempt to seize Genoa; Florence cynically advised the Pope to let the Turks and the Venetians wear each other out.

Pius II was aware that he was nearing his end, and his malady probably prompted the feverish impatience with which, on 18 June 1464, he assumed the cross and departed for Ancona to conduct the crusade in person.

He also issued a papal bull, Cum almam nostram urbem, on 28 April 1462, prohibiting damage to ancient ruins in Rome or Campagna.

[90] On 26 April 1463, Pius II published his most famous retracation in the bull "In Minoribus Agentes," addressed to the rector and members of the University of Cologne.

However, the armed forces melted away at Ancona for want of transport and the outbreak of pestilence, and when at last the Venetian fleet arrived, led by Doge Cristoforo Moro, the dying Pope could only view it from a window.

He sketched biographical treatises on Europe and Asia, and in early and middle life produced numerous tracts on the political and theological controversies of his day.