Pope Alexander IV

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Alexander IV
Image:B Alexander IV.jpg
Birth name	Rinaldo Conti
Papacy began	December 12 1254
Papacy ended	May 25 1261
Predecessor	Innocent IV
Successor	Urban IV
Born	c. 1199 Anagni, Italy
Died	Template:Death date Viterbo, Italy
Other popes named Alexander

Pope Alexander IV (c. 1199 – May 25 1261) was Pope from 1254 until his death.

Born as Rinaldo of Jenne, a native of Jenne, near Anagni, he was, on his mother's side, a member of the Conti family, the counts of Segni, like Pope Innocent III (1198 - 1216) and Pope Gregory IX (1227 - 1241). His uncle, Pope Gregory IX made him Cardinal Deacon in 1227 and Bishop of Ostia in 1231. On the death of Pope Innocent IV (1243 - 1254) he was elected Pope at Naples on December 12 1254.

Alexander IV succeeded Innocent IV as guardian of Conradin, the last of the Hohenstaufen, promising him protection; but in less than a fortnight he conspired against him and bitterly opposed Conradin's uncle Manfred.^{[citation needed]} Alexander IV threatened excommunication and interdict against the party of Manfred, without effect. Nor could he enlist the Kings of England and Norway in a crusade against the Hohenstaufen. Rome itself became too Ghibelline for the Pope, who withdrew to Viterbo, where he died in 1261. He was buried in Viterbo Cathedral, but his tomb was destroyed during sixteenth century renovations.

His pontificate was signalized by efforts to unite the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, by the establishment of the Inquisition in France, by favours shown to the mendicant orders, and by an attempt to organize a crusade against the Tatars after the second raid against Poland in 1259.