1160/61–1216 · Pope who called the Fourth Crusade
Pope Innocent III
Other names · Innocent III
Powerful medieval pope who sought to make crusading a permanent and regular institution of the papacy.
BIOGRAPHICAL DOSSIER
Life and historical role
Life and political setting
Born Lotario dei Conti di Segni in Italy, Innocent studied at Paris and Bologna and was elected pope in 1198. He developed a strong conception of papal monarchy that influenced European politics, canon law and missionary activity. Crusading under his pontificate became a more continuous institution supported by preaching, taxation and legal privileges.
Role in the Crusades
Innocent called a new expedition in 1198, but Venetian debt diverted the Fourth Crusade first to Zara and then to Constantinople. He prohibited the attacks and used excommunication, yet after 1204 he accepted the resulting Latin order. At the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 he secured detailed provisions for the finance and preparation of the Fifth Crusade.
Biographical information is linked to the sources shown on the page and to the connected event records. Disputed dates are given as approximate, gaps are not filled by conjecture, and later literary or visual depictions are not treated as contemporary portraits.