c. 1195–1254 · Pope (1243–1254)
Pope Innocent IV
Pope who at the First Council of Lyon in 1245 declared Frederick II deposed, supported Louis IX's Seventh Crusade and sent envoys to the Mongols.
BIOGRAPHICAL DOSSIER
Life and historical role
Life and political setting
From the Genoese Fieschi family, Sinibaldo was a leading canon lawyer. He was elected pope in 1243; because of his conflict with Frederick II he fled Italy for Lyon in 1244 and spent much of his pontificate there.
Role in the Crusades
After the Khwarazmian sack of Jerusalem and the defeat at La Forbie in 1244, the First Council of Lyon in June–July 1245 decided on a new crusade and approved a tax on church revenues for it. The same council excommunicated Frederick II and declared him deposed. Innocent sent friars such as John of Plano Carpini as envoys to the Mongol ruler.
Historical significance and source problems
Under Innocent, crusade taxes and preaching were also used in the struggle against the emperor, which contemporaries criticised. He died in Naples in 1254. Matthew Paris is an important contemporary source who sharply criticises papal policy.
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.