Pope Alexander III

Rolando of Siena reigned as Alexander III from 1159 to 1181, spent eighteen years fighting an emperor and four antipopes, and won. He was a canon lawyer and had been papal chancellor. His election was contested at once: a minority of cardinals backing Frederick Barbarossa elected a rival, and Alexander spent much of his pontificate in exile in France while Barbarossa installed one antipope after another. What broke the deadlock was not the church but the Lombard cities, which formed a league, named their new fortress town Alessandria after him, and beat the imperial army at Legnano in 1176. Barbarossa submitted at Venice the following year. Alexander then held the Third Lateran Council in 1179, which fixed papal elections at a two-thirds majority of cardinals - the rule that has governed conclaves ever since and was designed precisely to prevent what had happened to him. He also reserved canonisation to the papacy, sanctioned the Northern Crusades, and declined Manuel Komnenos's offer to end the schism with Constantinople on terms he judged impossible. He is remembered in England for the quarrel with Henry II over Thomas Becket, whom he canonised in 1173, three years after the murder. He also decreed that the marriage of two consenting adults was valid without a priest present, which shaped European marriage law for centuries. Around a quarter of the surviving decretals of the twelfth century are his. The city of Alessandria in Piedmont still bears his name. He confirmed the Order of Santiago and encouraged the military orders in Iberia. His long exile in France left the papal court there for years at a stretch, a century and a half before the move to Avignon made that permanent.

• Lived: 1100 CE – 1181 CE
• Nationality: Italian
• Roles: pope, religious_leader