Alexander III

(d. 1181)

   Pope.

   Alexander III was born Orlando Bandinelli in Siena, Italy. In his adult life, he was a successful teacher of Canon Law at the University of Bologna and he was elected Pope in 1159, in succession to hadrian iv. His candidacy was not supported by the Emperor Frederick barbarossa, who set up three antipopes in succession, Victor IV, Pascal III and Callistus III. In 1177 the Emperor was defeated by the Lombard League at Legnano, and in consequence, he acknowledged Alexander’s right to the Papacy. In 1179 Alexander called the Third Lateran Council. Among several measures, the Council established that the right to elect a Pope was restricted to the College of Cardinals which must have a two-thirds majority in favour of the winning candidate. Alexander was also the author of various theological treatises and he was a keen patron of scholarship. In English history he is remembered as the Pope who supported Archbishop Thomas becket and who imposed penance on King Henry II.

   F. Barlow, Thomas Becket (1986);

   R. Somerville, Papacy, Councils and Canon Law in the 11th–12th Centuries (1990).