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1264–1265 papal election

election of Pope Clement IV

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 24, 2026
Entity authorityQ4576434 ↗
Source-derived summary

The 1264–65 papal election (12 October 1264 – 5 February 1265) was convened after the death of Pope Urban IV and ended by electing his successor Pope Clement IV. It met in Perugia, where Urban IV had taken refuge after being driven out of Orvieto. He had never been in Rome as Pope, but spent his entire reign in exile. It was the second election in a row where a pope was elected in absentia; the phenomenon would be repeated in the Conclave of 1268–1271, and again in the Conclave of 1292–1294. In the last two cases, the person elected was not even a Cardinal.

According to Salimbene di Adam, the archbishop of Ravenna, Filippo da Pistoia, had hopes of being elected.

Cardinals

At the time of Pope Urban's death there were twenty-one cardinals. At least two did not attend the Election, Cardinal Simon de Brion, Legate to King Philip III of France, and Cardinal Guido Grosso Fulcodi, Legate to King Henry III. Cardinal Simon Paltineri, governor of Campania for Urban IV and later for Clement IV, might or might not have attended.

References

Bibliography

Jean Roy, Nouvelle histoire des cardinaux françois Tome quatrième (Paris: Poincot 1787).

Lorenzo Cardella, Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa Tomo primo, Parte secondo (Roma: Pagliarini 1792).

Joseph Maubach, Die Kardinäle und ihre Politik um die Mitte des XIII. Jahrhunderts (Bonn: Carl Georgi, 1902).

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “1264–1265 papal election” is election of Pope Clement IV. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through papal, election and Pope, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1264, 1265, 1268, 1271—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, papal, election and Pope is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “election of Pope Clement IV” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4576434. Authority coordinates are 42.956, 12.704. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1264, 1265, 1268 and 1271.

Critical limits

Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “1264–1265 papal election” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.