Who he was
Guido le Gros was born at Saint-Gilles on the Rhône on 23 November, in a year that is not known. He was a soldier and then a well-known lawyer who served as a trusted counsellor of St Louis IX of France; he married and had two daughters, and after his wife's death he took holy orders. He became Bishop of Le Puy, Archbishop of Narbonne and Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina, and was elected pope at Perugia while away on a mission, learning of it only when he arrived. His short reign was taken up with the war for the Kingdom of Naples, in which Charles of Anjou defeated Manfred at Benevento in 1266 and Conradin at Tagliacozzo in 1268.
What he is remembered for
He was admired in his own time for his piety, strict life and refusal to favour his own family: he forbade his relatives to seek any advantage from his election. He never entered Rome, living at Viterbo, where he died and was buried; his death was followed by a vacancy of almost three years.
Sources
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