Pope Lucius II

Gherardo Caccianemici dal Orso became Pope Lucius II on 9 March 1144, stepping into a papacy besieged by the Commune of Rome, a republican movement determined to strip the Church of its temporal power over the city. The tension exploded into open conflict as the commune fortified its position and Lucius refused to yield. He backed Empress Matilda in England's civil war known as the Anarchy and clashed with King Roger II of Sicily, but Rome itself consumed him. On 15 February 1145, less than a year into his papacy, he died - whether from injuries sustained in the failed assault on the Capitoline or from the strain of the siege remains debated, but the commune had won. His death cleared the way for Eugenius III, who would spend much of his own reign in exile from the city Lucius died trying to hold.