Urban IV was Pope from 1261 until his death in 1064. The son of a French cobbler of Troyes, Jacques Pantaleon studied in Paris and became successively canon of Laon, archdeacon of Liege, bishop of Verdun, in 1253, and patriarch of Jerusalem, in 1255. Innocent IV employed him in various missions, and in 1261 he was elected pope at Viterbo. Urban IV's policy led ultimately to the final overthrow of the enemy of the papacy, the Hohenstaufen dynasty. He secured French intervention in Italy, in the person of Charles of Anjou, by the offer of the Sicilian crown, but Italy had to be won back from Manfred, prince of Tarentum. Urban's diplomacy kept off Manfred, but the pope did not live to see the accomplishment of his schemes, and he died at Perugia, on October the 2nd, 1264. Urban IV established the feast of Corpus Christi. Research Urban IV
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