Avignon (Chaos)

Avignon once was a small city in the south of. But in 1303, this changed: After the Fair had been excommunicated by the pope Boniface VIII, he had the latter seized by his men, and forced him to go to Avignon. 1309, the Popes' move to Avignon became permanent. In the following decades, the (mostly French) popes would reign from here.

At the Great Reform (1401-07) the church decided that the pope should return to ; but when  was completely subjugated by the  1459-61, everyone feared that the  would be attacked next. The helpless pope fled to Avignon. And indeed, 1466 the infamous happened.

Since noone expected the situation to change very soon, people took comfort at the old and new seat of the Papacy. 1514, the French regent Francois was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Avignon.

Even after first and  later gradually recovered Rome and the rest of Central Italy, the pope preferred to stay in Avignon, and so did the kings of France. After the however, they couldn't maintain this position anymore against the rest of Europe, and the popes returned to Rome.

Although the popes had lost a lot of power, and became a mere representative position after the, they still had a lot of influence and prestige. For these reasons, in 1738 king managed to smuggle pope Innocent from Rome back to Avignon. The Italian king protested, but couldn't change it.

Finally however, when France became a republic, and the French Republican Wars started, the pope fled from Avignon. First he went down the Rhone river to Corse, but later he would move his seat to, , since Italy didn't want to enter the war.