Papal States (Chaos)

The center of was directly owned by the pope since Charlemagne. His grip became weaker however since king forced him to take his seat in Avignon in 1303/09. Only in 1370, pope Clemens VII agreed after diplomatic pressure (and because the growing unrest in Italy endangered the Papal states) to return to Rome. But when the Rum-Seljuks first landed in and later took all of it, the pope again fled to Avignon.

The second fall of
1466, the infamous happened. In the following years, the church lost a lot of power to the various state governments (whether monarchical, republican or something in between). The fact that the "Constantine donation" had been discovered to be a forgery didn't help the pope either. Castille-Portugal sent troops to Italy to fight for the pope, though. But in 1472, after lots of fighting, the kept Latium, calling themselves from now on "rulers of both Romes". Despite the fact that the sultan was disappointed how insignificant Rome has become. The eastern parts of the Papal States became the Duchy/Protectorate of the, theoretically still under the pope, de facto under the duke of Alba (from Castille). Although noone said it loud, the pope and the other church leaders were quite content in Avignon and didn't care that much about Rome anymore.

Under Florentine rule
1556, the declared war on the Seljuks, enraged over the fate of Rome. and joined the war. In 1559, Rome was reconquered by Christians; all the Muslims found there were massacred. In the 1565 the Seljuks had to give up Latium (to Florence) and the Marches (the duchy was re-established) to E-C-P. The Romans displaced ~20 years ago returned in triumph. The victorious Italians demanded that the Pope returned to Rome, which the French king denied. So it was decided that while Latium was theoretically again under the pope, Florence would do the real administration - for the Seljuk threat, the popes didn't really want to return.

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