The Papal States would like to have a word, sirrah. Sure, it wasn’t the entirety of what we today consider Italy, and gave such renowned political dynasties as the Borgias and Lombards, and of course the Papal States were under the direct sovereign rule of the Popes, even when the Pope was in France, giving us such illuminaries as Steven VI, who put his dead predecessor on trial; John XII, who is considered by many the most morally depraved Pope ever and who was actually deposed then managed to, through politics and military action, reclaim the title; and Urban IV, whose reign saw the split of the Church in two, the rise of the proverbial “Anti-Pope” in France, and then a third Pope come to power in Pisa. Good times.
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