Pope Alexander III flees to France

1165

Driven from Rome by imperial partisans, the pope settled at Sens in Burgundy under Louis VII's protection, where he would rule the Church by letter for three years. French hospitality to exiled popes and English archbishops helped make the Capetian court briefly the moral capital of Christendom. Alexander used his French exile to build the diplomatic alliances with England and Sicily that would eventually force Barbarossa to recognize him at Venice.