Editing Pope Pius III (section)

====Conclaves of 1464 and 1471====
{{main|1464 papal conclave|1471 papal conclave}}
Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini participated in the [[Papal conclave|conclave]] that elected [[Pope Paul II]] in 1464. As a nephew of the late pope, he should have had considerable influence in the politics of the election. Of the twenty cardinals who participated, however, the twelve who had not been named by Pius II agreed among themselves that they would not vote to elect anyone except one of themselves. This excluded Francesco Piccolomini and all of his uncle's cardinals. As it happened, the first vote was still in progress when Cardinal Pietro Barbo of Venice received the required two-thirds of the votes, and the scrutiny was quickly made unanimous. He chose the name [[Pope Paul II|Paul II]] (1464–1471).<ref>F. Petruccelli della Gattina, ''Histoire diplomatique des conclaves'' Volume I (Paris: 1864), pp. 273–283. Pastor, ''History of the Popes'', Volume III (1906), pp. 348–374; Volume IV (1894), pp. 3–35.</ref>

Cardinal Piccolomini was named ''Legatus de latere'' in Germany on 20 February 1471.<ref>Franz Wasner, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27830415 "'Legatus a latere': Addenda varia,"] ''Traditio'' 16 (1960), pp. 405–416, at 413-414. Hermann Diemar, "Kõln und das Reich, II Theil, 1452–1474," ''Mittheilungen aus dem Stadtarchiv von Koln'' 9, Heft XXIV und XXV (Köln 1894), p. 327.(</ref> He was accompanied as his secretary by Agostino Patrizi Piccolomini, the former private secretary of Pius II, who wrote an account of the mission.<ref>H. Kramer (1949), 'Agostino Patrizzis Beschreibung der Reise des Kardinallegaten Francesco Piccolomini zum Christentag in Regensburg 1471," ''Mitteilungen des Österr. Staatsarchivs'', Erganzungsband 2 (Festschrift 1;
1949) 549-565. {{cite book|author=Francesco Buranelli|title=Habemus papam : le elezioni pontificie da S. Pietro a Benedetto|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nitGAQAAIAAJ|year=2006|publisher=De Luca|location=Roma|language=it|page=12|isbn=9788880167440}}</ref> He departed on 18 March,<ref>Eubel II, p. 37, no. 302.</ref> and served in this important legation for the [[Diet of Ratisbon (1541)|Imperial diet at Regensburg/Ratisbon]],<ref>Franz Wasner, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/27830370 "Fifteenth-century Tests on the Ceremonial of the papal 'Legatus a latere',"] ''Traditio'' Vol. 14 (1958), pp. 295–358, at pp. 335–339.</ref> and was still there when the Pope died on 26 July 1471. Consequently, he was absent for the Conclave of 1471 which elected [[Pope Sixtus IV]]. He returned to Rome on 27 December 1471.<ref>Eubel II, p. 37, no. 312.</ref>

He succeeded to the position of [[Cardinal Protodeacon]] in 1471, upon the promotion of Cardinal [[Pope Alexander VI|Rodrigo Borgia]] to the [[Roman Catholic Suburbicarian Diocese of Albano|see of Albano]] on 30 August 1471.

Francesco served in a new legation for [[Pope Sixtus IV]], to restore ecclesiastical authority in [[Umbria]].<ref>''The Encyclopædia Britannica'', Vol.19, Ed. Thomas Spencer Baynes, (Henry G. Allen Company, 1890), 153.</ref>