Editing Pope Urban VI (section)

==War of the Eight Saints==
{{main|War of the Eight Saints}}
[[File:Urbanus VI.jpg|thumb|Posthumous portrait of Urban VI by [[Onofrio Panvinio]]]]
Meanwhile, the War of the Eight Saints, carried on with spates of unprecedented cruelty to civilians, was draining the resources of Florence, though the city ignored the [[Interdict (Catholic canon law)|interdict]] placed upon it by Gregory, declared its churches open, and sold ecclesiastical property for 100,000 florins to finance the war. Bologna had submitted to the Church in August 1377, and Florence signed a treaty at [[Tivoli, Lazio|Tivoli]] on 28 July 1378 at a cost of 200,000 florins indemnity extorted by Urban for the restitution of church properties, receiving in return the papal favor and the lifting of the disregarded interdict.

Urban's erstwhile patroness, Queen Joan I of Naples, deserted him in the late summer of 1378,<ref>Salvatore Fodale, ''La politica napoletana di Urbano VI'' (Rome: Sciascia) 1976, treats the convoluted career of Urban's most important political course as invariably rational – in the face of the contemporary accounts – with copious quotes from original sources.</ref> in part because her former archbishop had become her [[Feudalism|feudal suzerain]]. Urban now lost sight of the larger issues and began to commit a series of errors. He turned upon his powerful neighbor Joan, excommunicated her as an obstinate partisan of Clement, and permitted a crusade to be preached against her. Soon her enemy and cousin, the "crafty and ambitious"<ref name="Pastor 136">Pastor 136.</ref> [[Charles II of Hungary|Charles III]] was made [[King of Naples]] on 1 June 1381, and was crowned by Urban. Joan's authority was declared forfeit, and Charles murdered her in 1382.  "In return for these favours, Charles had to promise to hand over [[Capua]], [[Caserta]], [[Aversa]], [[Nocera dei Pagani|Nocera]], and [[Amalfi]] to the pope's nephew,<ref>[http://www.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios1378.htm], [[Francesco Moricotti Prignano]], of Vico, near Pisa; he was made a cardinal (18 September 1378) and called the "Cardinal of Pisa;" appointed governor of Campagna, 21 April 1380; Urban's constant assistant, he died in 1394.</ref> a thoroughly worthless and immoral man."<ref name="Pastor 136"/>
[[File:Alessandro Casolani, Consegna delle chiavi di Castel Sant'Angelo a Papa Urbano VI, e beato andrea gallerani (1582).jpg|thumb|Painting in the house of [[Catherine of Siena]], showing Urban VI receiving the keys of [[Castel Sant'Angelo]].]] 
Once ensconced at Naples, Charles found his new kingdom invaded by Louis of Anjou and [[Amadeus VI of Savoy]]; hard-pressed, he reneged on his promises. In Rome, the [[Castel Sant'Angelo]] was besieged and taken, and Urban was forced to flee. In the fall of 1383 he was determined to go to Naples and press Charles in person. There he found himself virtually a prisoner. After a first reconciliation, with the death of Louis (20 September 1384), Charles found himself freer to resist Urban's feudal pretensions, and relations took a turn for the worse. Urban was shut up in [[Nocera dei Pagani|Nocera]], from the walls of which he daily fulminated his [[anathema]]s against his besiegers, with [[bell, book and candle]]; a price was set on his head.

[[File:Assedio di UrbanoVI.jpg|right|thumb|"''Pope Urban the sixth was besieged in the castle of Nocera''", from ''Croniche'' of [[Giovanni Sercambi]] ]]

Rescued by two Neapolitan barons who had sided for Louis, [[Raimondo Del Balzo Orsini|Raimondello Orsini]] and Tommaso di Sanseverino, after six months of siege he succeeded in making his escape to [[Genoa]] with six galleys sent him by [[doge of Genoa|doge]] [[Antoniotto I Adorno|Antoniotto Adorno]]. Several among his cardinals who had been shut up in [[Nocera dei Pagani|Nocera]] with him were determined to make a stand, proposing that the Pope, due to incapacity and obstinacy, be put in the charge of one of the cardinals. Urban had them seized, tortured and put to death, "a crime unheard of through the centuries" the chronicler [[Egidio da Viterbo]] remarked.<ref>"scelus nullo antea sæculo auditum" (Egidio da Viterbo, ''Historia viginti sæculorum'') noted Pastor 137 note.</ref>

[[File:Pope Urban VI (by John Maler Collier) – 1896.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait of Urban VI in captivity by [[John Maler Collier]], 1896.]]
Urban's support had dwindled to the northern Italian states, Portugal, England,<ref>[[Richard II of England]] lost no time in confiscating properties of the French cardinals, and subsequently Richard alone responded to Urban's call for a crusade against Clement in France. (Pastor 134).</ref> and [[Emperor Charles IV]], who brought with him the support of most of the princes and abbots of Germany.

On the death of Charles of Naples on 24 February 1386, Urban moved to [[Lucca]] in December of the same year. The Kingdom of Naples was contended between a party favouring Charles's son [[Ladislaus of Naples|Ladislaus]] and [[Louis II of Anjou]]. Urban contrived to take advantage of the anarchy which had ensued (as well as of the presence of the feeble [[Maria, Queen of Sicily|Maria]] as [[Kingdom of Sicily|Queen of Sicily]]) to seize Naples for his nephew [[Francesco Moricotti Prignani]]. In the meantime he was able to have [[Viterbo]] and [[Perugia]] return to the Papal control.