Urban

Urban, name of eight popes. Urban II (c.1042–99; r. 1088–99) continued the struggle against the emperor Henry IV begun by his predecessor, Gregory VII. At the Council of Clermont (1095) he initiated the Crusades. Urban III (r. 1185–87) was absorbed in a struggle with Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and his son Henry IV. Urban IV (c.1200–64; r. 1261–64) continued the struggle against the Hohenstaufen emperors and gave the crown of Naples and Sicily to Charles I. Saint Urban V (c. 1310–70; r. 1362–70) attempted to return the papacy to Rome from Avignon and to effect a reconciliation with the Eastern Church. Urban VI (1318?–89; r. 1378–89) was involved in disputes with his cardinals that precipitated the Great Schism. Urban VIII (1568–1644; r. 1623–44) played an ambiguous role in the Thirty Years War through political opposition to the Roman Catholic Hapsburgs.