Alcántara, Order of 25to the French Crown. The heiress of TOULOUSElater
married the king’s second son, Alphonse of Poitiers. A
bloody repression by the INQUISITIONand the DOMINICANS
continued, culminating in the massacre of the Albigen-
sians at their last citadel at Montsegur in 1244. Traces of
the sect remained well into the 14th century fostered by
the resentment of the south of France of control from the
north and Paris.
Further reading:Guillaume de Tudèle, The Song of
the Cathar Wars: A History of the Albigensian Crusade,
trans. Janet Shirley (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1996); Walter L.
Wakefield and Austin P. Evans, eds., Heresies of the High
Middle Ages (New York: Columbia University Press,
1969); Gordon Leff, Heresy in the Later Middle Ages: The
Relation of Heterodoxy to Dissent, c. 1250–1450,2 vols.
(Manchester: University Press, 1967); Michael Costen,
The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade(Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 1997); Joseph R. Strayer,
The Albigensian Crusades(Ann Arbor: The University of
Michigan Press, 1992); Walter Wakefield, Heresy, Crusade
and Inquisition in Southern France, 1100–1250(London:
George Allen and Unwin, 1974).
Alboin(d. 573)elected king by the Lombard tribes
Alboin became king of the Lombards in 561, when they
were still north of the Alps. Alboin played upon Italian
opposition and resistance to Byzantine or Greek rule
to invade Italy from the north. Approaching from the
northeast, he took Friuli and the city of Aquileia, whose
patriarch fled to the island of Grado, a future part of
Venice. Having taken VERONA, he made it his capital and
then conquered Milan in September 569. He was assassi-
nated at the instigation of his wife in his palace in Verona
in a failed coup attempt in 573.
Further reading: Neil Christie, The Lombards
(Oxford: Blackwell, 1995); Chris Wickham, Early
Medieval Italy: Central Power and Local Society, 400–1000
(London: Macmillan, 1981).
Albornoz, Gil, Cardinal (Aegidius, Egidio, Gil Álvarez
Carillo de Albornoz)(ca. 1310–1367)papal legate
Born about 1310 he became a protégé of Alfonso XI, the
king of León and Castile (1311–50); Albornoz was
named archbishop of Toledo in 1338 and chancellor of
the kingdom of CASTILE. As legate of the Holy See
during the crusade against the Muslims of AL-ANDALUS,
he distinguished himself at the Battle of Tarifa in 1340.
Disliked by King Peter I the Cruel (1334–69), he retired
to AVIGNON, where Pope CLEMENTVI (r. 1342–52) soon
appointed him cardinal of San Clemente in Rome in
1350.
Pope Innocent VI (r. 1352–62), in an attempt to
restore order and retake control of the PAPALSTATESin
central Italy, made Albornoz his legate and military com-
mander in Italy in 1353. Towns and noble lords had
taken advantage of the papacy’s sojourn in Avignon to
desert their allegiance and financial obligations to the
Holy See. Orvieto and then Viterbo were captured.
Albornoz then campaigned successfully against the rebels
in the Marches northeast of Rome. In the Romagna, far-
ther north, the cardinal encountered the power of the
VISCONTIfamily of Milan. As a result of their influence at
the papal court in Avignon, Albornoz was replaced in
1357 by Cardinal Androin de la Roche, who failed to fol-
low up on Albornoz’s earlier successes.
After Albornoz returned to Avignon, Innocent VI
soon restored his title of legate in 1358. He defeated
Francesco Ordelaffi, lord of Cesena and Forli, in 1359.
He recovered the major city of BOLOGNA, where he
installed a relative in 1360 as rector.
A new pope, Urban V (r. 1362–70), prolonged the
powers of Albornoz’s appointment and cited Bernabò Vis-
conti (d. 1385) to appear at Avignon. The pope con-
demned Bernabò as a heretic, and preached a crusade
against the Visconti. Bernabò called for the appointment
of a new legate as the price of his submission. Albornoz
was once again removed but was appointed legate to the
Kingdom of Naples. Albornoz was still able to complete
his pacification of the Papal States. This was the neces-
sary precondition for the safe return of the papacy from
Avignon to Rome and Italy. Albornoz died on August 22
or 23, 1367, just as Pope Urban V had reached Viterbo on
his way to Rome.
He was one of the ablest and toughest legates of the
Avignonese papacy but did not hesitate to oppose suc-
cessfully the vacillating policies of several popes. He also
demonstrated his prowess as an administrator by drawing
up a new set of ruling laws for the newly recovered Papal
States.
Further reading: Anne-Marie Hayez, “Albornoz,
Gil,” EMA,1.31–32; Guillaume Mollat, The Popes at Avi-
gnon, 1305–1378,trans. Janet Love (1949; reprint, New
York: T. Nelson, 1963).Alcántara, Order of This Hispanic military order
grew out of the confraternity of knights of San Julián del
Pereiro. It was approved by Pope ALEXANDERIII in Octo-
ber 1176. Founded during the struggle against the Mus-
lims, the order was subjected to the Order of CALATRAVA
in 1187 adopting the Cistercian rule. A conflict between
the older Sanjulianists and the Order of Calatrava ended
in 1218 in a compromise. In exchange for their submis-
sion, the Sanjulianists received the fortress of Alcántara
on the Tagus River and took their name from it. The
Order of Alcántara developed mainly in the Estremadura
to serve the Crown in Muslim GRANADAand in southern
PORTUGAL. In the 15th century, the order was involved
in political struggles among Castilian nobles. In 1501,
FERDINAND II and ISABEL I, the Catholic monarchs,
managed to persuade the pope to name them as the