Election of Pope Urban II

Timeline

1. 1087–1088Rome · LazioAround the time of Victor III's death in 1087, the Curia still needed to choose a successor in Rome who could stabilize leadership of the reform movement and oppose the antipope amid the city's divisions and the rivalry between the emperor and Norman forces.
2. 1088Rome · LazioThe French cardinal Odo de Châtillon was elected pope as Urban II. He carried on the tradition of the Gregorian reform and, through diplomacy with the Normans and the princes of Europe, laid the organizational groundwork for consolidating papal power in the Investiture Controversy and for launching the Crusades.