Italy
The Papal States in the 14th Century
This inherently difficult situation was made worse in the 14th century by the removal of the popes to Avignon. Some of the Avignon popes were willing to let matters go their own way in Italy, while Pope John XXIII and Innocent VI interfered more directly. John XXIII sent a legate to rule in his name, and this example was followed by subsequent popes. The best-known of these cardinal-legates was Gil Albornoz (appointed in 1353), a Castilian, who was effective both as a dipolmat and as a military commander. Under Albornoz, the Papal States were on the way to becoming both relatively peaceful and relatively submissive (achieved only after relentless campaigning). His peak came in 1357 when he issued a general constitution for the Papal States, which stayed in effect there until 1816.
There was no unity, though, and rebellions became chronic again after the cardinal's death in 1367. In the later 14th century, the papacy was split in two (1378) and the Roman pope got deeply entangled in the affairs of Naples. Both these facts simply fed the disorder within the Papal States, especially when Clement VII basically gave away a portion of the Papal States to Louis of Anjou if the latter could conquer them (thereby taking them away from his Roman rival). The Romans responded by electing a Neapolitan as pope—Boniface IX (1389-1404), and the papacy essentially became a Neapolitan fief for an entire generation. By 1404, eight of the ten cardinals in Rome were from Naples and five of those were the pope's own relatives.