The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1377 during which seven French popes, resided in Avignon.

With the encouragement of the French king, the cardinals returned to Avignon and in 1378 elected a French pope, the antipope Clement VII.

He and the French popes who succeeded him were completely under the influence of the kings of France.

However the French pope was firmly in Charles' camp and he directed the Sicilians to recognize Charles as their rightful king.

It was long past time for the Church to install a French pope; the Italians were pigs about that.

Giordano, the leader of the anti-French faction, and his nephew Matteo, were imprisoned, actions that ensured that the new French pope would find no welcome in returning to Rome.

From 1261-the year in which a French pope, Urban IV, was elected-to 1268 the Angevins spearheaded the final assault on Hohenstaufen Italy.

Finally, in 1376, Gregory XI, the last of seven French popes, returned to Rome.

(These discussions with Charles of Anjou had been initiated by Clement's predecessor, Pope Urban IV, another French pope.)

The Lords of Baux had an uneasy relationship with the French popes, their new neighbors.