Pope Nicholas III (1277–1280) was a Roman named Giovanni Gaetano
Orsini, successor of John XXI. As a cardinal he made a great reputation in
diplomacy, and he was a close confidant of popes for 30 years. He was
elected pope after a six-month delay. Nicholas’s principal efforts were
directed to rendering the Holy See free of civil interference; he was most
successful in obtaining renunciation by Rudolf I (Rudolf of Hapsburg) of
all control over the Romagna. By passing laws preventing non-Romans from
obtaining privileges in Rome, he quietly frustrated the ambitions of
Charles I, king of Naples, to dominate central Italy. He was the first
pope in a century to live regularly in Rome, and he has been called the
founder of the Vatican. He was succeeded by Martin IV.