Giordano Pierleoni

Who is Giordano Pierleoni?

Giordano Pierleoni was the son of the Consul Pier Leoni and therefore brother of Antipope Anacletus II and leader of the Commune of Rome which the people set up in 1143. According to Gregorovius, he was a "maverick" in the great Pierleoni family, for he continued to oppose the papacy after Anacletus' death, when the rest of his clan had returned to support of Rome.

In late autumn 1143, the democratic element in Rome set up a Senate in opposition to the higher nobility and the papacy. Drawing on the glorious ancient Roman Republic, the citizens declared a senate, based on four elected representatives from each of the newly created fourteen districts of medieval Rome, the first real senators since the seventh century. The fifty six senators then elected as patrician Pierleoni, because the title of consul had taken on noble connotations. Pierleoni led the defence of the city against Pope Lucius II's assault in 1145, where Lucius himself was killed.