Pope Benedict III, who had intervened in…

Pope Benedict III, who had intervened in the conflict between the sons of Lothair I (the future Lothair II, Louis II and Charles the Bald) on the latter's death, has been active in other cases and adopted a firm position towards Constantinople.

During his reign, Æthelwulf of Wessex and his youngest son, the future Alfred the Great, have visited Rome.

At Benedict’s death on April 7, 858, Emperor Louis II, who is in the neighborhood of Rome, enters the city to exert his influence upon the election.

On April 24, a deacon named Nicholas, born to a distinguished family as the son of the Defensor Theodore, is elected pope, consecrated, and enthroned in St. Peter's in the presence of the emperor.

Three days later, he holds a farewell banquet for the emperor, and afterward, accompanied by the Roman nobility, visits him in his camp before the city, on which occasion the emperor comes to meet the pope and leads his horse for some distance.