Napoleone Orsini (cardinal)

Napoleone Orsini Frangipani (1263 – 24 March 1342) was a Roman Cardinal. His ecclesiastical career lasted 57 years, 54 of them as a cardinal, and included six conclaves. He was a member of the Orsini and Frangipani families.

Born in Rome to Rinaldo Orsini, a brother of Pope Nicholas III, Napoleone took holy orders in 1285 and was named a papal sub-chaplain by Honorius IV. He rose quickly, and on 16 May 1288 was appointed cardinal deacon of San Adriano by Nicholas IV.

During the pontificate of Boniface VIII his gift for diplomacy was put to wide use and he was named legate to Spoleto and Ancona. In this capacity, in 1301, he retook the city of Gubbio, which had rebelled against the Papal State. An opponent of the Colonna family, he was a supporter of Boniface' Italian crusades.

During the Avignon Papacy Napoleone realigned himself with the Colonna and testified against Boniface at the latter's posthumous trial. Diplomatically active during the pontificates of Clement V and John XXII, he died at the age of seventy-nine in 1342, at Avignon, during the reign of Benedict XII.