The International Prester John Project: How A Global Legend Was Created Across Six Centuries Main Menu Orientation to Project Path One: 1122-1235 Path Two: 1236-1310 AD Path Three : 1311-1460 AD Path Four : 1461-1520 AD Path Five: 1521-1699 AD Path Six: 1700-1800 AD Global Middle Ages

Pope Alexander III

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Born Roland of Siena, Pope Alexander III (c. 1100-1181) served as Pope from 1159 to 1181. His papacy was, in part, marked by a longstanding power struggle with Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who acquiesced the Alexander in the Peace of Venice. That same year (1177), Alexander allegedly penned a letter to Prester John, urging the priest-king to be instructed in Catholicism by Alexander's personal physician, Master Phillip.