meet the Venetians and launch a crusade in the Balkans. However, Pius II died at Ancona on 14 August 1464, terminating the project. Conclaves of 1464 and 1471 Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini participated in the conclave that elected Pope Paul II in 1464. As a nephew of the late pope, he should have had considerable influence in the politics of the election. Of the twenty cardinals who participated, however, the twelve who had not been named by Pius II agreed among themselves that they would not vote to elect anyone except one of themselves. This excluded Francesco Piccolomini and all of his uncle's cardinals. As it happened, the first vote was still in progress when Cardinal Pietro Barbo of Venice received the required two-thirds of the votes, and the scrutiny was quickly made unanimous. He chose the name Paul II (1464–1471). Cardinal Piccolomini was named Legatus de latere in Germany on 20 February 1471. He was accompanied as his secretary by Agostino Patrizi Piccolomini, the former private secretary of Pius II, who wrote an account of the mission. He departed on 18 March, and served in this important legation for the Imperial diet at Regensburg/Ratisbon, and was still there when the Pope died on 26 July 1471. Consequently, he was absent for the Conclave of 1471 which elected Pope Sixtus IV. He returned to Rome on 27 December 1471. He succeeded to the position of Cardinal Protodeacon in 1471, upon the promotion of Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia to the see of Albano on 30 August 1471. Francesco served in a new legation for Pope Sixtus IV, to restore ecclesiastical authority in Umbria. Conclaves of 1484 and 1492 Todeschini-Piccolomini participated in the conclave of 1484 which resulted in the election of Pope Innocent VIII, and as the protodeacon he made the first public announcement of the election and crowned the new pope. According to Stefano Infessura, he was one of the half-dozen cardinals who had slept soundly in their beds on the night between 28 August and 29 August, and had not participated in the clandestine midnight conferences that produced a two-thirds majority for Cardinal Giovanni Battista Cibo. Neither had he engaged in the extensive simoniac trading that took place. He was made the administrator of Fermo in 1485; he resigned the position in 1494, in favor of Agostino Piccolomini. He was reappointed when Agostino resigned in 1496, and he kept that post