The naval Battle of Giglio was a military clash between a fleet of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and a fleet of the Republic of Genoa in the Tyrrhenian Sea. It took place on Friday, May 3, 1241 between the islands of Montecristo and Giglio in the Tuscan Archipelago and ended with the victory of the Imperial fleet. The target of the Imperial fleet was to intercept a delegation of high-ranking prelates from France, Spain, England and northern Italy which were traveling with the Genoese fleet en route to Rome where Gregory IX had summoned a council. Prelude After Frederick's victory at the Battle of Cortenuova in 1237 a conflict erupted in the spring of 1239 between the Pope and the Emperor concerning the question of the Imperial claim to rule over the cities of the Lombard League, an open conflict that culminated in the second excommunication of the Emperor on March 20, 1239. From then on both sides not prepared to compromise carried the military conflict against each other, where the Emperor achieved a victory in the Papal States at the Siege of Faenza, which increasingly threatened the position of the Pope. In the fall of 1240 the Pope issued to the Church dignitaries of Italy, Sicily, Germany, France, Spain and Hungary, the invitation to a council which should be addressed at Easter 1241 in Rome consulting the next steps of the church against the Emperor. In his capacity as King of Sicily Frederick II could easily suppress participation of the Sicilian prelates, but the clergy of the other countries gathered in the following months in order to travel on to Rome. Battle The Emperor controlled the land route through central Italy and thus Rome was cut off by land from northern Italy. The council gathered in Nice, where they were first transported by a fleet of the Maritime Republic of Genoa, which was led by a Guelph (Pope loyal) Government in its port. The two legates James of Palestrina and Otto of San Nicola negotiated with the Genoese for 32 armed galleys for the further transport by sea to Rome, and as soon as the embassies of the Lombard cities had embarked the journey should be started. When Frederick II learned of this project he ordered in March 1241 his in Lombardy prevailing vicars, Marino di Ebulo and Oberto Pallavicini, to attack Genoa by land. The Emperor