The Pope was desperate to regain control of the Church in England, Normandy, and France, and tried to interfere in the internal affairs of the kingdom, which William, who had a strong desire for control, could not allow.

On the one hand, the Pope has the support of the HRE Empire, and in the face of this huge empire, William never wants to engage in a full-scale war with it, because this will greatly deplete the strength of the Norman kingdom and make William's enemies take advantage of it.

Therefore, William ruled out the option of marching into Rome and deposing the pope, and even if he wanted to follow the example of Emperor Henry III of the HRE, it would not be the best time to consider it, at least until the death of Emperor Henry of the Sallian dynasty.

On the other hand, William's ability to project power on the Apennine Peninsula was also limited, and he was able to exert influence on the Holy See through Caesar and the Normans until he dissolved the relationship with Caesar, the king of Sicily, but now he can't.

Here, Caesar had seized Lecce and Catanzaro of the Byzantine Empire since he had dissolved the relationship with William, and then he had to go south to take all of Sicily.

Finally, in September 1050, he was crowned King of Sicily in Rome and was crowned by Pope Leo IX himself.

Since William and Caesar dissolved the relationship between the monarch and the courtiers, William has lost his foothold in the Mediterranean, and if he wants to send troops to Rome, he has to bypass the Iberian Peninsula and cross half of the Mediterranean, which is really inconvenient for William.

And he was going to let Maurice. Welf's plans to succeed the principalities of Verona and Carinthia were also ruined by Henry III's massive move south to Rome and the deposition of the pope.

Morris's uncle, Guelph. The Duke of Welf was robbed of his territory by the Emperor, and William's plan was naturally out of the question.

As for Morris. Welf himself wanted to inherit the Duchy of Lombardy under Azor II, which was even more whimsical.

Welf III's sister Kunigund was married to Azo II of the House of Este in Italy.

The Este family was also one of Italy's wealthy families, having been the rulers of Milan from the great-grandfather of Azo II.

The marriage of Azzo II and Kunigund resulted in the Swabian property of the Welf family falling into the hands of the Este family, and the two had a child named Maurice. Welf, Azzo and his second wife also have a child named Fulke.

But the House of Welf had fallen to this point, and Azor II was a strongman duke, and it was impossible for Maurice to replace his younger brother as the heir to Lombardy and Milan.

Now that the previous plan to acquire a territory in Italy had failed, William had to reconsider a new plan, at least to obtain territories near Italy and Rome, as a foothold, and then threaten the Holy See to prevent it from acting arbitrarily.

Looking around Italy, the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, isolated in the world but facing Rome, are ideal targets.

Currently, Corsica is home to William's in-laws, Bofacioni, Duke of Tuscany and Spoleto. Advance. Canossa's domain, his daughter Matilda, is the fiancée of William's son Richard Jr.

With this relationship, it is not easy for William to directly occupy Corsica.

Instead, you can try to buy some Sardinian territories from your father-in-law, Duke Bofacioni, or buy all of Sardinia outright.

At this time, Sardinia was still uninhabited, and even later generations did not necessarily know how developed it was, and it would not cost more than 5,000 pounds of silver to buy Sardinia.

In addition to Sardinia, a target was also chosen, and that was Sardinia, the territory of Sardinia, which is owned by the Republic of Pisa.

Sardinia, also known as Sardinia, is the second largest island in Italy in the western Mediterranean after Sicily.

It is located 200 km west of the coast of the Italian peninsula, 12 km north of the French island of Corsica and 200 km south of the African coast, with Cagliari as its capital.

As can be seen from the strategic location of Sardinia, which is a strategic point connecting the eastern Mediterranean, connecting the southern coast of France, Italy and North Africa, it is also the reason why William chose it as a foothold for the Normans to penetrate Italy.

In control of Sardinia were the Italians of the Republic of Pisa, and there were two counts on the island, Marinoa, Count of Alborea, and Toctori, Count of Carilla.

William's ally, the Republic of Genoa, was the enemy and main rival of the Republic of Pisa, with which he had little contact or even trade, so he did not need to estimate the future seizure of Sardinia.

Even William could join forces with his allies, the Republic of Genoa, to attack the Republic of Pisa, and with the help of the Republic of Genoa, it would have been much easier to capture Sardinia.

However, these are only Willian's plans for the future of Italy, and it is not the best time to implement them.

Recently, however, the Pope has become increasingly threatening to William, and he urgently needs an extremely effective countermeasure against Pope Leo IX.

William locked himself in his tent, not allowing anyone to enter, and prepared to search his mind for memories useful for countering the Pope in a quiet environment.

Suddenly, a message came to William's mind that if history had not changed, three years later, in 1054, a major event that would have had a profound impact on Christianity would have occurred - the Great Schism of 1054.

The year 1054 A.D. took place the greatest schism in the history of Christianity, the separation of Catholicism from Orthodoxy, or the split between the Western Church and the Eastern Church.

At that time, the Eastern Empire of Rome and the Byzantine Empire were in decline, and the Roman Church intended to continue to seek the first place in the whole of Christendom and to seize control of the Church in southern Italy.

The cause of the incident was in 1053 when the Patriarch of Constantinople was Mager. Serularius closed all the Latin churches in Constantinople because of his refusal to use Greek liturgies.

This undoubtedly enlivened the sensitive Roman Catholic Church, and Pope Vetu II took advantage of the problem to excommunicate Patriarch Magill of Constantinople.

On July 14, 1054, Cardinal Hombert of the Church of Rome negotiated with the Patriarch of Constantinople, but the Pope of Rome was clearly insincere, and the negotiations broke down, and the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each other, marking the official split of Christianity into Roman Catholicism (Catholicism) and Greek Orthodoxy (Eastern Orthodoxy).

Undoubtedly, the impact of this split was unprecedentedly huge, not only forming a pattern of opposition and splitting between the two major factions of Christianity, Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity, but also a long-term confrontation between the two major political forces behind it, Western European countries, Byzantium, Russia, and other countries.

The historical time that will take place in two or three years will undoubtedly attract the attention of the Roman Church and draw the energies of the Holy See into the confrontation with the Orthodox Church.

As the saying goes, three feet of ice is not a day's cold, and the conflict between the Roman Church and the Eastern Greek Orthodoxy has been going on for a long time, and the struggle between the two factions over the question of who should be the head of the Church has intensified.

Taking advantage of the contradictions between the two factions, it is not that there is no room for William to operate.

With the right management, the Great Schism in the Catholic Church could have been two or three years in advance.