Pope Stephen IV was Pope from June 816 to January 817. He succeeded Leo III, whose policy he continued. Immediately after his consecration (in June 816) he ordered the Roman people to swear fidelity to the Frankish king Louis the Pious, to whom he went personally in August of 816. After the coronation of Louis at Rheims in October, he returned to Rome, where he died in January of the following year. His successor was Pope Paschal I.