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Breakspear: The English Pope Who Went to War
Nicholas Breakspear has been overlooked for centuries, even though his achievements outshone those of his contemporary, the martyr Thomas Becket. Born in poverty and probably illegitimate, Breakspear rose to become the only Englishman to ascend the throne of Saint Peter, ruling over the papal states as Adrian IV. His life is not a tale of liturgy or sermons, and there are more cannons than canons, as Breakspear faced fighting in Scandinavia and the Second Crusade in Spain. He was immediately thrust into conflicts upon his election as pope in 1154.
First, he had to overcome the rebellious republicans of Rome before defending his Church against armed threats from the Norman King William of Sicily, the Byzantine Emperor Comnenus and finally the German King Frederick Barbarossa, intent on restoring the former glories of the Holy Roman Empire. Breakspear saved his Church from German domination, but his legacy is contested. There was a papal schism on his death, while many blame him for allowing Henry II’s subjugation of Ireland in 1171. For the first time in over 100 years, R. A. J. Waddingham returns to the evidence in chronicles and medieval manuscripts to tell the whole story of Breakspear’s remarkable journey through twelfth-century Europe.
First, he had to overcome the rebellious republicans of Rome before defending his Church against armed threats from the Norman King William of Sicily, the Byzantine Emperor Comnenus and finally the German King Frederick Barbarossa, intent on restoring the former glories of the Holy Roman Empire. Breakspear saved his Church from German domination, but his legacy is contested. There was a papal schism on his death, while many blame him for allowing Henry II’s subjugation of Ireland in 1171. For the first time in over 100 years, R. A. J. Waddingham returns to the evidence in chronicles and medieval manuscripts to tell the whole story of Breakspear’s remarkable journey through twelfth-century Europe.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
320 pages, Hardcover
Published August 25, 2022
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October 19, 2025
R.A.J. Waddingham Studies The Life & Pontificate Of Nicholas Breakspear, Elected Pope Adrian IV.
According to a general scholarly consensus, Nicholas Breakspear, the man who would become Pope Adrian IV, was born around the year 1100 AD in a village known as Abbots Langley, located close to the famous St. Albans Cathedral, in what is now Hertfordshire County in Great Britain. Upon his election Breakspear would guide the papal curia through five of the most tumultuous years in its history, from AD 1154-1159, first by expelling from Rome the rebel canon regular, Arnold of Brescia, who had been controlling the papal city as part of the unsuccessful Commune of Rome, after his participation in the renovatio Senatus & other attempts by the Roman people to found a secular governmental institution not controlled by the Catholic Church. Adrian IV did much to restore papal prestige on the international sphere with his assertive administrative policies & decisive, no-nonsense ruling style, which became apparent after he refused to perform the obligatory portion of the ceremonial dismounting ritual for the soon-to-be Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick I Barbarossa, demonstrating his unwillingness to assume a lesser role in the incessant power struggle between pope & emperor. And he made an alliance of necessity with the rebellious Norman barons attempting to overthrow William 'the Bad' de'Hauteville, the king of Sicily & South Italy, in the pope's determined efforts to expel the pervicacious Norman adventurers who had established a foothold when Robert Guiscard & his brothers, the sons of Tancred de'Hautville, invaded & conquered these regions during the eleventh & twelfth centuries.
But it is his impressive list of achievements prior to becoming pope that may well be Nicholas Breakspear's most significant contributions to the legacy of the Catholic Church. During the Second Crusade, he was sent to the Catalonia region in Spain to offer spiritual support to the crusaders besieging Tortosa, & years later he was dispatched to Denmark, Norway & Sweden to establish amicable relations between the papal curia & those countries' respective churches. These were tasks which the intelligent & charismatic Breakspear was well suited for, & his stellar performance accomplishing them did much to make him a viable candidate for the papacy. In the preface to English historian R.A.J. Waddingham's 2022 Breakspear: The English Pope, the author makes an endearing statement regarding his intentions for writing this enthralling historical biography chronicling the life & times of the only English pontiff in all of history -- "My aim is to delight the reader with a human story of an astonishing rise from a low birth in England to what was then the highest elected office in the world, an exciting tale set in a turbulent twelfth-century Europe. From his cradle in Hertfordshire to his grave in Rome, Breakspear's life was a literal journey...This account follows Breakspear's footsteps through Europe & for most readers this is a journey into the unknown. Let us begin."
This hardcover edition of R.A.J. Waddingham's 2022 Breakspear: The English Pope is published by The History Press & TJ Books Limited, in Padstow, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. The 246-page main text is divided into nineteen chapters & an epilogue, & it is divided into three parts -- Part I: Nicholas, Part II: Breakspear, & Part III: Adrian, each signifying a phase in Nicholas Breakspear's life. There are also three well-illustrated maps depicting Breakspear's Journey's: 1100-1159, the Angevin Empire under Henry II: 1154-1189, Twelfth-Century Italy, & Medieval Rome, as well as a seven-page glossary of main characters & a table of the narrative's major chronological events at the back of the volume. Also included is a five-page bibliography of Latin & English source material, expanded notes, & an index.
The biography's first two chapters, St. Albans: Rejection at the Abbey, & Paris: Searching for a School, contain Waddingham's interesting chronicle of Nicholas's early life, growing up with his father, Richard Breakspear, & his brother Ralph, in Bedmond, a small village in England's Hertfordshire District. Since there is a slim selection of extant written material on the future pope's formative years, the author helps flesh out his narrative by providing exposition on the region's history & some of the different English kings & ecclesiastical figures who would have been in power at that time. Waddingham describes what living during the early twelfth century would have been like, giving examples of medieval cuisine, peasant life, & work conditions, & he performs outstanding work weaving all of this fascinating information into Breakspear's remarkable story. Nicholas's father is believed to have possibly been a clerk working for the abbot's chamber in St. Albans Abbey, & both of his sons fervently desired to also pursue careers in the Catholic Church based on their sire's example. Breakspear had to travel far & wide to receive his education, as he had first applied at the abbey of St. Albans to become a monk, but according to the Gesta abbatum S. Albani of the thirteenth century chronicler Matthew of Paris, he was rejected out of hand. Paris writes, "When he was found upon examination to be inadequate, the abbot said to him courteously enough, 'Wait, my son, & work further at school, so that you may be better prepared.'"
After his rejection from St. Albans, in Chapter 3, Provence: An Augustinian Canon, the future pontiff traveled to either Paris or Provence, depending on which chronicler the reader believes, where he studied abroad for some time, & eventually found his way to Arles, a city in France's Burgundy region where he possibly completed an apprenticeship, but it was at the abbey of St. Ruf where he finally found his stride & became an Augustinian canon sometime around 1130. He achieved renown at St. Ruf, where after years of study he was elected its tenth abbot, but he soon discovered that being in charge was not as easy as he had hoped. He runs the abbey with a stern hand, proving to be a strict disciplinarian who quickly becomes highly unpopular with the monks at the abbey, & they lodge multiple complaints about him to Pope Eugenius III in Rome. The pontiff sides firmly with Breakspear, much to his relief. Waddingham describes the incident's aftermath -- "Breakspear had always made a good first impression on people. His presence, his intelligence & not least his perseverance had helped him become the abbot of a well-regarded Augustinian monastery. He had proved himself to be a good team player, which had led to his election, but once in authority perhaps he had been too severe on the canons, most of whom were older & more experienced than he was. It would be an easy mistake for a zealous new abbot to make. If so, it was a lesson he learnt, since as far as we know his people-management skills were never questioned further." Eventually Eugenius pulls Nicholas from the abbey, but the move is not a demotion or loss of status, quite the opposite. The pope was impressed with Breakspear's adherence to church doctrine & protocol, & he chooses him to be a part of his inner circle.
In Chapter 5, Norway: Reform of the Norweigian Church, Waddingham canvasses the recently promoted Cardinal Breakspear's journey from England to distant Scandinavia, where he hoped to alleviate problems the churches of Norway & Sweden were experiencing with the Danish Church in Lund, Denmark (Lund is now part of Sweden, but such was not the case until 1658) as the two countries resented being under the charge of their larger neighbor, who had just become independent from Germany & as of yet was still under the jurisdiction of the German Archbishop. The author then limns what the young Cardinal's harrowing trip would have been like in 1152, describing three possible routes Breakspear could have taken to Scandinavia -- the Austvegr involved a predominately sea-based journey eastward, followed by a land journey to Constantinople, before sailing across the Black Sea up through the Baltics to Visby, on the Isle of Gotland; the second route, the Vestvegr, used the old pathways of the Viking raiding ships to sail to the Bay of Biscay up to Gibraltar & into the Mediterranean before reaching Italy & continuing the journey overland - this was a speedy option open mostly to the rich; & finally, the Romavegr was a land-based sojourn through the Alps to Germany, & then northwest into Denmark. This book is written with a great attention to detail -- it will become quite apparent to anyone as soon as they begin reading it. The entire biography is filled with interesting side topics & lore which add substance to the narrative -- judging from the fact that this is his first book, it is a safe bet to say that R.A.J. Waddingham is already an extremely talented historian, & it is exciting to think about what his next release may possibly be.
Chapter 12, Benevento: A Victory of Sorts from Defeat, describes Pope Adrian IV's alliance with Richard of Capua & Andrew of Rupecanina, the Norman rebel barons seeking to overthrow their liege lord, William 'the Bad' de'Hauteville, & Michael Palaeologos of the Byzantine empire, who seeks to enlist Adrian's aid in reestablishing a Greek presence in Italy. All of the parties involved agree on the crucial point that the Hautevilles needed to go, but the pope hesitates on the idea of an agreement with the Byzantines. What Breakspear needs more than an alliance is a standing army loyal to the Catholic Church, & gathering what troops he can recruit, he meets his allies in the papal city of Benevento, where a sizeable Norman army under the command of William & his lieutenant, Asclettin, was currently occupied with Robert of Loritello & Michael Palaeologos's combined forces. When the papal militia arrives, William is essentially caught between two hostile armies with nowhere to go, & he sues for peace, offering Adrian generous terms of 5,000 pounds of gold & an oath of allegiance in return for absolution. These terms Adrian coldly rejects, but he will live to regret his hasty course of action, for Michael Palaeologos soon dies at Bari & his troops, exhausted after their siege of Brindisi, are no match for William's army, who overwhelm & defeat them, raising the siege & ultimately carrying the day. The pope is, for all intents & purposes, a prisoner in Benevento's citadel, but in a swift turn of events, William decides to make terms with Adrian, & the historic Treaty of Benevento is signed on 18 June 1156 -- "The new peace between papacy & Sicily lasted forty years, well beyond Adrian's pontificate. In the schism that followed Adrian's death, William's support for his elected successor, Pope Alexander, was invaluable & Adrian deserves credit for that." These events are examined in much greater depth in John Julius Norwich's The Kingdom in the Sun, the second entry in his duology on the Norman kingdom of Sicily & South Italy.
The final chapter, Anagni: Thwarted by Death, contains an interesting examination on the circumstances of Adrian IV's death on 1 September 1159. While angina is the most likely cause, the author discusses several other theories, mostly based on hearsay from partisans of Frederick Barbarossa, as well as a short account of the funeral proceedings & a description of the elaborate sarcophagus he still rests in today. There is also an outstanding appraisal of Nicholas Breakspear's overall character & his accomplishments, both before & after he came to the papacy. Waddingham quite obviously conducted thorough research, & the end result is a well-worded & finely-tuned synopsis that most definitely elicited this reviewer to ponder for a while after putting the book down. An excerpt from it follows -- "Adrian was a man of action living in an age of change, a loyal supporter of the traditions of the Church in all that he did but he was not an innovator. Aided by his well-chosen team of close advisers, he much improved the fabric of the Patrimony. He was not on the papal throne long enough ever to have called a council, & so left few reforming legacies for the Church itself. We have no records of his sermons, which would have opened a window on his Christian thinking. Nor has Adrian left us any significant theological teachings, but he did leave his mark on the Church. He was diligent, as shown by his large output of letters & judgements. Adrian had an excellent sense of right & wrong, & was compassionate." Adrian's papal motto was, "My eyes are always upon the Lord".
Overall, R.A.J. Waddingham's 2022 Breakspear: The English Pope is an extremely intriguing biography on a pope whose mere five year pontificate belies his tremendous accomplishments in the spread of Christianity throughout Europe as well as his numerous diplomatic triumphs, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church's relationship with the Holy Roman Emperor, & he did much to restore the papacy's prestige after decades of tumult in the Eternal City had given rise to a secular republican government plagued with unrest & instability. He ultimately left the papacy in a better condition than he found it. Nicholas Breakspear's legacy may not be able to match that of the esteemed Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose checkered relationship with Henry II Plantagenet led to his unfortunate demise, but his decisive administrative policies & steadfast leadership paved the way for his successor Pope Alexander III to have an outstanding pontificate, largely due to Adrian's hard work. Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed the review!
According to a general scholarly consensus, Nicholas Breakspear, the man who would become Pope Adrian IV, was born around the year 1100 AD in a village known as Abbots Langley, located close to the famous St. Albans Cathedral, in what is now Hertfordshire County in Great Britain. Upon his election Breakspear would guide the papal curia through five of the most tumultuous years in its history, from AD 1154-1159, first by expelling from Rome the rebel canon regular, Arnold of Brescia, who had been controlling the papal city as part of the unsuccessful Commune of Rome, after his participation in the renovatio Senatus & other attempts by the Roman people to found a secular governmental institution not controlled by the Catholic Church. Adrian IV did much to restore papal prestige on the international sphere with his assertive administrative policies & decisive, no-nonsense ruling style, which became apparent after he refused to perform the obligatory portion of the ceremonial dismounting ritual for the soon-to-be Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick I Barbarossa, demonstrating his unwillingness to assume a lesser role in the incessant power struggle between pope & emperor. And he made an alliance of necessity with the rebellious Norman barons attempting to overthrow William 'the Bad' de'Hauteville, the king of Sicily & South Italy, in the pope's determined efforts to expel the pervicacious Norman adventurers who had established a foothold when Robert Guiscard & his brothers, the sons of Tancred de'Hautville, invaded & conquered these regions during the eleventh & twelfth centuries.
But it is his impressive list of achievements prior to becoming pope that may well be Nicholas Breakspear's most significant contributions to the legacy of the Catholic Church. During the Second Crusade, he was sent to the Catalonia region in Spain to offer spiritual support to the crusaders besieging Tortosa, & years later he was dispatched to Denmark, Norway & Sweden to establish amicable relations between the papal curia & those countries' respective churches. These were tasks which the intelligent & charismatic Breakspear was well suited for, & his stellar performance accomplishing them did much to make him a viable candidate for the papacy. In the preface to English historian R.A.J. Waddingham's 2022 Breakspear: The English Pope, the author makes an endearing statement regarding his intentions for writing this enthralling historical biography chronicling the life & times of the only English pontiff in all of history -- "My aim is to delight the reader with a human story of an astonishing rise from a low birth in England to what was then the highest elected office in the world, an exciting tale set in a turbulent twelfth-century Europe. From his cradle in Hertfordshire to his grave in Rome, Breakspear's life was a literal journey...This account follows Breakspear's footsteps through Europe & for most readers this is a journey into the unknown. Let us begin."
This hardcover edition of R.A.J. Waddingham's 2022 Breakspear: The English Pope is published by The History Press & TJ Books Limited, in Padstow, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. The 246-page main text is divided into nineteen chapters & an epilogue, & it is divided into three parts -- Part I: Nicholas, Part II: Breakspear, & Part III: Adrian, each signifying a phase in Nicholas Breakspear's life. There are also three well-illustrated maps depicting Breakspear's Journey's: 1100-1159, the Angevin Empire under Henry II: 1154-1189, Twelfth-Century Italy, & Medieval Rome, as well as a seven-page glossary of main characters & a table of the narrative's major chronological events at the back of the volume. Also included is a five-page bibliography of Latin & English source material, expanded notes, & an index.
The biography's first two chapters, St. Albans: Rejection at the Abbey, & Paris: Searching for a School, contain Waddingham's interesting chronicle of Nicholas's early life, growing up with his father, Richard Breakspear, & his brother Ralph, in Bedmond, a small village in England's Hertfordshire District. Since there is a slim selection of extant written material on the future pope's formative years, the author helps flesh out his narrative by providing exposition on the region's history & some of the different English kings & ecclesiastical figures who would have been in power at that time. Waddingham describes what living during the early twelfth century would have been like, giving examples of medieval cuisine, peasant life, & work conditions, & he performs outstanding work weaving all of this fascinating information into Breakspear's remarkable story. Nicholas's father is believed to have possibly been a clerk working for the abbot's chamber in St. Albans Abbey, & both of his sons fervently desired to also pursue careers in the Catholic Church based on their sire's example. Breakspear had to travel far & wide to receive his education, as he had first applied at the abbey of St. Albans to become a monk, but according to the Gesta abbatum S. Albani of the thirteenth century chronicler Matthew of Paris, he was rejected out of hand. Paris writes, "When he was found upon examination to be inadequate, the abbot said to him courteously enough, 'Wait, my son, & work further at school, so that you may be better prepared.'"
After his rejection from St. Albans, in Chapter 3, Provence: An Augustinian Canon, the future pontiff traveled to either Paris or Provence, depending on which chronicler the reader believes, where he studied abroad for some time, & eventually found his way to Arles, a city in France's Burgundy region where he possibly completed an apprenticeship, but it was at the abbey of St. Ruf where he finally found his stride & became an Augustinian canon sometime around 1130. He achieved renown at St. Ruf, where after years of study he was elected its tenth abbot, but he soon discovered that being in charge was not as easy as he had hoped. He runs the abbey with a stern hand, proving to be a strict disciplinarian who quickly becomes highly unpopular with the monks at the abbey, & they lodge multiple complaints about him to Pope Eugenius III in Rome. The pontiff sides firmly with Breakspear, much to his relief. Waddingham describes the incident's aftermath -- "Breakspear had always made a good first impression on people. His presence, his intelligence & not least his perseverance had helped him become the abbot of a well-regarded Augustinian monastery. He had proved himself to be a good team player, which had led to his election, but once in authority perhaps he had been too severe on the canons, most of whom were older & more experienced than he was. It would be an easy mistake for a zealous new abbot to make. If so, it was a lesson he learnt, since as far as we know his people-management skills were never questioned further." Eventually Eugenius pulls Nicholas from the abbey, but the move is not a demotion or loss of status, quite the opposite. The pope was impressed with Breakspear's adherence to church doctrine & protocol, & he chooses him to be a part of his inner circle.
In Chapter 5, Norway: Reform of the Norweigian Church, Waddingham canvasses the recently promoted Cardinal Breakspear's journey from England to distant Scandinavia, where he hoped to alleviate problems the churches of Norway & Sweden were experiencing with the Danish Church in Lund, Denmark (Lund is now part of Sweden, but such was not the case until 1658) as the two countries resented being under the charge of their larger neighbor, who had just become independent from Germany & as of yet was still under the jurisdiction of the German Archbishop. The author then limns what the young Cardinal's harrowing trip would have been like in 1152, describing three possible routes Breakspear could have taken to Scandinavia -- the Austvegr involved a predominately sea-based journey eastward, followed by a land journey to Constantinople, before sailing across the Black Sea up through the Baltics to Visby, on the Isle of Gotland; the second route, the Vestvegr, used the old pathways of the Viking raiding ships to sail to the Bay of Biscay up to Gibraltar & into the Mediterranean before reaching Italy & continuing the journey overland - this was a speedy option open mostly to the rich; & finally, the Romavegr was a land-based sojourn through the Alps to Germany, & then northwest into Denmark. This book is written with a great attention to detail -- it will become quite apparent to anyone as soon as they begin reading it. The entire biography is filled with interesting side topics & lore which add substance to the narrative -- judging from the fact that this is his first book, it is a safe bet to say that R.A.J. Waddingham is already an extremely talented historian, & it is exciting to think about what his next release may possibly be.
Chapter 12, Benevento: A Victory of Sorts from Defeat, describes Pope Adrian IV's alliance with Richard of Capua & Andrew of Rupecanina, the Norman rebel barons seeking to overthrow their liege lord, William 'the Bad' de'Hauteville, & Michael Palaeologos of the Byzantine empire, who seeks to enlist Adrian's aid in reestablishing a Greek presence in Italy. All of the parties involved agree on the crucial point that the Hautevilles needed to go, but the pope hesitates on the idea of an agreement with the Byzantines. What Breakspear needs more than an alliance is a standing army loyal to the Catholic Church, & gathering what troops he can recruit, he meets his allies in the papal city of Benevento, where a sizeable Norman army under the command of William & his lieutenant, Asclettin, was currently occupied with Robert of Loritello & Michael Palaeologos's combined forces. When the papal militia arrives, William is essentially caught between two hostile armies with nowhere to go, & he sues for peace, offering Adrian generous terms of 5,000 pounds of gold & an oath of allegiance in return for absolution. These terms Adrian coldly rejects, but he will live to regret his hasty course of action, for Michael Palaeologos soon dies at Bari & his troops, exhausted after their siege of Brindisi, are no match for William's army, who overwhelm & defeat them, raising the siege & ultimately carrying the day. The pope is, for all intents & purposes, a prisoner in Benevento's citadel, but in a swift turn of events, William decides to make terms with Adrian, & the historic Treaty of Benevento is signed on 18 June 1156 -- "The new peace between papacy & Sicily lasted forty years, well beyond Adrian's pontificate. In the schism that followed Adrian's death, William's support for his elected successor, Pope Alexander, was invaluable & Adrian deserves credit for that." These events are examined in much greater depth in John Julius Norwich's The Kingdom in the Sun, the second entry in his duology on the Norman kingdom of Sicily & South Italy.
The final chapter, Anagni: Thwarted by Death, contains an interesting examination on the circumstances of Adrian IV's death on 1 September 1159. While angina is the most likely cause, the author discusses several other theories, mostly based on hearsay from partisans of Frederick Barbarossa, as well as a short account of the funeral proceedings & a description of the elaborate sarcophagus he still rests in today. There is also an outstanding appraisal of Nicholas Breakspear's overall character & his accomplishments, both before & after he came to the papacy. Waddingham quite obviously conducted thorough research, & the end result is a well-worded & finely-tuned synopsis that most definitely elicited this reviewer to ponder for a while after putting the book down. An excerpt from it follows -- "Adrian was a man of action living in an age of change, a loyal supporter of the traditions of the Church in all that he did but he was not an innovator. Aided by his well-chosen team of close advisers, he much improved the fabric of the Patrimony. He was not on the papal throne long enough ever to have called a council, & so left few reforming legacies for the Church itself. We have no records of his sermons, which would have opened a window on his Christian thinking. Nor has Adrian left us any significant theological teachings, but he did leave his mark on the Church. He was diligent, as shown by his large output of letters & judgements. Adrian had an excellent sense of right & wrong, & was compassionate." Adrian's papal motto was, "My eyes are always upon the Lord".
Overall, R.A.J. Waddingham's 2022 Breakspear: The English Pope is an extremely intriguing biography on a pope whose mere five year pontificate belies his tremendous accomplishments in the spread of Christianity throughout Europe as well as his numerous diplomatic triumphs, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church's relationship with the Holy Roman Emperor, & he did much to restore the papacy's prestige after decades of tumult in the Eternal City had given rise to a secular republican government plagued with unrest & instability. He ultimately left the papacy in a better condition than he found it. Nicholas Breakspear's legacy may not be able to match that of the esteemed Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose checkered relationship with Henry II Plantagenet led to his unfortunate demise, but his decisive administrative policies & steadfast leadership paved the way for his successor Pope Alexander III to have an outstanding pontificate, largely due to Adrian's hard work. Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed the review!
May 27, 2024
I was talking with my mate Graham about something that must have obviously hovered around the historical religious region and made my usual declaration about "the one REAL Pope" and we all know which Pole THAT is, when he reminded me that there once was an English Pope. "Adrian the Second" I announced knowingly and then, because I have an insatiable desire to know things, looked him up on Wiki and discovered it was Adrian the Fourth, Nicholas Breakspear (I knew that bit). The Wiki article intrigued me enough to search for a book where I could discover more and LO! I came across this one.
It's a very good and easy read about a fascinating individual who earned his place as Head of the Church in Rome through hard work and a talent for sorting Gordian knots out. He lived at a time that had some really big egos vying for power in a nascent Europe (we're still less than 100 years after the Norman Conquest here); Frederick Barbarossa heads a list of (can I call them "nasties"?)... nasties.
Nicholas Breakspear is now the OTHER real Pope.
It's a very good and easy read about a fascinating individual who earned his place as Head of the Church in Rome through hard work and a talent for sorting Gordian knots out. He lived at a time that had some really big egos vying for power in a nascent Europe (we're still less than 100 years after the Norman Conquest here); Frederick Barbarossa heads a list of (can I call them "nasties"?)... nasties.
Nicholas Breakspear is now the OTHER real Pope.
October 29, 2022
Adrian Waddingham has done an exceptional job at telling an incredibly important story of our only English Pope. Well worth reading.
May 22, 2024
Very interesting biography. Like most of us, I suspect, I knew no more about the subject than that he was the answer to the pub quiz question ‘who was the only English pope?’ But what an interesting life it was - rising from poverty to the throne of St Peter. Highly recommended.
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