Adrian IV
Adrian IV (c.1100–59). Name taken by Nicholas Breakspear, still the only Englishman to be elected pope. After studying at Paris, he became abbot of St Rufus in Avignon and then a cardinal in 1149. As papal legate to Scandinavia in 1152–3, he reorganized the churches there. Elected pope in 1154, he soon found himself at odds with the Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa). In 1155–6 he granted lordship over Ireland to Henry II. According to a papal bull (known from its opening word as Laudabiliter), Adrian made the grant so that Henry could reform ‘a rough and ignorant people’—and scholars still debate whether or not the bull is a forgery.
John Gillingham
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Adrian IV
