Adrian IV

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Adrian IV (c.1100–59). The first and so far only Englishman to be pope. He was born Nicholas Breakspear, and after education partly in France, he became a monk near Avignon. In 1137, he was elected abbot. In 1150–3 he was papal legate in Scandinavia, where his skill in reordering the church led him to be called ‘The Apostle of the North’. He was elected pope in 1154. In the conflicts of the time, he sought an alliance with the German king, Frederick I Barbarossa, crowning him in front of his army as Holy Roman Emperor in 1155, in a ceremony designed to emphasize Frederick's subservient position.

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