Nicholas Breakspear, Pope Adrian IV
On 4th December 1154 Nicholas Breakspear was elected as Pope Adrian IV, the only Englishman to have served on the papal throne. An article by Jessica Brain. He was born around 1100 in Bedmond, in the parish of Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire. He came from humble beginnings; his father Robert worked as a clerk in the low orders of the abbot of St Albans. Robert was an educated man but poor, making the decision to enter the monastery, probably after…