The First and Only English Pope
Why wasn’t there another?
There have been two hundred and sixty-six popes recognized since Saint Peter during the time of Jesus. Out of that group, only one of them was an Englishman. The man by the name of Nicholas Breakspear was born in Hertfordshire, England, and ascended to the papacy with the name Adrian IV in 1154. For as many things that the English have dominated throughout the centuries, the papacy has not been one of them. Just 0.3% of popes have been English.
Breakspear was a bishop at the time and rose during a period of great turbulence for the office of the pope. He was elected unanimously despite the xenophobia that often plagued the courts of Rome during the era. The Papal librarian Bradford Lee Eden said that Breakspear was simply “in the right place at the right time” to receive the honor of becoming pope. Other sources say that he had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the office and that he was a reluctant pope. And that is exactly what Europe wanted at the time.
Due to the fact that he was an Englishman who had spent far more time in Northern Europe than he had in Rome, he had a prickly relationship with the Roman locals. One of his first political squabbles as pope involved bringing the upstart Roman nobles to heel and ejecting a number of problematic figures from the inner papal circle, which…
