‘A highly lucid and readable account.’ – Times Literary Supplement

‘An impressive and absorbing book.’ – Jonathan Phillips, Professor of Crusading History at Royal Holloway

In over 2,000 years of Christianity, there has been only one pope from England: Nicholas Breakspear.

Breakspear was elected pope in 1154, but his story started long before that. The son of a local churchman near St Albans, he would battle his way across Europe to defend and develop Christianity, facing turmoil in Scandinavia and the Moors in the Iberian Peninsula. But it was after he took the Throne of St Peter as Adrian IV that he would face his greatest threat: Frederick Barbarossa, who was determined to restore the Holy Roman Empire to its former greatness.

In Breakspear: The English Pope Who Went to War, R.A.J. Waddingham opens the archives to tell the story of a man who rose from humble beginnings to glorious power – and yet has been all but forgotten ever since.

‘A charmingly readable account of a remarkable pope – and an English one at that.’

‘… an informative and enjoyable account of the life of one of England’s “illustrious but neglected son[s]”’

‘In R. A. J. Waddingham's company we can follow Nicholas Breakspear's remarkable journey with pleasure and profit.’

‘R. A. J Waddingham provides a compelling account of Nicholas Breakspear's remarkable journey from obscure origins to the very top of the medieval Church.’

‘... one of those rare non-fiction books that is readable from cover to cover.’

R. A. J. WADDINGHAM is a retired consulting actuary and an Honorary Fellow of Royal Holloway, University of London. He was awarded a CBE in the Birthday Honours of 2012 for services to pensions. In 2019 he completed a Graduate Certificate in Historical Research, with merit, at Birkbeck, University of London