StoryGnat #29: Nicholas from Herts
Or Adrian IV
Buongiorno, StoryGnatter!
How are things? Today’s post has been on my list for ages, but it feels kind of timely (if a little late to the party) so I’ve bumped it up the list.
In the last few weeks, all eyes (or at least lots of eyes) have been on the Vatican City as Pope Francis was laid to rest and his successor, Pope Leo XIV, was chosen.
As I’m sure you know by now, Pope Leo is the first American pope. Today, I’m going to tell you about the first – and only – pope to have been born in England.
Nicholas Breakspear
Have you heard of Nicholas Breakspear? I have, but only because there’s a school near me that’s named after him. I doubt it’s a name that’s familiar to many. But it’s the name of the boy who would grow up to become Pope Adrian IV.
Breakspear was born in Hertfordshire (where I live) and seems to have grown up somewhere around St Albans (where you’ll find the school I mentioned). The records of his early life are a bit sketchy, but we’ll forgive them given his birthdate would have been somewhere around the year 1100. It’s a wonder there are any records at all, really.
After an apparently humble childhood in Hertfordshire, he ended up studying in the south of France and spending time in Catalonia and Scandinavia before being chosen as the new pope in December 1154.
I’ll let you explore the rest for yourself, if you’re interested.
And here’s some further reading at Historic UK.
Next weekend is yet another bank holiday weekend - but the last until the end of the summer so we’d better make the most of it. I’ll be back the week after with more gnatty stories.
If you want some extra StoryGnat goodness while I’m away, I recommend looking back at a couple that have anniversaries fast approaching:
Happy reading!
Meg
V interesting as I live in St Albans!