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Book Synopsis

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.

Breakspear

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    A Paperback by R. A. J. Waddingham

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      Book details

      Publisher The History Press Ltd
      Published 1/14/2024
      ISBN-13 9781803997506
      978-1803997506
      ISBN-10 1803997508
      Also in:
      Biography Biography: religious and spiritual

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      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.

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