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Friday 09 Mar 2007: Pope Adrian IV |
The only English pope was Pope Adrian IV, who was born as Nicholas Breakspear and was pope from 1154 to 1159. During his reign he issued a papal bull in which he donated Ireland to the English king, Henry II. It is said that W.H. Brakspear, who bought a brewery in Henley on Thames in 1711, is a distant relative. |