Pope Adrian IV, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 4 December 1154 to his death in 1159. He is the only Englishman to have been pope.
William de Corbeil or William of Corbeil was a medieval Archbishop of Canterbury. Very little is known of William's early life or his family, except that he was born at Corbeil, south of Paris, and that he had two brothers. Educated as a theologian, he taught briefly before serving the bishops of Durham and London as a clerk and subsequently becoming an Augustinian canon. William was elected to the See of Canterbury as a compromise candidate in 1123, the first canon to become an English archbishop. He succeeded Ralph d'Escures who had employed him as a chaplain.
Walter de Coutances was a medieval Anglo-Norman bishop of Lincoln and archbishop of Rouen. He began his royal service in the government of Henry II, serving as a vice-chancellor. He also accumulated a number of ecclesiastical offices, becoming successively canon of Rouen Cathedral, treasurer of Rouen, and archdeacon of Oxford. King Henry sent him on a number of diplomatic missions and finally rewarded him with the bishopric of Lincoln in 1183. He did not remain there long, for he was translated to Rouen in late 1184.
Rainald of Dassel was Archbishop of Cologne and Archchancellor of Italy from 1159 until his death. A close advisor to the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick Barbarossa, he had an important influence on Imperial politics, mainly in the Italian conflict of Guelphs and Ghibellines.
Trani is a seaport of Apulia, in southern Italy, on the Adriatic Sea, 40 kilometres (25 mi) by railway west-northwest of Bari. It is one of the capital cities of the Province of Barletta-Andria-Trani.
Reginald fitz Jocelin was a medieval Bishop of Bath and an Archbishop of Canterbury-elect in England. A member of an Anglo-Norman noble family, he was the son of a bishop, and was educated in Italy. He was a household clerk for Thomas Becket, but by 1167 he was serving King Henry II of England. He was also a favourite of King Louis VII of France, who had him appointed abbot of the Abbey of Corbeil. After Reginald angered Becket while attempting to help negotiate a settlement between Becket and the king, Becket called him "that offspring of fornication, that enemy to the peace of the Church, that traitor." When he was elected as a bishop, the election was challenged by King Henry's eldest son, Henry the Young King, and Reginald was forced to go to Rome to be confirmed by Pope Alexander III. He attended the Third Lateran Council in 1179, and spent much of his time administering his diocese. He was elected Archbishop of Canterbury in 1191, but died before he could be installed.
Pilgrim was a statesman and prelate of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1016 he took charge of the chancery of the Kingdom of Italy, and became the first archchancellor in 1031. In 1021 he became Archbishop of Cologne. For his part in the imperial campaign against the South Italian principalities in 1022, the chronicler Amatus of Montecassino described him as "warlike".
Alfanus of Camerota was the Archbishop of Capua from 1158 until his death around 1180. He was a very close friend to Pope Alexander III.
Wichmann von Seeburg was Bishop of Naumburg from 1150 until 1154 and Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1154 until his death. He became the first Magdeburg prince-archbishop in 1180
Hilary was a medieval Bishop of Chichester in England. English by birth, he studied canon law and worked in Rome as a papal clerk. During his time there, he became acquainted with a number of ecclesiastics, including the future Pope Adrian IV, and the writer John of Salisbury. In England, he served as a clerk for Henry of Blois, who was the Bishop of Winchester and brother of King Stephen of England. After Hilary's unsuccessful nomination to become Archbishop of York, Pope Eugene III compensated him by promoting him to the bishopric of Chichester in 1147.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Trani-Barletta-Bisceglie is a Latin rite archbishopric in the administrative province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, in the southeastern Italian region of Apulia. In 1980 it became a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of Bari-Bitonto, when it was demoted to non-Metropolitan status. It received its current name in 1986, when the Archbishopric of Trani added to its title the names of two suppressed bishoprics merged into it.
Siegfried of Anhalt was born as the third son of Sophie of Winzenburg and her husband Albert the Bear, then Count of Anhalt, of the House of Ascania. In 1168 he was elected Archbishop of Bremen. Afterward he became Prince-Bishop of Brandenburg (1173–1179) as Siegfried I. In 1179 he succeeded in getting it upgraded to a Prince-Archbishopric of imperial immediacy in 1180, thus becoming Prince-Archbishop of Bremen. He was a strong advocate of Ascanian clan interests.
Henry VI, a member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, was King of Germany from 1169 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 until his death. From 1194 he was also King of Sicily.
Matthew was the Archbishop of Capua from 1183, when he succeeded Alfanus of Camerota. He supported the claim to the Sicilian kingdom of Constance and her husband, the Emperor Henry VI, against that of the reigning monarch, Tancred of Lecce. Under Henry, he became a royal advisor and imperial familiaris (courtier) at the court in Palermo. After the cities of Aversa and Capua briefly rebelled against Tancred in 1191, it was probably Matthew who persuaded them to surrender without a fight to Henry. In 1198 Constance placed the Jewry of Capua, thitherto under royal protection, under the protection of the archbishop as a reward for Matthew's loyalty. He was also praised by Henry's panegyrist, Peter of Eboli, in his Liber ad honorem Augusti.
Roger of San Severino was the Archbishop of Benevento from 1179 until his death. He was probably a younger brother of Count William of San Severino, the most powerful lord in the Cilento and a royal justiciar. He may also have been a cousin of Count Robert of Caserta. He was a monk at Montecassino before becoming bishop at a young age. His high aristocratic lineage and monastic vows were both unusual for bishops of southern Italy at the time. He was appointed archbishop of Benevento and cardinal-priest of Sant'Eusebio by Pope Alexander III.
Bertrand II was the Archbishop of Trani from 1157 until his death. In 1167 he was sent to Constantinople to arrange a marriage alliance for William II with the Byzantine Empire. He also exposed a conspiracy by Maio of Bari to kill Robert of San Giovanni. His successor was Samarus.
Conrad I [of Abenberg] was Archbishop of Salzburg, Austria, in the first half of the 12th century.
Albert of Louvain was a cardinal of the Catholic Church and the Prince-Bishop of Liège. He was canonized as a saint on 9 August 1613 and his feast falls on the date of his death.
Atenulf was the Abbot of Montecassino from 1011 until his death. He was a cousin of Prince Pandulf II of Capua, a younger son of Prince Pandulf III and brother of Prince Pandulf IV.
Bertram, born Berthold, was a Saxon nobleman, jurist and prelate of the Holy Roman Empire. Praised by contemporaries for his education, his expertise was in Roman law. He was the elected archbishop of Bremen from 1178 until 1179 and the bishop of Metz from 1180 until his death. He was in general a strong supporter of the Staufer emperors, although he was forced into internal exile and temporarily dispossessed of his diocese in 1187–1189. He supported the Staufer in the German throne dispute after 1198.