Ottobuono belonged to a feudal family of Liguria, the
Fieschi, counts of
Lavagna. His first clerical position came in 1243, when he was created a papal
chaplain. Subsequently, he received several ecclesiastical
benefices, becoming
archdeacon in
Bologna (1244) and
Parma (1244/48–1255),
canon and chancellor of the cathedral chapter in
Reims (1243–1250), canon and dean of the chapter in
Piacenza (c. 1247) and canon of the
cathedral chapter in
Paris (1244/45–1270). In December 1251, he was created
Cardinal Deacon of San Adriano by his uncle
Pope Innocent IV. He was also
archpriest of the
patriarchal
Liberian Basilica (attested from 1262). He was sent to England in 1265 by
Pope Clement IV to mediate between King
Henry III of England and his barons, and to preach the
Crusades. Fieschi was related distantly, by affinity, to Henry III; his sister had married
Thomas II of Savoy, who was a cousin of Henry's wife,
Eleanor of Provence. He remained in England for several years as the
papal legate, serving from October 1265 to July 1268. His diplomatic position was such that his name is still on the oldest extant piece of
English statute law, the
Statute of Marlborough of 1267, where the formal title mentions as a witness "the Lord Ottobon, at that time legate in England". (Also on this legation was a young diplomat, the future
Boniface VIII.) In April 1268 he issued a set of
canons, which formed the basis of church law in England until the
Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. Under the influence of
Charles I of Anjou, he was
elected pope to succeed
Innocent V on 11 July 1276 but died at
Viterbo on 18 August 1276 from illness without ever having been
ordained to the
priesthood. He is buried there in the church of
San Francesco alla Rocca. His funeral monument is attributed to
Arnolfo di Cambio. Adrian V was the third pope in the "
Year of Four Popes" of 1276. He annulled
Pope Gregory X's
bull on the holding of
papal conclaves, but died before enacting new regulations. ==In literature==