Adrian Fortescue was born in 1476 at Punsborn in Hertfordshire to the noble Fortescue family — first cousin of Queen Anne Boleyn (second wife of King Henry VIII).
Adrian became a Knight of Malta (Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta / Knights Hospitaller) in the early 16th century — undertaking the Catholic knightly-religious vocation of the Order of Malta.
Adrian served as Justice of the Peace of Oxfordshire and Member of Parliament for the county of Oxfordshire.
During the English Reformation, Adrian refused to take the Oath of Supremacy (1534) — the oath requiring the recognition of King Henry VIII as 'Supreme Head of the Church of England'.
Arrested in 1534 on trumped-up charges of treason, Adrian was imprisoned at the Tower of London. Released in 1535, Adrian was re-arrested in 1539 (at the height of the Henrician religious persecution).
On July 8, 1539, Adrian was beheaded at Tower Hill in London — alongside Sir Thomas Dingley, a fellow Knight of Malta. Adrian's famous last prayer (preserved in the family tradition): 'Above all things, love God with thy whole heart... And of thy tongue keep good custody, for it is better to hold thy peace than to speak evil.'
Beatified in 1895 by Pope Leo XIII.