When Friendship Turns Sour: The Murder of Thomas Becket

On a dark December night in 1170 a group of knights, acting on what they perceived as the orders of King Henry II, made their way to Canterbury Cathedral. The four men, Reginald FitzUrse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy, and Richard le Breton were on their way to confront Archbishop Thomas Becket, who had come to be a thorn in the King's side with his dogged defence of the rights of the church and constant excommunications of its opponents. History has Henry quoted as saying something along the lines of "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?". Whatever it was that he really said, the knights interpreted it as a royal command and set out for the mother church of England to exact their master's will on the troublesome cleric.

Upon their arrival at Canterbury the four knights left their weapons beneath a sycamore tree outside the cathedral, concealed their mail armour beneath cloaks and entered the church in peace. They announced that the Archbishop of Canterbury was to accompany them to Winchester where he must explain his actions to the King and be treated accordingly. Becket refused them and instead headed off to join the monks at evening vespers, leaving the knights to consider more drastic action. They left to retrieve their weapons before charging back into the cathedral, catching up with Becket at an entrance to the monks' cloister, close to the crypt.

The accounts of the monks present at the time paint the subsequent scene in vivid and gruesome detail. The knights leapt at the Archbishop, raining multiple sword blows upon him. Becket fell to his knees and offered his soul to the almighty before the final fatal blow which sliced off the crown of his head, spreading blood and brains over the cathedral floor. A clerk who had entered with the assassins placed his foot on the dead man's neck before calling out, "Let us away, knights; this fellow will arise no more."

"For the name of Jesus and the protection of the Church, I am ready to embrace death."
(the final words of Archbishop Thomas Becket according to the account of Edward Grim, himself wounded in the attack)

Following Becket's death, the Christian community throughout Europe immediately began venerating him as a religious martyr and within three years of the murder he was canonised as a saint by Pope Alexander III. Becket was buried in a tomb at the cathedral, which quickly became one of the most popular pilgrimage sights in England and remained so until both the tomb and Becket's remains were destroyed by the order of Henry VIII in the 16th century. After the murder the four knights fled north to Knaresborough Castle but, despite the men being excommunicated by Pope Alexander, the King did not have them arrested. They eventually headed to Rome to seek forgiveness and were ordered to serve as knights in the Holy Land for a period of 14 years.

It all began eight years earlier...

So what had gone so badly wrong in the relationship between King and Archbishop? The two men had at one time been great friends and Becket had done very well out of being in Henry's favour. Becket was appointed Lord Chancellor in 1155 on the advice of the previous Archbishop of Canterbury, Theobald of Bec, making him in essence Henry's right-hand-man and closest confidante at the royal court. As Lord Chancellor, Becket was only too willing to enforce the Medieval land-tax system on all English landowners, including the church. This made Becket many enemies within the church but the King did not mind at all. Henry desired to exert absolute royal authority over both church and state in England and sought various ways to limit the church's independence. When Archbishop Theobald died in 1162, Henry jumped at the chance to appoint his loyal man Becket to the See of Canterbury and ensure that the man at the top of the church in England was one that would do his bidding. It was a decision that the King would come to regret.

Almost overnight Becket became a changed man after his enthronement as Archbishop of Canterbury, going from loyal servant of the King to champion defender of church rights. He resigned as Lord Chancellor and immediately consolidated the church's land revenues under his control, starting a series of legal disputes between the crown and the church. Henry was attempting to manipulate the other bishops to turn against Becket as early as 1163 and, the following year, attempted to force his former friend to sign off on the Constitutions of Clarendon, several legislative articles issued by Henry that would greatly limit the legal powers of the church and papal authority in England. Becket agreed in principle but refused to sign the documents, prompting Henry to put him on trial for contempt of royal authority. Becket was convicted of the charges but he then stormed out of the trial and fled the country.

Becket spent two years in France under the protection of King Louis VII but was forced to leave the Cistercian Abbey at Pontigny after Henry made threats against the English branch of the Cistercian monastic order. Pope Alexander initially favoured a more diplomatic solution to the disagreements between Henry and Becket while the fugitive Archbishop preferred that Rome utilise the prerogatives of the church to make Henry back down. It was this threat of a possible excommunication against Henry that allowed Becket to return to England in early 1170 to resume his role as Archbishop.

As Becket continued to cast his opponents out of the church, the excommunicated Bishops immediately left England and fled to the King who was suffering from illness in his ancestral lands in Normandy. It was upon hearing the news of Becket's most recent actions that Henry said the unknown yet immortal words that unintentionally sealed his former friend's fate and the King's knights set off on their way to Canterbury...

An Inevitable Conclusion?

To all intents and purposes one must accept that Thomas Becket's actions were going to get him killed in the end. Going up against a man determined to exert his control over the church in an age where few people thought twice about the use of violence as a means to an end was a bad idea if you wanted to stay out of the firing line. Despite this you have to admire the man for standing up for what he believed in, even if what he believed took a rather sudden change of direction. One thing we do know, though. It would not be the last time that King and church would come into conflict in England.