The assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket, 1170

On 29th December 1170 Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was hacked to death in his cathedral, apparently on the orders of King Henry II.

Henry came to the throne in 1154 and appointed Thomas Becket as his Chancellor, the nearest thing that medieval England had to a Prime Minister. Becket was very good at the job and he and the king became firm friends. Becket was particularly astute at ensuring that Henry’s power overrode that of the barons – who controlled vast estates in England and were thus extremely wealthy – and the Church.

There were two sources of authority in the land at the time, namely that of the king and the Church. The problem with the latter authority was that it derived from the Pope in Rome and was delegated via the bishops, who held the power of excommunication over anyone who offended them. As this condemned the victim to an eternity in Hell, it was taken very seriously and gave the Church the upper hand in any Church/state conflict.

Henry had the bright idea that, if he had his own man appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury, he would have both the secular and sacred sources of power at his command. He therefore appointed Thomas Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury with this end in view.

Unfortunately for Henry, Becket started to take his religious duties far more seriously than Henry had anticipated. Having been the scourge of the Church when Chancellor, Becket now became its chief defender. He also “got religion” in a personal sense and spent many hours in prayer and meditation.

It may well be that Becket, having tasted power as the king’s right-hand man, now realised just what a weapon he had in his hands and became determined to make the most of it. In other words, power went to his head.

At any event, he started to do things that brought him into direct conflict with his former friend. These included excommunicating people who were closely allied with King Henry and insisting on the “benefit of clergy” whereby priests who were suspected of committing a crime could only be tried in ecclesiastical courts and not civil ones, thus placing them above the law of the land.

Henry banished Becket from England, only relenting after Becket had been in exile for six years. However, this did nothing to “tame” the archbishop who, on his return in early December 1170, immediately excommunicated three bishops whom Henry had appointed in his absence.

When news of this defiance reached Henry, who was in Bayeux in Normandy at the time, he expressed his anger in words that he was later to regret. These were: “What cowards have I about me – will no-one rid me of this turbulent priest?” Four noblemen heard what the king said and took him at his word, setting off for Canterbury to prove the king wrong as far as the “cowards” remark was concerned.

Henry soon became aware of their intentions and, horror-struck at what the consequence of his outburst would be, sent a messenger off with orders to stop the knights in their tracks. However, he acted too late and the messenger was not able to catch up with them.

The knights (now five, as they had recruited another en route), on reaching Canterbury firstly confronted Thomas Becket at the Bishop’s Palace, where they demanded that he flee the country again. This he refused to do. They left, but then appeared in the Cathedral shortly after Becket had arrived for vespers.

All the other clergymen (bar one, named Edward Grim) fled on seeing the armed men striding towards them. The first blow wounded Becket’s brave supporter, who was then powerless to defend the archbishop who was promptly felled and had his head split open while one of the knights stood on his neck.

King Henry was genuinely sorry for what his intemperate words had led to and he became one of the many thousands of pilgrims who made their way to the shrine that was soon erected in Becket’s memory. Becket was canonised within three years and many miracles were later claimed as being due to St Thomas Becket. Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” used a fictional 14th century pilgrimage to Canterbury as the framework for one of the greatest works in English literature.

The shrine was eventually destroyed by another King Henry, namely Henry VIII, who also had ambitions to control the power of the Church. However, the later Henry’s solution was more radical than that of the earlier – by making himself head of the English Church he combined both roles in the same person.