On This Day: December 29

Henry II and Archbishop Becket

     
     In 1170, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was assassinated in Canterbury Cathedral by four knights under Henry II of England. 

     Becket and Henry were once close friends, and the King had Becket appointed as his Lord Chancellor as well as archbishop. However, their friendship soured over their differences regarding the power and independence of the Church in its relation to the state and the monarch who ruled over it. Henry accepted the authority of the Church in religious matters, but believed that issues such as property disputes and the punishment ofy for criminal and civil offenses were to be settled only in his courts. On the other hand, Becket believed that since the King's power had been derived from the Church, he was subject to it in all matters, and therefore had no authority to interfere with its internal affairs, which meant for example that clergy accused of highway robbery were to appear in Church courts, not state courts. 

     Henry attempted to get Becket to sign on to the Constitutions of Clarendon, which would have resulted in restrictions on ecclesiastical power. However, Becket fled abroad to France, where he continued to make claims about the independence and freedom of the Church from the state. Pope Alexander III agreed with Becket in theory, but favored a diplomatic approach, which resulted in papal delegations being dispatched to arbitrate the dispute. A compromise was crafted which allowed Becket to return to England without repercussions to his life or status. 

     However in the summer of 1170, Henry had his son and heir-apparent (also named Henry) crowned as a junior king in York by the Archbishop of York and the bishops of London and Salisbury, and Becket saw this as an affront to his authority as the Archbishop of Canterbury, who to this day is tasked with the job of crowning British monarchs. Enraged, Becket excommunicated the three clergymen and continued to do the same to other opponents within the Church. News of this reached Henry, who is supposed to have said: "Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?" This (or something to its effect) was interpreted as a command, and four royal knights - Reginald Fitzurse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy, and Richard Brito - traveled to Canterbury to confront Becket. There, they attempted to get the Archbishop to give an account of his actions to the King's court at Winchester, but Becket refused. It was only then that the armed knights attacked and killed Becket in his own cathedral.

     Following his death, Thomas Becket was canonized as a saint - he remains as such in both the Catholic and Anglican communions - and a shrine in his honor was erected at Canterbury. Becket's martyrdom became powerful enough that Henry II believed that his own struggles with his sons, France, and the Church were the result of his actions toward Becket. In a negotiated settlement with the Church, the King did penance before the shrine, which included being flogged five times by each of the English bishops and three times by each of the 80 the monks of Canterbury Cathedral.

     In reality however, little actually changed in terms of Henry's authority as king, for he could still make appointments of bishops and archbishops, though disputes such as this one would reverberate through the centuries until Henry VIII finally achieved supremacy over the Church in England.