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 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 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 then 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.
© John Welford
No comments:
Post a Comment