The Assassination of Thomas Becket
Four knights thought they were helping their King, but they could not have made a greater mistake.
1170
King Henry II 1154-1189
King Henry II and Thomas Becket in earnest dispute, as depicted in a 14th century manuscript.
Introduction
Henry II (r. 1154-1189) appointed his friend Thomas Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury, thinking he would always do as he was told. But Becket proved very independent-minded, and even had to flee to France to escape his King’s anger.
THOMAS Becket was in exile in France, at a monastery in Pontigny, when he remarked to the Abbot, “I dreamt, last night, that I was put to death.”
“Do you think you are going to be a martyr?” smiled the Abbot. “You eat and drink too much for that!”
King Henry II allowed Becket to return home in 1170, but found the Archbishop still refused to be his puppet. “As long as Thomas lives” said one Bishop to the King, “you will never be at peace.”
“What miserable drones and traitors have I nurtured and promoted in my household” Henry burst out, “who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born clerk!”* Four knights heard it, and thinking they had received their King’s orders, cut Becket down in his own Cathedral on December 29th that year.* But all the trouble he had given his King while he was alive was nothing compared to the trouble Becket gave him dead.
The more familiar line is “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”, but the words quoted here were recorded by Edward Grim, who was present and tried to intervene.
The Feast of the Holy Innocents, which commemorates the slaughter of the children of Bethlehem by King Herod the Great in about 4 BC. In the Greek Church, the day also remembers everyone who has perished by thirst, hunger, cold or sword for the glory of Christ. See Matthew 2:13-18, and our story The Adoration of the Magi.
