Search results
Modern works based on the Becket story include: T. S. Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral, adapted as the opera Assassinio nella cattedrale by Ildebrando Pizzetti; Jean Anouilh's play Becket, where Becket is not a Norman but a Saxon, adapted for the screen in 1964, and starring Peter O'Toole and Richard Burton; and Paul Webb's play Four Nights ...
People also ask
Is Becket a Saxon?
Why is Becket based on a Saxon story?
Who was St Thomas Becket?
Who is Thomas Becket?
Key points about the Anglo-Saxons. Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury, the most important bishop in England. In 1170, he was brutally murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. Historians have...
Thomas Becket was an English archbishop and martyr, famously murdered by knights of Henry II at Canterbury Cathedral. After his death, his tomb and relics became a focus for pilgrimage and he was made a saint .
- Early Life
- King vs. Archbishop
- Return from Exile & Murder
- A Penitent King
- Legacy & Legends
Thomas Becket was born c. 1118, the son of a rich wine merchant based in Cheapside, London who prospered thanks to his contract to supply the royal court. The young Thomas was sent to study at the Augustinian monastery of Merton priory and then for various incompleted spells in Paris, Bologna, and Auxerre. Thomas' first job of note was as a clerk t...
Henry II sought to reaffirm the power of the monarchy in its relationship with the medieval Church. The Church in England had always been separated from the state but kings had traditionally had a say in who occupied the top job of the archbishop of Canterbury. Accordingly, Henry II appointed his chancellor Thomas Becket as the new archbishop of Ca...
Six years later and after intervention from the Pope, Thomas returned to England in early December 1170 and a reconciliation with his king. Thomas was asked to recrown Henry the Young King after the Pope had decided the original coronation, in which the Archbishop of York had performed the ceremony, was void. However, neither Thomas nor Henry II ha...
The murder shocked the establishment and caused the king to lie low for a while in Ireland. Fortunately for Henry, papal legates eventually found the king innocent of being directly involved in Thomas' death and so he was saved from excommunication. However, in July 1174, Henry was obliged to serve penance for his involvement as a contributory fact...
After Pope Alexander III had made Thomas Becket a saint in 1173, Saint Thomas of Canterbury soon became a powerful name to invoke for divine assistance. For example, when Queen Eleanor of Provence (1223-1291) was near to giving birth, her husband Henry III of England (r. 1216-1272) had the saint's tomb surrounded by 1,000 candles and invoked his as...
- Mark Cartwright
Dec 28, 2019 · During this time Henry flexed his power in England. His most blatant snub of his old friend's authority was his decision to have his son, Henry the Young King, crowned in June 1170 by Becket's long-standing enemy, the Archbishop of York.
Thomas Becket is first the king's friend, later the king's chancellor, and finally God's archbishop of Canterbury. In a historical inaccuracy, Anouilh has written Becket as a Saxon, a member of the subjugated English race conquered by the Normans.
Aug 7, 2024 · St. Thomas Becket (born c. 1118, Cheapside, London, England—died December 29, 1170, Canterbury, Kent; canonized 1173; feast day December 29) was the chancellor of England (1155–62) and archbishop of Canterbury (1162–70) during the reign of King Henry II.
