31. Christmas Episode: The Murder of Thomas Becket, Canterbury, England 1170

Henry II and Thomas Becket having an argument
Here, in a 13th century manuscript, we see Henry II and Thomas Becket having an argument. Which of them, exactly, is winning the argument at the moment we do not know; the long battle will be ending, however, when some knights at Henry’s court, mistaking a temper tantrum for a royal dictum, go and slice the top of Thomas’s head off. From Peter of Langtoft’s Chronicle, British Library Royal 20 A II.

After years of annoying each other, and fighting about the boundaries between church power and royal power, Henry II of England lost his temper with Thomas Becket, at Christmas, and said something (we don’t actually know what, exactly) which caused four knights who didn’t know him very well (and hence didn’t realize that he lost his temper all the time and would be getting over it in a while) to go down to Canterbury and murder the Archbishop. Bad career move, really. And Thomas Becket, who was then after all a martyr, started healing people and performing miracles pretty much immediately.  Henry was very sorry. Or, at least, he said so. In this episode, we explain it all for you, and Michelle has a lot to say about drama.  Not surprisingly.

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