Henry II & Thomas À Becket Justine Goldsborough & Taylor Conroy

Henry II Following the death of his father, Henry II became the ruler of Normandy and Anjou. His first task was reorganizing the judicial system. He tried to control the Church but the archbishop refused. In 1169 he traveled to Ireland to assert his rule. After various family issues, Henry II passed away in TC

Thomas À Becket Thomas Becket was born to a successful merchant in He started as an agent to the archbishop of Canterbury Shortly after, he became the chancellor for Henry II Henry II made him the archbishop, which strained their relationship He was exiled to France for 6 years Was assassinated in 1170 Became a saint in 1173 TC

Their Relationship Henry II discovered Thomas Becket after his many trips to Rome He made Becket his chancellor and they quickly grew close Henry II appointed Becket as the archbishop after the death of Becket’s old boss. Becket denied the position at first saying he had enough power as he wanted He wrote a letter to Henry II claiming this position would strain their relationship TC

Conflict Philip de Brois is charged with the murder of a knight Since Philip was a clerk, he had clerical immunity and was protected by the church. Therefore, turning him over to criminal law would imply he would no longer be a clerk. Henry could not accept this and refrained from doing so. Becket and his Bishops highly disagreed with this and after several months of arguing, they met at the council of Clarendon in January of 1164 to discuss the issue. There, Henry presented the Bishops with the constitution of Clarendon defining the relationship between secular and canon law in an attempt to trick the Bishops into committing to something they had not previously agreed upon JG

How it worsened The Bishops refused to sign the document for three days, and as a result, angered the king Becket spontaneously told the Bishops they had no choice but to give in and to sign the document Regretting his decision, Becket began to publicly repent his oath in order to divert the king’s wrath from the Bishops Becket again angered Henry when he asked the pope to excommunicate the Archbishop of York, who had been friends with the king. JG

The assassination After hearing what Becket had done, the king shouted, “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?” Four knights had misunderstood what Henry meant and assumed he wanted Becket dead so they rode out to Canterbury to kill him. On December 29th, 1170, Becket had been assassinated in the Canterbury cathedral After the discovery of his friend’s death, Henry asked the pope for forgiveness and walked to Canterbury barefoot to pray at the spot where Becket had been killed JG

Works Cited Clouet, François. King Henry II of France. N.d. Photograph. Palace of Versailles, Versailles. Wikipedia.org. 17 June Web. 23 Sept Dr. Mike Ibeji. “Becket, the Church and Henry II.” BBC History. BBC, 17 Feb Web. 23 Sept "Henry II ( )." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 23 Sept "Thomas Becket (c )." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 23 Sept Trueman, Chris. "Thomas Becket." History Learning Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Sept