0:06

Welcome to the

0:06

podcast 'Tis But a Scratch: Fact

0:10

and Fiction about the Middle

0:10

Ages. About three weeks ago, my

0:14

good friend and colleague,

0:14

Professor Jennifer Paxton of the

0:17

Catholic University of America

0:17

joined me in discussing St.

0:21

Thomas Becket's background, and

0:21

his rise from a cleric in the

0:25

household of Theobald,

0:25

Archbishop of Canterbury, to be

0:29

chancellor of England under King

0:29

Henry II. Today, I'm fortunate

0:34

to have Jenny back to complete

0:34

the story of England's most

0:38

famous Catholic martyr. Welcome

0:38

back, Jenny.

0:42

Thank you so much for having me back. It's always fun talking with you

0:44

about our common interest and

0:47

English medieval history, and

0:47

especially about complex people

0:51

and events such as Thomas Becket

0:51

and his martyrdom. But before we

0:56

begin, my husband asked me

0:56

wasn't his name Thomas â Becket?

1:01

And no, it wasn't, we owe that

1:01

to a staunch Protestant tuber

1:06

writer named Thomas Nash. In

1:06

1596. He added the rustic "â" to

1:12

lampoon the saint.

1:13

To lampoon the

1:13

saint? Apparently Nash didn't

1:16

know that Becket derives from

1:16

the word for "nose," and that he

1:22

was really Thomas "beaky nose,"

1:22

which should have been lampoon

1:26

enough. but Thomas a Becket

1:26

stuck.

1:29

It did

1:29

everybody seems to know of him

1:31

as Thomas a Becket. So we left

1:31

off the last episode with King

1:36

Henry II appointing his

1:36

Chancellor Thomas Becket to

1:39

replace Thomas's first patron,

1:39

Archbishop Theobald in the see

1:44

of Canterbury

1:46

The 1964 film

1:46

"Becket," which Jenny and I will

1:50

talk about later in this

1:50

episode, recreates the moment

1:54

that King Henry II played here

1:54

by Peter O'Toole has the

1:58

brilliant idea to appoint his

1:58

Chancellor Thomas Becket, played

2:02

by Richard Burton, to be the

2:02

next Archbishop of Canterbury,

2:07

Thomas,

2:07

extraordinary ideas creeping

2:10

into my mind. A master strike.

2:10

I'm subtle. I'm even profound.

2:17

Oh, I'm so profound, it's making my head spin. (Thomas laughs) - Are you listening to

2:19

me, Thomas? - I'm listening,

2:22

My Prince. We need a new

2:22

Archbishop of Canterbury. I

2:26

think there is a man we can rely

2:26

on. No matter who it is, once

2:32

the archbishop's miter is on his

2:32

head, he will not longer be on

2:34

your side. But if the

2:34

archbishop is my man, if

2:38

Canterbury is for the king, how

2:38

could his power possibly get in

2:42

my way? My Lord, we know your

2:42

bishops. Once enthroned at

2:47

Canterbury, every one of them

2:47

will grow dizzy with power.

2:51

Not this man. - Are you

2:51

listening to me, Thomas? -

2:54

Mm-hmm. - You're leaving for

2:54

England tonight. - On what

2:58

mission, My Prince? You are

2:58

going to deliver a letter to

3:01

all the bishops of England.

3:01

Uh-huh. My royal edict

3:05

nominating you, Thomas Becket,

3:05

Primate of England, Archbishop

3:11

of Canterbury. My Lord,

3:11

don't do this. You have an

3:17

odd way of taking good news. I

3:17

should think you'd be

3:19

triumphant. But I... I'm not

3:19

even a priest. You're a deacon.

3:26

You can be ordained priest and

3:26

consecrated archbishop the next

3:29

day. My Lord, this frightens

3:29

me. I beg of you, do not do

3:34

this. You've never disappointed

3:34

me, Thomas, and you're the

3:38

only man I can trust.

3:40

I love this

3:40

scene. I love it when Henry

3:43

says, Thomas, you have never

3:43

disappointed me before. And

3:47

Thomas is thinking, yes, my

3:47

Prince, but I was never

3:51

Archbishop of Canterbury before.

3:51

Cinematically, the scene

3:55

effectively foreshadows the

3:55

future conflict between the two

3:59

men and the sense of betrayal

3:59

that King Henry II would

4:03

experience when his once loyal

4:03

Chancellor became his adversary

4:07

as Archbishop. It also signals

4:07

to the movie going audience that

4:12

Thomas's inner conflict between

4:12

his loyalty and friendship for

4:17

the king and his desire to serve

4:17

God--and both are real--is going

4:21

to be resolved in favor of God

4:21

and the church. The audience has

4:26

already been keyed to Becket's

4:26

pangs of conscience, although

4:29

Henry is completely oblivious to

4:29

them.

4:33

Now, I love the

4:33

movie "Becket," but historians

4:36

are always spoilsports when it

4:36

comes to historical movies.

4:39

Yeah, they are, aren't they?

4:40

And I have to

4:40

point out that as effective

4:43

theater as this is, it's not

4:43

history. Theobald died on April

4:48

18 1161. Becket was elected by

4:48

the monks of Canterbury to

4:53

succeed Theolbald, a year later

4:55

a full year later,

4:56

which is not

4:56

that atypical. There were often

4:59

fairly long vacancies in between

4:59

archbishops and because of the

5:05

way that the appointments worked

5:05

and you would the king would get

5:08

to take the money and see in

5:08

between. So he's not elected

5:12

until May of 1162. And he was

5:12

ordained a priest on June 2. So

5:18

he was not even actually a priest,

5:20

No, he wasn't.

5:20

But he was archdeacon of

5:24

Canterbury, as well as being

5:24

Chancellor. But the problem is

5:28

you can't become a bishop unless

5:28

you're first a priest.

5:32

Fortunately, there was no time

5:32

requirement on how long you had

5:36

to be a priest.

5:37

No, there were

5:37

a lot of emergency priestly the

5:41

consecrations before people

5:41

became bishops, not a lot, but

5:45

there certainly were some. So he

5:45

was ordained a priest on June 2

5:49

and consecrated Archbishop of

5:49

Canterbury by Bishop Henry of

5:52

Winchester the following day.

5:52

Now Henry's decision to nominate

5:57

Thomas was not a spur of the

5:57

moment thing. The king was not

6:01

in a rush to fill the

6:01

archiepiscopal See. It actually

6:05

could be kind of fun to have no

6:05

Archbishop for a little bit.

6:07

Yeah, because you don't have to worry about a primate.

6:10

Yeah, yeah. You

6:10

can kind of free your hand.

6:12

Yeah,

6:13

so members of

6:13

the king's court apparently were

6:15

notified that Henry intended to

6:15

appoint Thomas before Thomas

6:19

knew. Becket's biographer

6:19

William fitzStephen relates that

6:23

while Becket was recovering from

6:23

a serious illness in the

6:26

hospital of the Church of St

6:26

Gervais, he was visited by the

6:30

prior of the Augustinian Abbey

6:30

at Leicester. The prior, who had

6:34

come from the king's court,

6:34

teased Thomas about the way he

6:38

dressed like a noble. So what he

6:38

said is, "'What's this?' the

6:43

prior joked. 'So you go in for

6:43

capes with sleeves now just like

6:46

fowlers when carrying hawks, and

6:46

you, a clerk--unique, I know but

6:52

plural in your benefices

6:53

Yeah,

6:54

Archdeacon of

6:54

Canterbury, Dean of Hastings,

6:57

Provost of York, canon here and

6:57

canon there, custodian of the

7:02

archbishopric. And, as court

7:02

rumor has it, Archbishop to

7:06

be.'" End of quote. So Becket

7:06

supposedly responded a lot like

7:11

he did in the movie by

7:11

protesting that he knew at least

7:14

three priests in England, whom

7:14

he would rather see as

7:18

Archbishop. Quote, "For if it

7:18

should come about that I am

7:21

promoted. I know the King so

7:21

well, indeed inside out, that I

7:26

would either have to lose his

7:26

favor or god forbid, neglect my

7:32

duty to the Almighty." End of

7:32

quote.

7:35

you can never be

7:35

sure that a story like this is

7:37

actually true. Willilam

7:37

fitzStephen, like Becket's other

7:41

early biographers, wrote after

7:41

the Archbishop's death. In other

7:44

words, he wrote with the benefit

7:44

of hindsight. He knew that

7:48

Thomas's elevation would bring

7:48

them into conflict with the

7:51

king, but that Thomas claimed to

7:51

know Henry "inside out" sounds

7:55

to me, like something Becket

7:55

might well have said and of all

8:00

of Becket's biographers, William

8:00

fitzStephen was best positioned

8:04

to report court gossip. Before

8:04

Thomas's elevation to the

8:08

archbishopric, William had been

8:08

a royal clerk in the king's

8:11

chancery, and after Becket's

8:11

death, he appears to have

8:15

returned to royal service. He

8:15

had a foot in both camps. What

8:21

the movie gets right is Henry

8:21

II's motivation in choosing

8:26

Becket Becket's main

8:26

qualification, in Henry's eyes

8:29

at least, was his loyalty and

8:29

his devotion, and that loyalty

8:34

and devotion and service that he

8:34

had given him as Chancellor. He

8:38

expected that Becket would

8:38

continue to promote royal policy

8:41

as Archbishop and be Henry's

8:41

partner in administration of the

8:46

realm, much as Theobald had

8:46

been, but with greater

8:49

enthusiasm, and with less

8:49

resistance, and Becket really

8:54

wasn't an outrageous choice. He

8:54

was, after all, Archdeacon of

8:59

Canterbury. He was, at that

8:59

point, custodian of lands of the

9:02

Church of Canterbury, and he was

9:02

the king's Chancellor. Now the

9:05

last may not seem to be an

9:05

obvious qualification for

9:10

becoming Archbishop. But in this

9:10

period of time, it wasn't a

9:15

disqualification. Both King

9:15

Louis VII of France, and the

9:19

Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of

9:19

Germany had elevated their

9:23

chancellors to high Episcopal

9:23

office, and both continued

9:27

afterwards to hold the office of

9:27

Chancellor. Service to the crown

9:31

and service to the church, after

9:31

all, was not supposed to be in

9:36

conflict.

9:37

For historians of the medieval church. There was a nice irony about the

9:39

movie's depiction of Becket's

9:42

resistance to being named

9:42

Archbishop by Henry

9:45

which has

9:45

historical basis. According to

9:47

William fitzStephen, Thomas had

9:47

to be persuaded to accept the

9:51

office by calling upon Henry of

9:51

Pavia, the papal legate in

9:55

Normandy.

9:56

Irony isn't that Thomas expressed reluctance, but why he was

9:58

reluctant. Medieval clerics in

10:03

line to be promoted to bishop

10:03

were expected to declare, "Nolo

10:07

episcopari."

10:08

How do you say? I

10:08

really don't want to become a

10:12

chairman of the History Department?

10:14

I've coined

10:14

one. "Nolo decanari."

10:16

I love that. I do

10:16

not want to be a dean.

10:21

So "nolo

10:21

episcopari" means "I don't wish

10:24

to be made a bishop." And this

10:24

was meant as an expression of

10:27

humility. To be worthy of the

10:27

offfice of Bishop, a bishop

10:31

elect had to declare himself

10:31

unworthy to assume so great a

10:35

spiritual office. Becket in the

10:35

movie expresses his personal

10:40

feelings of unworthiness, which

10:40

is of course, an assessment that

10:43

bishop Gilbert Foliot of London

10:43

and the other English prelates

10:47

of the time would have heartily

10:47

seconded for real, but not

10:50

because he fears that he

10:50

actually will be unworthy of

10:53

that office, and that it'll

10:53

bring him into conflict with

10:57

King Henry.

10:58

Yeah. And that

10:58

turned out to be the case. As

11:02

soon as Becket was consecrated

11:02

Archbishop, he seemed to become

11:06

a completely new person. As

11:06

Chancellor, he had been

11:11

accustomed to parading around in

11:11

rich robes and cloaks. As

11:15

Archbishop, he wore a hair shirt

11:15

under his episcopal robes to

11:19

modify the flesh. As Chancellor,

11:19

he lavished money on troubadours

11:23

and courtiers. As Archbishop, he

11:23

gave money to the poor. Why he

11:28

changed, and whether that change

11:28

was genuine, is a matter of

11:33

historical debate.

11:35

There are a

11:35

number of ways to explain

11:37

Thomas's change of heart

11:37

cynically, one might say that

11:40

calmness now that he had an

11:40

independent power base no longer

11:44

felt that he had to dance to the

11:44

kings tune. The Church of

11:48

Canterbury was very powerful and

11:48

very wealthy in its own right.

11:52

In order to safeguard that power

11:52

base, Thomas decided immediately

11:56

that he was going to draw a firm

11:56

line in the sand whenever the

11:59

rights and privileges of the

11:59

Church of Canterbury are

12:02

threatened in any way, even by

12:02

his former best friend King.

12:07

Less cynically, promises

12:07

elevation to the Office of

12:11

Archbishop had inspired an inner

12:11

conversion that led him to

12:15

embrace his new responsibility

12:15

to protect the church with which

12:19

God had entrusted him. Thomas

12:19

had fallen seriously ill in the

12:24

summer of 1161, and he first

12:24

seems to have heard about his

12:28

candidacy for the archiepiscopal

12:28

while convalescing in the

12:31

hospital of the Church of Sasha

12:31

have a serious illness was the

12:36

come to Jesus moment for

12:36

literally Yeah, exactly for many

12:40

less than pious medieval people.

12:40

King William Rufus, who was

12:44

notoriously lacks when it came

12:44

to religion, decided to appoint

12:48

the holiest man that he knew to

12:48

be his Archbishop of Canterbury,

12:52

St. Anselm of Beck, because he

12:52

thought he was dying.

12:56

Unfortunately for

12:56

all, William Rufus recovered,

12:59

and was stuck with ADD zone biz

12:59

Archbishop, a situation that

13:03

neither man enjoyed. I'd offer a

13:03

third possibility for Thomas's

13:08

transformation. It's possible

13:08

that Thomas was the consummate

13:14

actor. I'm not suggesting that

13:14

he was insincere in authentic,

13:19

but that he played whatever role

13:19

he was assigned to the best of

13:23

his ability. As a cleric in

13:23

Archbishop theobalds household.

13:28

He fulfilled his function so

13:28

well that the archbishop made

13:31

them Archdeacon as royal

13:31

Chancellor. He was the King's

13:35

Man and unreservedly supported

13:35

Henry's authority and claims as

13:41

Archbishop. He was now the man

13:41

of God and the church. In this

13:46

new role, he supported the

13:46

church's claims and authority as

13:50

strongly as he had once

13:50

supported the case. As

13:53

Archbishop of Canterbury, Becket

13:53

was responsible for protecting

13:57

the liberty of the Church, which

13:57

by then included free elections

14:02

of bishops and abbots. I know

14:02

this sounds ironic, or even

14:06

hypocritical given the evidence

14:06

for the almost universal

14:10

disapproval by the bishops and

14:10

higher clergy of Henry's choice

14:14

of Protestants exceed

14:15

Theobald,

14:15

perhaps ironic, but also

14:18

instructive of what a free

14:18

election meant in England and

14:22

1162. The Investiture

14:22

controversy in England had been

14:26

resolved in 1107, by a

14:26

compromise hammered out by

14:31

Archbishop Anselm and King Henry

14:31

the first and accepted by Pope

14:35

Pascal II it's sort of the dry

14:35

run for the encoded avalance. It

14:40

basically is, bishops would be

14:40

freely elected by the clergy and

14:44

invested with the symbols of

14:44

their spiritual office by the

14:47

bishop who consecrated them. But

14:47

the king would continue to

14:51

receive homage from newly

14:51

elected bishops in return for

14:56

the landed fiefs and temporal

14:56

powers that they received from

14:59

him. In essence, the English

14:59

solution of 1107 Recognize the

15:04

Episcopal sees two bodies. As

15:04

pastors of the church bishops

15:09

received their authority and

15:09

power from God via the church's

15:13

clergy through apostolic

15:13

succession. But as magnates of

15:17

the realm and landholders of

15:17

fiefs, they received their

15:21

temporal powers and authority

15:21

from the camp.

15:24

The election of

15:24

Thomas illustrates, I think very

15:27

well, what a quote unquote free

15:27

election actually meant in 1162,

15:32

despite Congress's continued

15:32

role as Archdeacon of Canterbury

15:36

Oh, give it how unpopular

15:36

archdeacons were, perhaps

15:39

because of it, the cathedral

15:39

chapter and monks of Canterbury

15:44

who were charged with freely

15:44

electing the archbishop needed a

15:48

lot of persuasion, once the

15:48

prior of the abbey received the

15:54

royal licence to proceed with an

15:54

election, and that a royal

15:57

license was needed, in order for

15:57

the clergy of Canterbury to have

16:03

a quote unquote free election is

16:03

itself highly revealing. He

16:09

called on the senior monks to

16:09

discuss the king's nomination of

16:12

Thomas. They, in turn, called in

16:12

the royal justice year, Richard

16:17

de Luci to discuss with them the

16:17

kings will Richard deluzy laid

16:23

out pretty bluntly the benefits

16:23

to the Abbey and the see of

16:26

having an archbishop who stood

16:26

so high in the Kings favor. The

16:31

consequences of the fIag the

16:31

kings will was at least implied

16:37

even after the prior and senior

16:37

monks recommended Thomas's

16:40

candidacy to the other monks,

16:40

there was vocal opposition to

16:43

the choice, but it was a

16:43

foregone conclusion that Thomas

16:49

would be, quote, unquote, freely

16:49

elected. The

16:52

importance of a

16:52

bishop having royal favor cannot

16:55

be overstressed as Archbishop

16:55

Becket was responsible for the

16:59

physical welfare of the Church

16:59

of Canterbury, which entailed

17:03

safeguarding the church's

17:03

property against encroachment by

17:06

knights who held land from the

17:06

Abbey. One of Becket's first

17:10

acts as Archbishop was to demand

17:10

that Roger declare Earl of

17:14

Hartford, and one of the most

17:14

powerful laymen in England

17:17

perform homage to him for the

17:17

castle of Tonbridge in Kent. It

17:22

was a grand gesture, and

17:22

although it proved unsuccessful,

17:26

it made the point to the monks

17:26

that the new Archbishop would be

17:29

zealous and garden Canterbury's

17:29

lands and claims to land one

17:34

of Thomas's first

17:34

clashes with King Henry II came

17:38

over Thomas's excommunication of

17:38

a Kentish beret, we're having

17:42

driven out a priest from a

17:42

parish church and the lands of

17:45

the parish church which were

17:45

claimed by Canterbury, the Baron

17:50

claimed that he had not the

17:50

archbishop had the right to

17:53

presentation that is of choosing

17:53

the parish priest, Thomas could

17:58

have and he should have appeal

17:58

to the king first, and Henry

18:02

immediately protested that the

18:02

customs of the realm prohibited

18:07

that attendant in chief be

18:07

excommunicated, without the

18:10

consent of the king. Thomas

18:10

replied that it was not the

18:13

Kings placed to give orders to

18:13

absolve or excommunicate anyone,

18:18

and that was

18:18

going to be a point of

18:20

contention. financial demands by

18:20

the Crown were always a

18:24

flashpoint in the relationship

18:24

between medieval kings and

18:27

bishops, as Archbishop Thomas

18:27

protected his church by

18:30

resisting the type of financial

18:30

demands from the King, that he

18:34

as Chancellor had enforced upon

18:34

other problems. Yeah,

18:37

notably school

18:37

age, which is the payment of

18:39

cash in lieu of providing owed

18:39

night service. Perhaps

18:43

the most

18:43

important duty that Thomas had

18:45

as Archbishop was to maintain

18:45

the ancient rights and

18:48

privileges of the see of

18:48

Canterbury against the claims of

18:52

the other bishops in England, in

18:52

particular, his old colleague

18:56

from theobalds household,

18:56

Archbishop Roger de Coyne evac

19:00

of York, who have resisted

19:00

acknowledging the primacy of

19:04

Canterbury. It's

19:05

really kind of

19:05

interesting, old friendships and

19:08

old rivalries just persist. They

19:08

really do. Yeah, sort of like

19:13

graduating together from an

19:13

English public school, right?

19:17

Yes. But none of this made

19:17

Becket's break with the king

19:21

inevitable. What did was the

19:21

problem of criminalist allergic?

19:27

In

19:27

the previous

19:27

episode, Richard and I discussed

19:30

Henry II imposition of royal

19:30

authority over civil law, that

19:34

is the law of property and

19:34

dispute settlement. But Henry II

19:39

was also determined to reform

19:39

the criminal law. He wanted to

19:43

crack down not just on

19:43

recalcitrant barons and lords

19:46

who were abusing their

19:46

prerogatives, but also on garden

19:50

variety criminals. To that end,

19:50

he said about reforming the

19:55

royal approach to crime. He sent

19:55

out roving commissions of judges

20:00

called Ayers. These IERS were

20:00

specifically tasked with

20:05

sweeping up criminals and trying

20:05

their cases.

20:09

We live in 66

20:09

Henry and his advisors

20:12

regularized royal oversight of

20:12

criminal law at the size of

20:16

Clarendon, quote, on the device

20:16

of all his barons, and with a

20:21

goal of preserving peace and

20:21

maintaining justice, King Henry

20:25

ordain that inquiries be made

20:25

throughout each county and each

20:30

100 by 12 are the more lawful

20:30

men of the 100. And by four of

20:35

the moral lawful men of each

20:35

fill, these men shall swear an

20:39

oath to tell the truth

20:39

concerning whether in their 100

20:42

or in their Ville, there is any

20:42

man cited or charged as a

20:46

robber, murderer or thief, or

20:46

whether there is anyone who has

20:51

abetted any robber, murderer or

20:51

thief in the time since the law

20:55

of Kings coronation, and if a

20:55

robber murderer or thief or the

20:59

receivers of them shall be

20:59

arrested by means of the

21:02

aforesaid oath. At a time when

21:02

the royal justices are not due

21:06

to appear anytime soon into the

21:06

county where the arrests have

21:09

been made. Let the sheriff said

21:09

word by some knowledgeable man

21:13

to one of the near justices,

21:13

that such criminals have been

21:16

arrested, and the justices shall

21:16

send back to the sheriff word of

21:20

where they wish to have the men

21:20

brought before them, and the

21:24

sheriff shall bring them before

21:24

the justices and they shall also

21:28

bring with them from the 100 in

21:28

the Ville, in which the arrests

21:31

were made to lawful men to carry

21:31

the record of the county and 100

21:37

as to why the men were arrested

21:37

and let the sheriff's who have

21:40

arrested these criminals bring

21:40

them before the justices without

21:44

requiring any other summons than

21:44

the one they shall receive from

21:47

the justice. In other words,

21:47

while common law was now to

21:52

embrace criminal as well as

21:52

civil law,

21:56

these new

21:56

juries of presentment are often

21:58

held up as the origins of our

21:58

grand juries. And in a sense

22:02

they were since they were

22:02

responsible for making criminal

22:05

indictments. But medieval juries

22:05

did so on the basis of what they

22:10

personally knew about the

22:10

offenses. Their primary function

22:14

was as witnesses, which is why

22:14

wrong decisions were treated as

22:19

perjury, right.

22:20

Henry II went

22:20

after a group of people whom he

22:24

considered to be threats to

22:24

public order, because they

22:28

tended to escape royal

22:28

jurisdiction. This class of

22:32

troublemakers were strangely

22:32

enough clergymen or clerks to

22:37

use the contemporary term. That

22:39

doesn't mean that they were necessarily priests. There were many grades

22:41

in the clerical hierarchy and

22:45

men could work their way slowly

22:45

up these grades while still

22:49

living much like laymen. Those

22:49

in lower orders like

22:53

doorkeepers, acolytes, exorcist

22:53

and readers, there are seven

22:58

grades were even allowed to

22:58

marry. Technically, these guys

23:03

are churchmen, but they aren't

23:03

really living very church

23:06

oriented lives. Some of them

23:06

were really poor scraping by on

23:11

meager salaries, or none at all.

23:11

So it's not surprising that a

23:15

few clearly supplemented their

23:15

earnings by recourse to crime.

23:19

And some even in the higher

23:19

orders of Deacon and priest were

23:23

just flat out criminals. Before

23:23

the Norman Conquest. A

23:26

criminalist. Clerk, as these

23:26

clerical criminals were called,

23:30

with just had been tried for his

23:30

crimes in 100, or Shire court

23:34

like anybody else. But William

23:34

the Conqueror had brought in a

23:37

parallel court system in England

23:37

that was run by the church.

23:42

These church courts had

23:42

jurisdiction over certain cases

23:46

that involved correction of

23:46

sinful behavior.

23:49

As I mentioned in

23:49

previous episode, this included

23:52

adultery once marriage became a

23:52

Catholic sacrament marital

23:55

disputes, including accusations

23:55

of adultery, were heard in these

23:59

ecclesiastical Kabelo courts.

23:59

But canon law courts also claim

24:04

jurisdiction, not only over

24:04

certain kinds of offenses, but

24:09

also over certain types of

24:09

people, namely anyone in

24:14

clerical orders, even the minor

24:14

clerical orders under William

24:19

the Conqueror and his sons,

24:19

William Rufus and Henry the

24:22

first, the secular courts and

24:22

the church courts had worked out

24:26

a modus vivendi by which clerics

24:26

accused of really serious crimes

24:32

would first be stripped of their

24:32

clerical status in the church

24:35

caught in the cat in local and

24:35

then handed over to the royal

24:39

courts for further punishment.

24:41

The reason for

24:41

this was that church courts were

24:44

forbidden by Canon Law to impose

24:44

penalties that involved the

24:48

shedding of blood. So no

24:48

executions are mutilations, if

24:52

you wanted those. You have to go

24:52

to the royal court.

24:55

Yes, but this was

24:55

all a matter of custom. They

24:59

were weren't any hard and fast

24:59

written rules about when exactly

25:03

the church courts were obligated

25:03

to cough up particular criminals

25:07

clerks. But in the first half of

25:07

the 20th century, the Catholic

25:11

Church had evolved into what

25:11

some historians like to call a

25:15

papal monarchy. The church was

25:15

conceived of as a universal

25:19

state, with both a heavenly and

25:19

a temporal component in which

25:25

all clergy regardless of where

25:25

they were stationed, were solely

25:29

under the jurisdiction of the

25:29

church. As with the baronage,

25:34

the claims of the church visa

25:34

vie the authority the crown went

25:38

unchallenged during the civil

25:38

war between King Stephen and the

25:41

Empress Matilda because the

25:41

royal authority couldn't

25:44

challenge it.

25:45

Henry II was

25:45

determined to restore the good

25:49

legal customs of his grandfather

25:49

King Henry the first, and this

25:53

included reestablishing royal

25:53

authority over criminals,

25:57

clerics, several big clerical

25:57

scandals helped push him in this

26:01

direction. And I'll just tell

26:01

you about one of them. This is a

26:04

good one. It is. In 1163, a

26:04

canon of Bedford named Philip

26:09

Dubois was accused of murdering

26:09

a night he was brought before

26:13

the Archbishop's court and

26:13

purged himself of the crime.

26:17

That is He swore an oath that he

26:17

was innocent, and the oath was

26:22

accepted. That's all it took in

26:22

the church court to get off scot

26:26

free. Later, a royal judge tried

26:26

to reopen the case, because

26:30

apparently there were ample

26:30

grounds to doubt the sincerity

26:34

of Philips oath. Philip insulted

26:34

the judge before witnesses. This

26:39

was if anything a more serious

26:39

crime in the king's eyes than

26:43

the alleged murder. But once

26:43

again, he was hauled up before

26:46

the Archbishop's court, and this

26:46

time he was convicted of

26:50

insulting the judge, but he was

26:50

again acquitted of the murder.

26:53

He was sentenced to the loss of

26:53

revenues from his ecclesiastical

26:57

office for two years. With the

26:57

money distributed to the poor,

27:01

and a public whipping. In the

27:01

presence of the judge he

27:04

insulted if he had been found

27:04

guilty in a royal court, he

27:08

would have faced execution or

27:08

mutilation. Henry was utterly

27:12

fed up with clerks being able

27:12

literally to Get Away with

27:16

Murder.

27:17

As Jenny said,

27:17

That was only one of several

27:20

high profile cases of criminals

27:20

clerks that came to the kings

27:25

attention. Will you fit Stephen

27:25

in a power free men to praise

27:29

Becktt relates how the

27:29

archbishop refused to turn over

27:33

to the royal courts, a clerk of

27:33

Western who had killed the

27:37

father of a girl that he was

27:37

attempting to rape that could

27:41

place the murderer and rapist

27:41

into the Archbishop's prison, so

27:45

that the world authorities could

27:45

not take custody of him. But

27:49

especially pissed off Henry II

27:49

was that the man who protected

27:53

this murderous cleric from Royal

27:53

justice and presided over the

27:57

trial of Philip Dubois was the

27:57

man whom he had made Archbishop

28:02

in order to support his claims

28:02

of royal authority by elevating

28:06

Thomas to be primate, Henry

28:06

thought he was finally going to

28:10

have an archbishop he could

28:10

really deal with who would

28:13

really support him, who would it

28:13

would be essentially his man.

28:18

After all, Thomas owed

28:18

everything to the king. But

28:22

when Henry went

28:22

after criminals, clerks, the

28:25

Archbishop pushed back,

28:27

W. L. Warren,

28:27

who's 1973 biography of King

28:30

Henry II for Yale's English

28:30

Monarch series, is still in my

28:34

assessment, the standard

28:34

biography of that King Warren

28:38

pointed out that Becket's

28:38

insistence on the church's sole

28:42

jurisdiction over criminalist

28:42

clerks, quote, "called into

28:46

question the whole of Archbishop

28:46

theobalds modus vivendi with the

28:51

state, and that drove the king

28:51

to an equally dogmatic stance of

28:56

the Royal prerogative." End quote.

28:59

Those royal

28:59

prerogatives over the English

29:01

church were spelled out in

29:01

detail in a document known as

29:05

the constitutions of Clarendon.

29:05

The constitutions of Clarendon

29:09

were the record of a royal a

29:09

size that is a meeting of the

29:13

king with his lay and

29:13

ecclesiastical advisors, held at

29:17

the royal hunting lodge at

29:17

Clarendon in 1164, the

29:22

constitutions of Clarendon

29:22

obliged the church to hand

29:25

criminals clerks over to be

29:25

tried by the Royal Courts.

29:29

But it went even

29:29

further than that. It also deals

29:33

with the other key points of

29:33

dispute between the king and the

29:37

English church. It prohibited

29:37

archbishops and bishops from

29:41

excommunicating. tenants and

29:41

chief without first receiving

29:44

the approval of the king, and

29:44

from leaving, even leaving the

29:48

kingdom are appealing to the

29:48

papacy without first again,

29:52

getting permission of the king.

29:52

The disputes over ecclesiastical

29:56

property were to be resolved

29:56

like all other land disputes In

30:00

a royal court, and church held

30:00

lands were to owe the same royal

30:05

dues as lands held by the lady.

30:05

The constitutions of Clarendon

30:10

is presented as a restoration of

30:10

the good customs and royal

30:15

privileges practiced under King

30:15

Henry the first, and that

30:20

probably is true. But times have

30:20

changed. And the Constitutions

30:25

were a response, not only to the

30:25

clergy is claimed to be solely

30:29

responsible for disciplining

30:29

itself, but to the papacy is

30:33

claims to be the supreme head of

30:33

a universal church. In essence,

30:38

it was the expression of King

30:38

Henry II's notion that he was

30:44

supreme over the church in his

30:44

kingdom, and his insistence that

30:49

the clergy of his kingdom from

30:49

doorkeeper, all the way up to

30:52

Archbishop were his subjects.

30:56

Becket was summoned before the royal presents and forced probably

30:58

literally under the threat of

31:01

violence to accept this

31:01

renunciation of the church's

31:05

rites of jurisdiction. But after

31:05

accepting the constitutions and

31:09

making all the other bishops

31:09

accept them, Becket then changed

31:13

his mind and decided to take a

31:13

stand. And

31:17

And that must

31:17

have gone over really big with

31:21

Bishop Gilbert Foliot and the

31:21

other English bishops, who

31:25

really didn't want him to be

31:25

Archbishop in the first place.

31:27

This was really

31:27

a disaster. So he renounces the

31:30

constitutions of clarinet and

31:30

after forcing everybody else to

31:33

accept them, so they were

31:33

enraged, he had made them go

31:36

against their consciences

31:36

because they didn't think that

31:39

these provisions were a good

31:39

idea. But he was then going back

31:42

on his word, trying to have it

31:42

both ways. So Thomas lost a lot

31:46

of Episcopal support right

31:46

there. There was an uneasy truce

31:51

with the king at this point, but

31:51

Thomas and Henry could not stop

31:54

provoking each other. Little

31:54

disputes over property got

31:57

magnified out of all proportion.

31:57

Finally, the king seems to have

32:01

reached a breaking point and he

32:01

decided to bring back it down

32:05

for good. He accused him of

32:05

financial improprieties while

32:09

chancellor and summoned him to

32:09

appear before him at

32:12

Northampton. Apparently a very

32:12

large sum of money that the king

32:16

had given to Thomas as

32:16

Chancellor 30,000 pounds

32:20

that was the

32:20

annual revenues the Crown could

32:22

expect from all of England,

32:24

it was a huge

32:24

amount of money could not be

32:26

accounted for. Nobody knows the

32:26

truth of what happened with this

32:30

money. Had it been a gift and

32:30

was it thus unfair to be asking

32:34

for an accounting now? Or was

32:34

Thomas being truthful when he

32:38

claimed that he had spent all of

32:38

the money on the Kings affairs?

32:42

We will never know. And it's

32:42

very likely that the whole

32:45

affair was a put up job. This is

32:45

the sort of thing that the

32:49

adjuvant kings yeah did. What

32:49

the charge was serious enough

32:53

that the archbishop felt he had

32:53

no option but to flee. He didn't

32:57

want to be treated publicly like

32:57

a criminals clerk. So he escaped

33:02

from Northampton with a few

33:02

followers. And after a harrowing

33:06

cross country journey of three

33:06

weeks, he finally made it to the

33:10

port of sandwich which was under

33:10

Canterbury's control, and he

33:14

embarked for exile on the

33:14

continent,

33:17

which I might

33:17

point out violated the

33:19

Constitution, so Clarendon did.

33:19

Becket actually violated the

33:23

Constitutions twice, first by

33:23

appealing to the papacy, the

33:27

judgment of the bishops against

33:27

him in the civil case of

33:30

contempt of court. And then by

33:30

leaving the kingdom, without the

33:35

king's permission, it Thomas's

33:35

fellow bishops were upset, King

33:39

Henry II, was royally pissed. He

33:39

sent a letter to King Louis VII

33:45

of France, urging him not to

33:45

allow Becket to remain in

33:49

Israel. It's a wonderful letter,

33:49

and it gives you a sense of the

33:53

character, the personality of

33:53

Henry II: Quote. "Know that

33:57

Thomas, who was Archbishop of

33:57

Canterbury, and the past tense,

34:02

who was Archbishop of

34:02

Canterbury, very significant,

34:04

yeah, as has been publicly a

34:04

judged in my court by full

34:09

counsel of the barons of my

34:09

realm, to be a wicked and

34:13

perjured trader, to me, and

34:13

under the manifest name of

34:17

traitor, has wickedly departed.

34:17

Wherefore I earnestly beg you

34:23

not to permit a man guilty of

34:23

such infamous crimes, and

34:27

treasons or his men to remain in

34:27

your kingdom. Rather, if it

34:31

pleases you, help me to take

34:31

vengeance on my great enemy for

34:36

this affront, and to seek my

34:36

honor, even as you would wish me

34:41

to do for you, if you were

34:41

placed into this situation."

34:46

But Louis VII

34:46

wasn't moved. Thomas was too

34:50

valuable a pawn against a king

34:50

who as duke of Normandy and

34:54

Aquitaine, and Count of Anjou

34:54

was also an overmighty subject.

34:59

So He wasn't going to throw that

34:59

away. Yeah, it would be six

35:03

years before Thomas returned to

35:03

England, six years of fruitless

35:07

negotiations involving not just

35:07

Henry II and Thomas, but also

35:12

the King of France and Pope

35:12

Alexander the third, not to

35:15

mention almost every other

35:15

Bishop and secular ruler in

35:19

Western Europe,

35:20

it had to be

35:20

really frustrating. You're

35:23

dealing with two guys who are

35:23

not going to back down, and a

35:26

bunch of people around them who

35:26

want them to just simply get

35:30

over this.

35:31

This would have

35:31

been on the crawl on CNN every

35:34

single day for six years. Yeah,

35:36

wouldn't get the

35:36

sense that Pope Alexander the

35:38

third regarded Becket as an

35:38

unwelcome problem that he wished

35:43

would simply go away. When

35:43

Becket appeared before the Pope,

35:47

he carried with him a copy of

35:47

the constitutions of Clarendon,

35:50

spreading the offending document

35:50

in front of him. Thomas

35:54

melodramatically, assumed blame

35:54

for them. He had failed in his

35:58

duty as Archbishop to protect

35:58

the liberty of the church, he

36:02

had showed himself unworthy to

36:02

hold the high office in office,

36:07

he obtained, he confessed,

36:07

through an uncanonical and

36:11

illegitimate procedure, killing

36:11

the pope that he was an equal to

36:15

the burden. He resigned the

36:15

archbishopric into the hands of

36:19

the Pope. Now Alex into the

36:19

third, this is all theater,

36:23

right? It really is very

36:23

performative. It really is.

36:26

Alexander the third had little

36:26

recourse, but to reappoint dec,

36:32

which wiped out any doubt about

36:32

his legitimacy. To be Archbishop

36:37

comes right from the bow, it

36:37

comes right from the Pope.

36:39

Because how is Alexander the

36:39

third going to say, Oh, the

36:42

Constitution is a Clarendon of

36:42

five, that he can't be stuck

36:47

with this. So he has to support

36:47

Becket and whether he wants to

36:52

or not. But as I said, Becket

36:52

presented a real political

36:57

problem for Alexander the third.

36:57

The Pope was currently engaged

37:02

in an existential struggle with

37:02

the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa

37:07

of Germany, and the man he had

37:07

pointed as Pope anti Pope. So

37:12

here we have Alexander the

37:12

third, fighting with the emperor

37:16

of Germany, needing the support

37:16

of the other kings, not wanting

37:21

to alienate King Henry II or

37:21

alienate King Louis VII. So what

37:27

Pope Alexander's response was to

37:27

try as best he could to

37:31

reconcile all the parties. The

37:31

problem was that neither Henry

37:36

nor Thomas was willing to admit

37:36

that he was wrong, or submit to

37:40

the other. In the case of both

37:40

of this is a matter of pride.

37:44

And they're not going to humble

37:44

this up so you Millie ate

37:46

themselves. Louis VII,

37:46

meanwhile, was willing to

37:50

continue to pay for Thomas's

37:50

upkeep and give him protection

37:54

largely to underscore his own

37:54

piety, in contrast to Henry II.

37:58

We can get a

37:58

sense of how King Louis VII

38:01

exploited Thomas's exile from a

38:01

contemporary song "In Rama Sona

38:07

gemitus."

38:41

The sound of

38:41

weeping is heard in Ramah. The

38:46

Rachel of England is in tears, a

38:46

new king Herod has visited upon

38:53

her this economy. Behind behold

38:53

the firstborn of the realm,

38:58

Canterbury's own Joseph now has

38:58

been sold into slavery and

39:03

forced to inhabit Egypt of

39:03

France.

39:07

Wow, that's a

39:07

that's a pretty powerful

39:10

statement. It's

39:11

a pretty powerful statement.

39:12

So the

39:12

stalemate was broken by new

39:15

points of contention between

39:15

Henry II and Thomas. This had to

39:19

do directly with Henry's

39:19

dynastic plans. Henry wanted his

39:23

oldest son also called Henry to

39:23

be crowned king of England, even

39:28

while he himself was still

39:28

alive. This would be a kind of

39:32

insurance policy that he would

39:32

succeed peacefully when the time

39:36

came. Remember the successions

39:36

of all the other English kings

39:40

since the Norman Conquest had

39:40

been dicey affairs. Think of

39:44

Henry the first sprinting to

39:44

Winchester to get the royal

39:47

treasury after his brother is

39:47

killed in a hunting accident,

39:50

accidental death accident. Well,

39:50

yeah, we could. We can debate

39:54

that. Or Stephen having to hurry

39:54

across the channel to do

39:58

likewise, Henry II wanted his

39:58

son to have an easier path to

40:02

the throne. And in order to get

40:02

his son crowned, he needed the

40:06

Archbishop of Canterbury, or at

40:06

least custom required that the

40:10

Archbishop of Canterbury

40:10

consecrate the kings of England.

40:14

You really wanted the Archbishop

40:14

of Canterbury to do it if you

40:17

possibly could make it happen,

40:17

because that was going to look

40:21

the best. Becket refused to do

40:21

it. There was still stuff he

40:26

wanted to straighten out with

40:26

the king before he was willing

40:29

to help him out in this way. But

40:29

if you couldn't settle with the

40:33

Archbishop of Canterbury, there

40:33

was also another Archbishop in

40:37

England, the Archbishop of York,

40:37

you could get the Archbishop of

40:41

York to do it.

40:42

This is exactly

40:42

what William the Conqueror had

40:45

done, because of doubts to the

40:45

legitimacy of the then

40:48

Archbishop of Canterbury

40:48

sticking to remove any doubt

40:52

that such a move was kosher, and

40:52

then sorry, couldn't resist.

40:56

Henry II obtained approval from

40:56

Pope Alexander the third. And

41:02

that approval was probably given

41:02

either ingratitude or a little

41:07

bit more cynically, as payment

41:07

for Henry II's recent formal

41:11

recognition of the Pope as being

41:11

the Pope.

41:15

So on June 14

41:15

1170, Prince Henry was crowned

41:20

in Westminster Abbey by the

41:20

Archbishop of York. After that

41:24

he was usually referred to as

41:24

Henry the young king. Becket was

41:30

devastated. This was a blow at

41:30

one of Canterbury's most

41:34

cherished prerogatives, the

41:34

right to consecrate the king.

41:37

But shortly after this, the king

41:37

and the archbishop met in France

41:41

and made up their quarrel.

41:41

Though they may not have

41:44

understood each other

41:44

completely. Becket thought the

41:47

king was giving him permission

41:47

to excommunicate the bishops who

41:51

had been involved in what they

41:51

could consider to be the illegal

41:54

consecration of the prince.

41:54

Henry definitely did not think

41:59

the same thing. At any rate, it

41:59

seemed like peace at the time.

42:04

In the meantime, letters arrived

42:04

from the pope imposing sentence

42:08

on the bishops who had helped in

42:08

the consecration back in

42:11

forwarded them onto England, as

42:11

he prepared to cross the channel

42:15

himself back at excommunicated

42:15

the Archbishop of York and the

42:20

bishops of London and Salisbury.

42:22

Despite Henry

42:22

II's promise of peace, the

42:25

situation remains tense. In

42:25

theory, the king and Archbishop

42:29

had reconciled. Henry II had

42:29

renounced the privileges claimed

42:34

in the constitutions of clarity,

42:34

and it agreed after extended

42:37

negotiations to the restoration

42:37

of all the lands and property

42:41

that the crown had confiscated

42:41

from Thomas and those who

42:44

followed him into exile, that it

42:44

for his part, promised loyalty

42:49

to the king and agreed to re

42:49

consecrate young Henry is king,

42:53

thus saving both the dignity of

42:53

Canterbury and confirming the

42:57

legitimacy of the first

42:57

coronation, but King Henry II

43:01

was giving mixed signals, he

43:01

refused to release any of the

43:04

revenues of the see until Thomas

43:04

physically returned to

43:08

Canterbury that he could do

43:08

nothing but watch is the man

43:11

whom the king had appointed

43:11

custodian of the lands of

43:14

Canterbury stripped it of its

43:14

resources. Penniless, Becket

43:18

awaiting transit to England in

43:18

Boulogne, was besieged by his

43:23

creditors. The Archbishop of

43:23

Juan came to his rescue,

43:26

providing them sufficient funds

43:26

to pay off his debts, and to

43:30

outfit his entourage for return

43:30

suitable to his rank. Opposition

43:35

to Becket's return was

43:35

widespread. This included not

43:38

only the bishops and clerics who

43:38

Becktt and excommunicated, but a

43:42

lot of landowners, who now held

43:42

the lands that the king had

43:47

confiscated from Becket's

43:47

followers, as Frank bolo pointed

43:51

out, that gets returned was the

43:51

harbinger of a territorial

43:54

counter revolution in Kent.

43:54

Those who supported the king

43:58

would lose the property they

43:58

held from the see, while those

44:02

who had been dispossessed would

44:02

regain theirs. Most threatening,

44:07

however, was wild. Henry II had

44:07

given verbal promises and

44:12

protestations of goodwill. He

44:12

had withheld the kiss of peace.

44:18

And that was ominous to say the

44:18

least. It did not help his

44:22

situation by repeating his

44:22

excommunication of the three

44:26

bishops, and those who had

44:26

plugged his see in his absence,

44:30

this time in his new capacity as

44:30

people make it. Upon arriving in

44:35

England, Becket met with royal

44:35

officials who pleaded the case

44:39

of the excommunicated previous,

44:39

that could said that he would

44:42

grant the Archbishop of York and

44:42

the bishops of London and

44:46

Saulsbury conditional

44:46

absolution, if they showed

44:50

genuine repentance, promise

44:50

satisfaction, and took an oath

44:54

to obey the commands of the

44:54

Pope, as laid out in the papal

44:58

letters that he carried and when

44:58

which they hadn't seen. They

45:02

refused, citing the

45:02

Constitution's of quarantines

45:05

prohibition about contacting the

45:05

pope without world permission.

45:09

So Thomas let the

45:09

excommunication stand. As Becket

45:14

made his triumphant return to

45:14

Canterbury, three very unhappy

45:18

bishops cross the channel in the

45:18

other direction to seek redress

45:23

from the King in Normandy. They

45:23

found Henry II at his court at

45:27

Bearse. Nearby you, where he

45:27

planned to hold his Christmas

45:31

court. The bishops knew the king

45:31

maybe not as well as Becket did,

45:35

but well enough to press the

45:35

right buttons. Becket was

45:39

persecuting them, they

45:39

complained for the love they had

45:41

shown Henry in consecrating his

45:41

son King of England, as he had

45:46

ordered them to do. Not only had

45:46

Becket excommunicated them, he

45:51

now threatened to depose the

45:51

young king, Henry OO snapped,

45:57

which brings us to the famous

45:57

outbursts that exasperated Henry

46:02

II was supposed to have shouted

46:02

to his courtiers

46:05

Will no one rid

46:05

me of this meddlesome priest, a

46:10

priest who mocks me. Are there

46:10

no men left in England?

46:25

I love the scene.

46:25

And I love the way that Peter

46:29

O'Toole over acts in the seat,

46:29

because that's how Henry II is

46:33

described. But as I mentioned in

46:33

the previous episode, there

46:38

really is no contemporary

46:38

support. Perhaps Henry, having

46:42

said, Will no one rid me of this

46:42

turbulent priest, but it's clear

46:47

that he did say something along

46:47

those lines. Becket's friend and

46:52

cleric, the very well informed

46:52

John of Saulsbury heard that

46:56

Henry had declared, quote, with

46:56

tears that the archbishop would

47:01

take from him both body and

47:01

soul, and that they were all

47:04

traders, who would not summon up

47:04

the zeal and loyalty to freedom

47:10

of the harassment of one man and

47:10

quote, now a bit more verbose

47:15

than the pithy Will no one rid

47:15

me of this turbulent priest, but

47:19

essentially, it means the same

47:19

thing. So four knights of the

47:23

king's household reginal fixers,

47:23

Hugh de Morville, Richard

47:27

labret, and bleep the Tracy, who

47:27

cat Tracy told me was her

47:31

ancestor cool, which I played by

47:31

ancestry to a murder of the

47:37

state, but you know, hell, I can

47:37

trace my ancestry all the way

47:41

back to Brooklyn. Anyway. These

47:41

four knights took the king's

47:47

outburst as a command, or at

47:47

least as an opportunity to win

47:52

even greater royal favor. They

47:52

crossed the channel and rode off

47:56

the Canterbury to create a

47:56

martyr.

47:59

Oh, they

47:59

probably didn't intend to kill

48:01

Becket, but rather to arrest him

48:01

and bring him before the king.

48:05

But when he resisted their

48:05

attempts to coerce him, they cut

48:08

him down right in his cathedral.

48:11

I agree with

48:11

Jenny that the Knights probably

48:13

intended to take Becket into

48:13

custody, but that the

48:16

confrontation got out of hand.

48:16

It didn't help matters, that

48:20

three of these four nights owed

48:20

Becket for pass favors. Thomas

48:24

his martyrdom was fueled by

48:24

anger, arising from feelings of

48:28

betrayal. If Henry II felt

48:28

aggrieved by Thomas's and

48:32

gratitude, so now Did Thomas,

48:32

three of the Knights had been

48:37

Becket's vassals when he had

48:37

been chancellor in one year, the

48:40

Morville had remained in

48:40

Thomas's service after he became

48:44

Archbishop, that men who had

48:44

once pledged to loyalty are now

48:49

accusing him of treason rankled

48:49

the archbishop that could

48:52

singled out reginal fits Earth,

48:52

the leader of the group, and

48:56

charged with ingratitude,

48:56

reminding him that he owed his

49:00

place in the king's court to

49:00

Thomas's recommendation.

49:03

When the frightened monks came out of hiding, they found the body of

49:05

the archbishop lying before the

49:08

altar. When they stripped the

49:08

body, they discovered a hair

49:12

shirt crawling with vermin under

49:12

the dead Bishop's expensive

49:16

vestments.

49:17

I'll add Ellen's

49:17

commentary on that Ill this

49:21

clinched it.

49:21

Overnight, Becket went from

49:24

first class troublemaker to St.

49:24

King Henry tried in vain to

49:29

argue that he hadn't ordered the

49:29

knights to kill Becket. But

49:32

everyone basically accepted his

49:32

ultimate responsibility for the

49:37

deed

49:37

even he did,

49:37

which may explain why the Four

49:40

Knights were never tried or

49:40

convicted of murder. Rather,

49:45

they ended up seeking absolution

49:45

from the Pope, who for their

49:48

pennants sent them on crusade.

49:48

Reports

49:51

of miracles at

49:51

Canterbury started almost

49:54

immediately and on February 21

49:54

1173, less than three years

49:59

After Thomas's death, he was

49:59

canonized by Pope Alexander III.

50:05

Henry II also

50:05

sought absolution from the Pope,

50:08

meeting with a papal legation in

50:08

northern France. Henry admitted

50:12

indirect responsibility for the

50:12

death of the archbishop. But he

50:16

swore in oath on the Gospels,

50:16

that he had neither ordered nor

50:21

desired. Thomas's death. For

50:21

Henry's penance, he agreed to go

50:27

on crusade for three years to

50:27

restore all the lands and

50:30

property to all clerks and lady

50:30

who had been disloyal because of

50:35

their support of Thomas. And to

50:35

fast and give offs. The

50:39

constitutions of Clarendon were

50:39

now as dead as Becket. Through

50:45

his death, Becket had one

50:45

against the king, game set and

50:49

match. Henry II and his

50:49

successors up until King Henry

50:53

the Eighth, accepted the

50:53

principle that clergy remained

50:57

exempt from Royal jurisdiction.

50:57

In England this was called

51:02

benefit of clergy, which

51:02

survived in an attenuated form

51:06

until abolished by Parliament in

51:06

1827. Before then, however, King

51:11

Henry the Eighth had limited

51:11

benefit of clergy to minor

51:14

crimes, reserving murder, rape,

51:14

poisoning, petty treason,

51:19

sacrilege, witchcraft, theft and

51:19

pickpocketing to be adjudicated

51:24

in the Kings courts.

51:26

I love the fact that witchcraft and pickpocketing belong together on

51:28

that list

51:30

I know. Somehow,

51:30

it seems that you're merging

51:34

together things as he really

51:34

serious with meh

51:37

yeah, well, yes, witchcraft seems like a bigger deal to them than it does

51:39

to us.

51:41

Yeah, pickpocketing too.

51:43

Yeah, really.

51:43

So in 1174 King Henry II was

51:47

facing a serious revolt by his

51:47

eldest son of bettered by his

51:50

other sons, his wife, Eleanor of

51:50

Aquitaine, and the king of the

51:54

Scots. With this war going

51:54

badly, Henry II undertook to

51:59

make his final amends to the

51:59

martyr and Saint. He went on

52:03

pilgrimage to Canterbury, where

52:03

he confessed to being the

52:06

unwitting cause of the death of

52:06

the saints, and removing his

52:09

cloak he knelt down to be

52:09

flogged by the clergy in

52:13

attendance. And this is actually

52:13

the beginning of the stuff in

52:16

the movie The beginning of the

52:16

movie. He then promised to build

52:19

a monastery in honor of St.

52:19

Thomas. This

52:23

was an act of

52:23

political theater. By accepting

52:26

the public humiliation of a

52:26

flogging. Henry was

52:30

acknowledging his guilt, and

52:30

demonstrating his remorse for

52:33

his complicity, however, unintended in the martyrdom of the saint, given that he was

52:34

fighting for his crown at this point, it makes sense that he

52:36

would want to remove the taint

52:46

of the death of Becket from

52:46

himself. He wanted to reset and

52:50

he got it he did. You know, one

52:50

of the interesting things about

52:53

this, though, I learned

52:53

afterwards, is that although

52:57

Becket one in terms of the

52:57

principles, Becket's enemies all

53:02

prospered afterwards, and

53:02

decades, friends and supporters

53:06

never got the great

53:06

ecclesiastical performance, with

53:10

the exception of John of

53:10

Salisbury that they all wanted.

53:13

And Donald Salisbury is a political appointment is not an England.

53:15

Exactly

53:17

exactly. The

53:17

popularity of St. Thomas surged

53:21

in the following centuries,

53:21

Canterbury became the go to

53:25

place for pilgrimages. In

53:25

England, the most famous

53:29

literary work arising from the

53:29

martyrdom of Thomas Becket is

53:34

about one of those pilgrimages.

53:34

It's Jeffrey choices, late 14th

53:40

century, the Canterbury Tales,

53:40

the literary could seat in this

53:44

work, the framing device, is

53:44

that you have a group of

53:49

pilgrims who all want to go to

53:49

Canterbury, to visit the Shrine

53:53

of St. Thomas Becket, Becket

53:53

have become an overnight

53:57

sensation when he was martyred

53:57

in 1170. And his two was the

54:03

most popular domestic pilgrimage

54:03

destination in England, even two

54:07

centuries later. So you have 29

54:07

pilgrims from all walks of life,

54:13

and they all happen together

54:13

added in in Southwark across the

54:17

river from London on the south

54:17

bank of the Thames. There's

54:21

some grumbling

54:21

among these Illa sorted guests

54:24

until the innkeeper proposes a

54:24

wager they will all go on

54:28

pilgrimage together, including

54:28

the innkeeper himself. So that

54:32

makes 30 pilgrims. And along the

54:32

way, each pilgrim will tell two

54:36

tales on the outward journey and

54:36

two tales on the way back, and

54:41

the one who everybody agrees

54:41

tells the best tale will win a

54:44

free dinner at the expense of

54:44

all the rest. Unfortunately,

54:49

Chaucer have never followed

54:49

through completely on this

54:52

scheme. If you do the math, we

54:52

should have 120 stories, but we

54:57

only have 24 Not even one for

54:57

each Milgram, let alone for for

55:01

each Pilgrim, but we should be

55:01

very grateful for the ones we

55:05

have. The reason is that Chaucer

55:05

uses his pilgrims as a vehicle

55:10

for social commentary on English

55:10

men and women from all social

55:14

classes and walks of life. So

55:14

that's fantastic for historians,

55:19

we get a great cross section of

55:19

English social life. The social

55:23

status of the pilgrims is

55:23

reflected very well in the tales

55:26

they choose to tell. Their

55:26

characters of very high status

55:30

like the night tell very

55:30

elevated, very refined tales

55:34

about courtly adventures and

55:34

chivalry. The characters are

55:37

very low social status, like the

55:37

Miller and the Reeve tell quite

55:41

earthy stories with salty

55:41

language that you might not want

55:45

to read aloud in mixed company.

55:48

But you know,

55:48

what unites them all? Is their

55:50

veneration for St. Thomas, and

55:50

their belief that if they go on

55:55

pilgrimage to the shrine in

55:55

Canterbury, that Thomas will

55:59

grant them their prayers. That's

55:59

right, Josie used a pilgrimage

56:04

to the Shrine of St. Thomas as a

56:04

device to tell a variety of

56:07

stories, representing not only a

56:07

variety of literary genres, but

56:12

the full range of England social

56:12

classes. What made this an

56:16

effective device is that such

56:16

pilgrimages were a reality. In

56:22

the late 14th century, the

56:22

martyrdom of Thomas Becket was a

56:26

watershed in the history of

56:26

Church State relations in

56:29

medieval England, and the cult

56:29

of St. Thomas was vitally

56:34

important to the self competence

56:34

of the English church. Here was

56:38

a case where the church had

56:38

stood up to the secular power,

56:42

and one the king had had to back

56:42

off, and while relationship

56:46

between church and state was by

56:46

no means trouble free, the

56:50

church deep preserve more legal

56:50

autonomy than King Henry II had

56:54

wanted to the degree that

56:54

separate church courts and

56:58

benefit of clergy survived well

56:58

past the middle ages. Given that

57:02

it isn't surprising that another

57:02

royal Henry Henry the Eighth

57:05

should have viewed Becket and

57:05

his cult as an obstacle to

57:09

restoring what he saw as the

57:09

proper relationship between the

57:12

Crown and the English church.

57:12

It's well known that Henry the

57:15

Eighth suppress the monasteries,

57:15

including Christchurch

57:18

Canterbury, what is less well

57:18

known is that Henry the Eighth

57:22

harbored particular animus

57:22

against one English St. Thomas

57:27

Becket in 1536, Henry the Eighth

57:27

abolish the feast of Becket's

57:31

translation, which is on July 7.

57:31

In the following year, he

57:35

ordered the image of St.

57:35

Thomas's martyrdom removed from

57:39

the seal of the city of

57:39

Canterbury in 1538. That good

57:42

shrine and Canterbury was

57:42

dismantled, and its treasures

57:46

carted away in 26 wagons that

57:46

gets bones were either burned,

57:51

which is what the Pope had been

57:51

told, or we buried in an

57:54

unmarked grave. Soon after, King

57:54

Henry the Eighth and his

57:58

Chancellor Thomas Cromwell,

57:58

issued a joint proclamation that

58:02

completed the de sanctification

58:02

of Becket, Henry the eighth term

58:06

in the document, a goodly and a

58:06

Catholic Prince, quote, lawfully

58:11

sovereign chief and supreme head

58:11

on Earth immediately after

58:15

Christ of the Church of England,

58:15

he cries the usurped authority

58:19

claimed by Thomas Becket, and

58:19

labels Becket, a rebel and

58:23

traitor to his Prince.

58:23

Consequently, Henry the Creed,

58:27

quote, Thomas Becket shall not

58:27

be esteemed named reputed to

58:31

have called a saint, and his

58:31

images and pictures through the

58:34

whole realm shall be put down

58:34

and avoided out of all churches,

58:39

chapels and other places. The

58:39

days used to be festival in His

58:44

name shall not be observed, nor

58:44

the services offices and TBonz

58:49

collects and prayers in his name

58:49

read, but erased and put out of

58:53

all the books and quote, not

58:53

only was Becket shrine at

58:57

Canterbury demolished, but

58:57

following the proclamation so

59:00

we're images and pictures of him

59:00

throughout England. The

59:04

thoroughness of the suppression

59:04

of Becket's called is physically

59:07

reflected in the surviving

59:07

missiles from Henry the Eighth

59:10

reign, Dr. Outta Naser, X and

59:10

Eddie discover that in every one

59:15

of the surviving 200 missiles,

59:15

the surfaces commemorating

59:19

decades had been erased, crossed

59:19

out or covered with a die to

59:23

make them illegible. But Henry

59:23

the Eighth was no more

59:26

successful in erasing the memory

59:26

of Thomas Becket than he was in

59:31

erasing the memory of the other

59:31

Thomas, who we helped to make a

59:34

St. Thomas More. But we are

59:34

running out of time as usual.

59:40

And I would like to chat with

59:40

Jenny at least a little bit

59:43

about Thomas Becket in the

59:43

movies, or in this case movie.

59:47

The movie is of course, Becket,

59:47

directed by Peter Glenville, and

59:51

starring Richard Burton, Peter

59:51

O'Toole and John Gielgud, Becket

59:55

did okay financially, ranking

59:55

15th in box office receipts Each

1:00:00

for films released in 1964. It

1:00:00

did better than okay with the

1:00:04

critics. After winning the

1:00:04

Golden Globes for Best Picture,

1:00:08

it garnered 12 Academy Award

1:00:08

nominations, including for Best

1:00:13

Picture, Best Director, Best

1:00:13

Actor. Both Burton and O'Toole

1:00:17

got nods, and Best Supporting

1:00:17

Actor for John Gielgud. It ended

1:00:21

up only winning one Oscar, and

1:00:21

that was for Edward and helds

1:00:25

adaptation of John Ali's 1959

1:00:25

stageplay. Becket Jenny, I don't

1:00:31

know about you. But I've always

1:00:31

found it interesting that a

1:00:34

movie about England's most

1:00:34

famous Barter is based upon a

1:00:38

play written by a Frenchman.

1:00:41

And there's an interesting story with this play. Supposedly, Shona knew, he

1:00:43

went on a house party over the

1:00:49

weekends, to a place where he

1:00:49

found a book about Thomas Becket

1:00:53

on the shelf, and he sort of

1:00:53

picked it up and started to read

1:00:55

it. And he became very

1:00:55

fascinated with the story of

1:00:59

Becket, and he wrote this play,

1:00:59

but the play isn't really if it

1:01:03

comes right down to it about the

1:01:03

12th century at all. Yeah, it's

1:01:08

about recent French history.

1:01:08

Okay, so Well, the play casts

1:01:13

Thomas Becket as a Saxon. We

1:01:13

mentioned this in the first

1:01:18

episode. And so there is a

1:01:18

dynamic in the movie and the

1:01:23

play, in which Becket is

1:01:23

essentially a collaborator. The

1:01:28

word collaborators actually been

1:01:28

used in the script. So he is

1:01:33

cooperating with the Norman

1:01:33

oppressor. And so there's even a

1:01:37

character a completely invented

1:01:37

character in the play in the

1:01:41

movie, the Saxon attendant, who

1:01:41

helps Becket out with his

1:01:46

personal affairs, and he'd

1:01:46

shines Becket for having gone

1:01:51

over to the enemy, essentially.

1:01:51

And this attendant helps Becket

1:01:56

as Archbishop to rediscover his

1:01:56

inner Saxon so to speak. And he

1:02:00

begins to see that he needs to

1:02:00

stand up to Norman oppression.

1:02:05

Now this dynamic has nothing to

1:02:05

do with what was really going on

1:02:08

in Becket's actual life, because

1:02:08

as we mentioned last time, he's

1:02:11

not a Saxon. He's a Norman,

1:02:14

and the little

1:02:14

tidbit I picked up since our

1:02:16

last episode, while Becket was

1:02:16

not a Saxon, one of the knights

1:02:21

who murdered him was or at

1:02:21

least, he was of mixed heritage.

1:02:26

William to Tracy's great great

1:02:26

grandmother was God Yuval,

1:02:29

sister of King Edward the

1:02:29

Confessor, and his grandmother

1:02:33

was GIFa, daughter of an East

1:02:33

Anglian Anglo Danish noble named

1:02:38

Osgood clapa.

1:02:40

But this is

1:02:40

really all about collaboration

1:02:43

in France with the Vichy Regime

1:02:43

in World War Two.

1:02:46

Interesting,

1:02:46

interesting. How would you

1:02:49

compare on wheezed Becket to T.

1:02:49

S. Eliot's 1935 play about

1:02:55

Thomas's martyrdom? Murder in

1:02:55

the cathedral?

1:02:57

It's completely

1:02:57

different. So the movie that

1:03:01

well first of all, there's a

1:03:01

movie of of the play by Elliot,

1:03:04

which you

1:03:04

actually saw, and which I saw on

1:03:07

the web?

1:03:08

Yeah, it was

1:03:08

shown to me in high school, I

1:03:11

think I've mentioned I went to a

1:03:11

rather unusual High School.

1:03:14

Yeah, fourth grade. You're

1:03:14

right. So anyway, so we watched

1:03:17

it as part of my medieval

1:03:17

England history, yes, that I

1:03:19

took in high school. And it's

1:03:19

very stagey. very stylized. So

1:03:26

the Becket film that's based on

1:03:26

the unui play is, is in a very

1:03:31

naturalistic side. It's

1:03:31

cinematic, it is very cement,

1:03:34

cinematic, epic. It is an epic.

1:03:34

But the the Elliott play is,

1:03:40

instead really, first of all,

1:03:40

its inverse. And it's really an

1:03:44

exploration of the interior life

1:03:44

of Becktt. So it doesn't focus,

1:03:49

for example, on a friendship

1:03:49

between the king and the

1:03:53

archbishop the way you see in

1:03:53

the Becket film.

1:03:56

Yeah, and in

1:03:56

fact, in the Becket film, Henry

1:04:00

II and Becket are presented as

1:04:00

buddies. They're, they're good

1:04:04

friends, they go hunting

1:04:04

together. That kid does

1:04:07

everything with every second

1:04:07

except sharing his sexual

1:04:11

escapades. However,

1:04:13

they work that

1:04:13

into the film, because in the

1:04:16

film, Becket has a mistress, who

1:04:16

was played by the unbelievable

1:04:20

Shawn Phillips, who later

1:04:20

becomes Livia on on quality. Oh,

1:04:23

really? Love that. Yes. Right.

1:04:23

So, so she plays a Becket's

1:04:27

mistress. And at one point,

1:04:27

Henry actually comes along and

1:04:31

says, I'll have her please. And

1:04:31

then the Shawn Phillips

1:04:36

character, who by the way, as

1:04:36

well, which is a wonderful

1:04:40

little added bonus there. So

1:04:40

Shawn Phillips says to Becket,

1:04:45

will you take me back

1:04:45

afterwards? And he says, No, I

1:04:49

won't. Because he knows that to

1:04:49

take her back after she's been

1:04:53

with the king. It's just not

1:04:53

going to happen, doesn't work.

1:04:57

And so this is an instance in

1:04:57

which a little bit less If the

1:05:00

cloak story that you talked

1:05:00

about last time, the king is

1:05:05

asserting his power over back at

1:05:05

so this is not a mutual

1:05:10

relationship. So he can even

1:05:10

take Becket's woman. Now there's

1:05:14

no evidence of the actual

1:05:14

backend having a mistress with

1:05:18

it Archdeacon have had a

1:05:18

mistress. Possibly. I mean, if

1:05:22

you think about it, you know,

1:05:22

Roger Salisbury, who was a

1:05:24

bishop earlier in the 12th

1:05:24

century had a wife. That's true.

1:05:28

So it wouldn't have been

1:05:28

impossible to imagine. Yeah.

1:05:31

And, you know, sort of this sort

1:05:31

of thing did happen and was

1:05:33

discussed. But we don't have

1:05:33

any, any reference to it. And

1:05:39

given as many enemies as Becket

1:05:39

had, you would have thought one

1:05:42

would think that if he did have

1:05:42

any sort of publicly

1:05:44

acknowledged mistress, we would know.

1:05:46

Yeah, I think so.

1:05:46

I think so. But I think the

1:05:48

movie got right about the

1:05:48

relationship between Becket and

1:05:52

Henry. The second is that Henry

1:05:52

II really did feel a sense of

1:05:58

personal betrayal. And it may

1:05:58

not be a trail because of

1:06:02

friendship. It's a betrayal for

1:06:02

what he the reasons that he that

1:06:06

he wrote to Louis VII, this is

1:06:06

the man I made. This was my man.

1:06:11

And what did he do? He betrayed

1:06:11

me, he committed treason against

1:06:16

me. And that is unforgivable.

1:06:16

It's one thing to have somebody

1:06:21

who was like Theobald, whom he

1:06:21

inherited, but to raise up

1:06:26

Becket who really was socially a

1:06:26

nobody to make it the most

1:06:31

powerful churchmen in England,

1:06:31

and that to happen turned on

1:06:35

him. I

1:06:35

think that both

1:06:35

the character in the film and

1:06:39

the character in history, both

1:06:39

from their own perspective, had

1:06:44

grievances that could justify

1:06:44

the ferocity with which this,

1:06:48

this conflict was pursued. The

1:06:48

movie

1:06:51

gives only the

1:06:51

slightest nod to the issue that

1:06:54

really divided Henry II and

1:06:54

Becket. The problem of feminist

1:07:01

clerics,

1:07:02

it does because

1:07:02

it really wants to get to the

1:07:04

human drama as much as possible

1:07:04

and discussing the different

1:07:08

provisions of the constitutions

1:07:08

of Clarendon would not have made

1:07:11

for wonderful cinema. But

1:07:13

fortunately, it

1:07:13

makes for a fascinating podcast.

1:07:17

But all good things must come to

1:07:17

an end, even a podcast about the

1:07:21

constitutions of Clarendon. But

1:07:21

before we go, I'm going to play

1:07:25

another short clip, Jenny, I

1:07:25

know that you're not a fan of TS

1:07:30

Eliot or have his play murder in

1:07:30

the cathedral. But I read across

1:07:34

your performance that play that

1:07:34

is quite simply stunning.

1:07:39

Good evening, this

1:07:39

new series of Trim Jeans Theater

1:07:42

presents will enable you to

1:07:42

enjoy the poetry of TS Eliot

1:07:45

whilst losing unsightly tommy

1:07:45

bulge. Jean. Well, yes and the

1:07:50

inches stay off. Mark. Terrific.

1:07:50

Thrill to Thomas Becket's habit

1:07:54

of choice, your physique tighter

1:07:54

firmer, neater. I am here. No

1:08:00

traitor to the king. Absolve

1:08:00

all those you have

1:08:03

excommunicated. Resign those

1:08:03

powers you have arrogated.

1:08:07

Renew the obedience you have

1:08:07

violated. Lose inches of your

1:08:11

hips.

1:08:14

Richard, I

1:08:14

thought I was a Monty Python

1:08:16

nerd. I had never heard this

1:08:16

before. Thank you for this and

1:08:20

notice. They call him Thomas

1:08:20

Becket.

1:08:22

Well, the podcast

1:08:22

is called tis but a scratch.

1:08:26

Jenny. It was great having you

1:08:26

back as a co host on the

1:08:29

podcast. And I hope you'll come

1:08:29

back to do an episode with me on

1:08:33

the Norman Conquest. It's a

1:08:33

subject that I know that we both

1:08:37

are really interested in.

1:08:38

I'm excited for

1:08:38

that one.

1:08:39

Yeah, yeah. Until

1:08:39

then, bye for now.

1:08:43

Bye, bye.