What do we know about the story of Henry II and Thomas Becket?

Answer 1

Basically, they fell out over the power of the Church. Before he became Archbishop of Canterbury, Beckett served as Lord Chancellor to King Henry II, having been recommended to the post by the then Archbishop, Theobald. Henry II wanted to be the absolute, undisputed ruler of his kingdom, both State AND Church, and wanted to do away with the special priviledges enjoyed by the English clergy, which he felt undermined his authority.

To begin with, Beckett agreed with a lot of Henry's wishes, and set about enforcing the traditional Land Tax that had to be paid to the monarch by all landowners, including for land owned by the Church. Many members of the clergy thought that Beckett should be lobbying for an exemption from taxation on their part, and came to resent him for this. Beckett was also a flamboyant and loyal member of Henry's Court, which did little to endear him to those churchmen who thought that he ought to be being more impartial.

Archbishop Theobald died in 1162, and Beckett succeeded him several months later. It was then that the rift with the king began; Henry wanted to use Beckett in his new role as Primate to further help him dilute and weaken the independence and affluence of the Church in England. Beckett refused, resigned as Chancellor, and consolidated the landholdings of Canterbury under his control. Henry also wished to extend the authority of the secular legal courts over the clergy, which Beckett disagreed with.

the stand-off between the two culminated in the Consitutions of Clarendon of January 1164. The king used all his diplomatic skills to win over the other powerful Archbishops in the land, coercing them into agreeing to the assumption of special Royal priviledges over Church matters, a stronger English throne and a weakening of the ties with Rome held by the English Church. These rights and priviledges were set down in 16 consitutional documents, that were formally set out at Clarendon Palace on 11th January that year. All senior churchmen had come round to agreeing with them, and Beckett himself eventually grudgingly assented to their validity, but he refused to formally sign the documents. Furious, the King summoned Beckett to appear before a Great Council held at Northampton Castle on 8th October, to answer charges of having contempt for Royal authority. The Great Council convicted Beckett on all charges brought against him, following which he stormed out of the hearing and fled to a 2-year exile in France. The enraged King Henry persued the fugitive Archbishop to the full extent of his powers, issuing edicts and arrest warrants against not only Beckett himself, but all his friends and supporters too. However, Louis VII received Beckett warmly and offered him protection. He lived in exile at the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny for two years.

Beckett sought to gain support from the then Pope, Alexander III, but although he was sympathetic to Beckett's plight, the Pontiff believed that the crisis should be diffused more diplomatically. However, in the end even he lost patience with King Henry, and threatened him with excommunication unless Beckett was allowed to return to England in safety, and all charges against him were dropped. Alarmed at this prospect, the King agreed.

Things seemed to return to normality for a while, but then King Henry II fell ill whilst in Normandy (which in those days was an English, not a French, possession) in the late Autumn of 1170. Fearing that he might not live, He gave orders that his young son, also called Henry, should be crowned as his successor, and the ceremony was conducted in York by the Archbishop of York and the Bishops of Salisbury and London. Beckett was very angry- only Canterbury had the right to crown a new sovereign! He promptly excommunicated the three bishops who had participated in the coronation, who fled to join the king in Normandy whilst Beckett continued the banishment from the Church of all persons who had actively collaborated in the crowning of the new King. The ailing Henry II was exasperated at Beckett's continued opposition to his absolute authority, and decided that finally, something drastic had to be done. He dispatched four of his knights- Reginald FitzUrse, Hugh de Moreville, William de Tracy and Richard le Breton- to go and 'consult' with Beckett. They arrived in Canterbury on 29th December.

Beckett was on his way to Vespers when they approached him with a message that the King desired that he should report to Winchester to account for his actions. He refused, and continued with his preparations for the holy service. The four knights then grabbed their weapons and cut him down on the steps of the cathedral choir, slicing off the top of his head and wounding a number of monks who were present at the scene. They then fled. Beckett died instantly- he was 52 years old, and had served as Archbishop of Canterbury for 8 years.

Following his death, Beckett came to be venerated across all of Europe as a martyr, and three years later was canonised as a Saint by Pope Alexander III. Henry II - who did not die after all- came to feel great remorse and grief at his ordering the assassination, humbling himself by doing public penance at Beckett's tomb on 12th July 1174.

Answer 2

They were old friends who had a fight and Henry's knights killed Thomas Becket

Answer 3

Henry the II killed Thomas Becket.