Thomas Becket, once chancellor of the kingdom and a close companion of King Henry II, changed completely when he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury — a post that also carried the papal legation for England. From that moment, he became a true defender of the Church’s freedom against the claims of the English crown.
He spent six years in exile in France. When he returned, the people welcomed him with joy, but Becket himself knew that coming back meant facing death. The former knight felt his courage weaken when Sir Reginald FitzUrse, one of the four knights sent by the court, tried to push him out of the cathedral so that murder would not be joined with sacrilege. But Thomas refused to move. When the swords were raised against him, he let them strike, and he died saying: “I accept death for the name of Jesus and for the Church.”
The murder, committed in the cathedral on this very day in 1170, shook the entire Christian world. Pope Alexander III punished King Henry II with personal excommunication, lifted only when the king showed signs of repentance. Three years after the crime, Alexander III canonized the martyr, and the following year Henry II himself visited the tomb as a penitent. Centuries later, King Henry VIII had Becket’s relics destroyed.
