England under the Angevin Kings, Volumes I and II

CHAPTER I.

Part 1 of 3

Thomas Becket’s 1162 election as Archbishop of Canterbury marked a turning point. Henry II chose his chancellor—famous for lavish living and close royal friendship—hoping for a pliable ally. Thomas warned their friendship would turn to “bitter hate,” but Henry insisted he was the only fit candidate.

Christ Church’s monks resisted, calling him unfit, but royal pressure forced the election. Henry of Winchester consecrated him on the octave of Pentecost 1162 with a quit-claim freeing him from chancellorship obligations. Thomas resigned the great seal, stunning Henry, who had planned to retain him as chancellor. Thomas embraced ascetic intensity—washing 13 poor men’s feet before dawn, doubling almsgiving to feed 26 daily, studying with Herbert of Bosham, enforcing strict ordination standards. He reclaimed alienated archiepiscopal lands aggressively, clashing with Earl Roger of Clare over Tunbridge and demanding Rochester Castle’s return, making enemies at court.

His first test came at Woodstock on July 31, 1163, when Henry proposed redirecting the sheriff’s aid (a Danegeld remnant) into the royal treasury. Thomas opposed: “we will not give you this money as revenue, for it is not yours.” When Henry insisted, Thomas swore, “Then by God’s Eyes, not a penny shall you have from my lands, or from any lands of the Church!” Henry backed down; Danegeld vanished from the Pipe Rolls forever—the first successful national opposition to a royal financial demand since the Norman Conquest.

A dispute with William of Eynesford over patronage deepened the rift. Thomas excommunicated him without royal notification, refusing to lift the sentence: “It is not for the king to dictate who should be bound or who loosed.” Henry pursued reforms curbing clerical immunities—his justiciars reported 100+ unpunished murders in nine years. At Westminster in October 1163, he demanded the bishops accept the “customs of his grandfather” Henry I, including surrendering degraded clerks and renouncing temporal jurisdiction. Thomas refused, arguing the two swords were separate; the bishops backed him “saving our order.” Henry stormed out, demanded Thomas surrender his chancellor lands, and removed his son from Thomas’s care.

Part 2 of 3

The crisis peaked at Clarendon in January 1164. Thomas, misled by three men claiming to be papal envoys, verbally agreed to obey “loyally and in good faith.” When Henry produced the 16 articles—the Constitutions of Clarendon—Thomas realized he had been tricked. The articles restricted ecclesiastical jurisdiction, banned Roman appeals without royal consent, limited sanctuary, allowed lay trials of accused clerks, required royal consent for excommunicating royal tenants-in-chief, and forbade ordaining villeins without their lord’s permission. Thomas refused to seal them: “Never, while there is a breath left in my body!” He fled to Winchester to confess and suspend himself pending papal absolution.

Henry’s younger brother William died shortly after, forbidden by Thomas from marrying the widowed countess of Warren on affinity grounds; Henry blamed Thomas, fed by courtiers’ tales. Thomas twice tried to flee from Romney in summer 1164, but winds and recognizable sailors turned him back. In October 1164, he was summoned to Northampton on trumped-up charges: contempt, chancellorship mismanagement, and unpaid Eye and Berkhampstead revenues.

Henry’s barons treated Thomas with open hostility. He was fined 500 pounds for contempt, paid 300 pounds in Eye/Berkhampstead revenues, and 500 marks for an old chancellorship loan. Finally, Henry demanded 30,000 pounds in full chancellorship accounts—impossible to pay. Thomas prostrated himself; Henry swore “by God’s Eyes” he would have the accounts. The bishops urged submission; Thomas refused, citing the quit-claim. He excommunicated any layman judging him; when the bishops appealed, he left the council. After mass of St Stephen with “Princes have sat and spoken against me,” he entered the hall carrying his archiepiscopal cross in defiance. Henry declared him a traitor; the bishops refused to judge their primate, and Thomas appealed to Rome. That night, in a violent rainstorm, Thomas fled Northampton with two canons and a squire, sailing to France.

Part 3 of 3

Thomas’s flight turned a domestic dispute into a pan-European crisis. Louis VII welcomed him as a tool against Henry II. Henry pressured Alexander III to condemn Thomas, but Alexander, fearing schism that would drive Angevin dominions to the Emperor and anti-pope, equivocated. Thomas settled at Pontigny, secretly taking the Cistercian habit and practicing extreme abstinence that damaged his health. He built a vast Canterbury library, copied manuscripts from across Europe, and gathered every charter supporting Church independence, refusing compromise despite his cause being weaponized by Louis.

Henry struggled to hold his empire: subduing Brittany for Geoffrey, quelling Aquitaine revolts while Eleanor governed alone, countering Louis’s intrigues with Welsh, Scottish and Poitevin rebels, and managing alliances with Germany, Lombardy and Castile. Personal losses mounted: constable Henry of Essex disgraced in 1163, his mother died in 1167, Earl Robert of Leicester in 1168. Attempts were made to annul his marriage to Eleanor on forbidden-degrees grounds. At Montmirail in 1169, Henry submitted to Louis, had his sons do homage, and arranged his daughters’ marriages, but still could not reconcile with Thomas. He even sent two clerks to Würzburg in 1165 who apparently swore rejecting Alexander and recognizing Paschal III, though later denied.

Thomas sent increasingly harsh letters warning of divine vengeance. In 1166, a barefoot monk delivered a final warning: “If not, then know of a surety that you shall feel the severity of Divine vengeance!” Thomas also threatened the Empress Matilda with an interdict and anathema against Henry himself. An interdict would have closed all English churches, halted sacraments, and caused panic threatening Henry’s kingdom. Henry appealed to the Pope to delay, buying time but deepening the rift.