High Middle Ages (12th century)
Feast: December 29
'Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?' Four knights took the king at his word and murdered the archbishop in his own cathedral.
Thomas Becket and Henry II were best friends. They hunted together, drank together, and ran England together — Henry as king, Thomas as his chancellor. When the Archbishop of Canterbury died in 1162, Henry thought he'd found the perfect solution: make Thomas archbishop, and the Church and crown would finally be on the same page. Thomas warned him it wouldn't work. 'You will soon hate me as much as you love me now,' he said. He was right. The moment Thomas put on the bishop's vestments, he changed. He gave up his fine clothes, wore a hair shirt, and began defending the Church's rights against the very king who'd appointed him. The breaking point was the Constitutions of Clarendon, which would have let the crown try clergy in royal courts. Thomas refused to sign. He fled to France for six years. When he returned in 1170, the reconciliation lasted about a month. On December 29, four of Henry's knights rode to Canterbury. They found Thomas in the cathedral, near the altar, preparing for vespers. 'Are you ready to die?' they asked. Thomas said, 'I am ready to die for my Lord, that in my blood the Church may find liberty and peace.' They split his skull on the cathedral floor. Within three years, he was canonized. Henry walked barefoot to Canterbury and had himself publicly flogged at Thomas's tomb.