St Thomas Becket and Medieval London

Abstract

Abstract Thomas Becket was born in London, and throughout his life had a close if chequered relationship with the city. After his death, while his body lay in its shrine at Canterbury, the citizens of London made great efforts to reclaim his memory for themselves by seeding his commemoration throughout the city. He was swiftly adopted as London's patron saint, the ‘Light of Londoners’, and the strength of devotion to him was made manifest in such construction programmes as the first stone London Bridge, the hospital on his birth site and the city‐wide waterworks. By comparison with Canterbury's focus on Becket's martyrdom, London fostered a dynamic and vibrant cult based upon his birth and rebirth, centralising this element of the cult in their pageants and giving genesis to central elements of the wider Becket mythos such as the ‘Saracen mother’ story. The purpose of this article is to fill a lacuna in the historiography of both the saint and the city, and provide an overview of the importance of St Thomas Becket to medieval Londoners, and of London to the cult of St Thomas.

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