The Lives of Thomas Becket

Abstract

This book tells the story of Thomas Becket's turbulent life, violent death and extraordinary posthumous acclaim in the words of his contemporaries. The collection features all his major biographers, including many previously untranslated extracts, providing both a valuable glimpse of the late twelfth-century world, and an insight into the minds of those who witnessed the events. Both medieval and modern commentators have tended to take more interest in Thomas of Canterbury than in Thomas of London. The earliest recorded disputes in which Thomas was involved as archbishop relate to his attempts to retrieve Canterbury properties. Thomas's establishment as archbishop led to a crisis of unprecedented severity between the crown and the Church in England. His rift with his former friend the king, and the progress of the dispute which led to public confrontation and prolonged exile, was keenly followed all over the Christian world. Thomas's flight and prolonged exile moved the dispute onto a new plane. His heroic attempt to shield the archbishop from the knights' blows earned him a place in the saint's legend, and in many visual representations of the martyrdom.

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