Thomas Becket

In the Middle Ages many people went on pilgrimages. A pilgrimage was a journey to a shrine. And a shrine was the place where a saint was buried, or where some holy object was kept. Pilgrims thought that God would be pleased with them and reward them if they travelled to a shrine and prayed there. He might cure them of their diseases, for example.

The most famous shrine in England was in Canterbury. It was the tomb of St Thomas Becket. Thomas was the archbishop who was murdered inside the cathedral in 1170. The pope made him a saint in 1173.

Thomas had been one of Henry II's chief advisers, and his best friend. In 1162, Henry made Thomas his Archbishop of Canterbury. He thought that Archbishop Thomas would make the church obey the king. But he was wrong. Thomas stood up to the king. A row broke out when the king said that priests who had done wrong must be tried in the king's courts. Thomas said 'No', because the church had its own courts.

Thomas fled from England and lived in France for seven years. When he returned in 1170, the quarrel started again. So four of Henry's knights decided to do their king a good turn and get rid of his enemy. They travelled to Canterbury, and murdered Thomas in his own cathedral.

Henry took all the blame for the murder. On a summer day in 1174, the men and women of Canterbury watched him walk barefoot through their streets. When he reached the cathedral, he made the monks whip his bare back. He spent the night lying on the stone floor near Thomas's tomb.

Walter Robson: Medieval Britain; Oxford University Press, 1991/2000, page 18