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Thomas Becket

Author: John Guy

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2012-07-03

Total Pages: 448

ISBN-13: 0679603417

A revisionist new biography reintroducing readers to one of the most subversive figures in English history—the man who sought to reform a nation, dared to defy his king, and laid down his life to defend his sacred honor NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KANSAS CITY STAR AND BLOOMBERG Becket’s life story has been often told but never so incisively reexamined and vividly rendered as it is in John Guy’s hands. The son of middle-class Norman parents, Becket rose against all odds to become the second most powerful man in England. As King Henry II’s chancellor, Becket charmed potentates and popes, tamed overmighty barons, and even personally led knights into battle. After his royal patron elevated him to archbishop of Canterbury in 1162, however, Becket clashed with the King. Forced to choose between fealty to the crown and the values of his faith, he repeatedly challenged Henry’s authority to bring the church to heel. Drawing on the full panoply of medieval sources, Guy sheds new light on the relationship between the two men, separates truth from centuries of mythmaking, and casts doubt on the long-held assumption that the headstrong rivals were once close friends. He also provides the fullest accounting yet for Becket’s seemingly radical transformation from worldly bureaucrat to devout man of God. Here is a Becket seldom glimpsed in any previous biography, a man of many facets and faces: the skilled warrior as comfortable unhorsing an opponent in single combat as he was negotiating terms of surrender; the canny diplomat “with the appetite of a wolf” who unexpectedly became the spiritual paragon of the English church; and the ascetic rebel who waged a high-stakes contest of wills with one of the most volcanic monarchs of the Middle Ages. Driven into exile, derided by his enemies as an ungrateful upstart, Becket returned to Canterbury in the unlikeliest guise of all: as an avenging angel of God, wielding his power of excommunication like a sword. It is this last apparition, the one for which history remembers him best, that will lead to his martyrdom at the hands of the king’s minions—a grisly episode that Guy recounts in chilling and dramatic detail. An uncommonly intimate portrait of one of the medieval world’s most magnetic figures, Thomas Becket breathes new life into its subject—cementing for all time his place as an enduring icon of resistance to the abuse of power.

The Lives of Thomas Becket

Author: Michael Staunton

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2001-12-07

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780719054556

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Through the eye-witness and contemporary biographical accounts, this book provides valuable insight into the late-12th century world. The extracts, many previously untranslated, expose one of the most controversial figures of the Middle Ages. Written as the shock of Becket's murder in 1170 reverberated around Europe, the accounts provide vivid testimony to the most dramatic events of his life. They show how he became champion of the church and enemy of the king, fled into exile to lead a life of asceticism and political agitation, and returned to face martyrdom before the altar of his own cathedral.

The Cult of Thomas Becket

Author: Kay Brainerd Slocum

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-10-26

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 1351593382

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On 29 December, 1170, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was brutally murdered in his own cathedral. News of the event was rapidly disseminated throughout Europe, generating a widespread cult which endured until the reign of Henry VIII in the sixteenth century, and engendering a fascination which has lasted until the present day. The Cult of Thomas Becket: History and Historiography through Eight Centuries contributes to the lengthy debate surrounding the saint by providing a historiographical analysis of the major themes in Becket scholarship, tracing the development of Becket studies from the writings of the twelfth-century biographers to those of scholars of the twenty-first century. The book offers a thorough commentary and analysis which demonstrates how the Canterbury martyr was viewed by writers of previous generations as well as our own, showing how they were influenced by the intellectual trends and political concerns of their eras, and indicating how perceptions of Thomas Becket have changed over time. In addition, several chapters are devoted a discussion of artworks in various media devoted to the saint, as well as liturgies and sermons composed in his honor. Combining a wide historical scope with detailed textual analysis, this book will be of great interest to scholars of medieval religious history, art history, liturgy, sanctity and hagiography.

Thomas Becket

Author: Frank Barlow

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 9780520071759

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A new interpretation of the Protestant Reformation provides an alternate perspective on the faith's core idea about individuals having direct access to God without the need for priest and institutional mediation, in an account that traces five centuries of Protestant influence.

The Chasuble of Thomas Becket

Author: Avinoam Shalem

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13:

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The so-called chasuble of Thomas Becket (1118?1170) is one of the most magnificent medieval textiles in the Mediterranean region. Richly decorated with ornaments, fabulous animals and figures in lavish gold embroidery with Arabic inscriptions, this precious liturgical garment provides impressive proof of the re-utilisation of the Islamic arts in the Christian world. 00Venerated as a relic of St Thomas of Canterbury, the chasuble was produced in Spanish-Muslim workshops and probably reached Italy as a donation to the Cathedral of Fermo in about 1200. Despite its outstanding artistic quality and fascinating history, this magnificent garment has never hitherto been the subject of a detailed study. Richly illustrated with numerous details, this volume investigates the meaning of the inscriptions and motifs, examines manufacturing techniques and the function of the chasuble, traces its ?biography? and places it within the historical context of the political, economic and cultural situation in the Mediterranean region.

The Cult of St Thomas Becket in the Plantagenet World, C.1170-c.1220

Author: Paul Webster

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1783271612

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The extraordinary growth and development of the cult of St Thomas Becket is investigated here, with a particular focus on its material culture.

The Book in the Cathedral

Author: Christopher de Hamel

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2020-08-06

Total Pages: 69

ISBN-13: 0141994258

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From the bestselling author of Meetings With Remarkable Manuscripts, a captivating account of the last surviving relic of Thomas Becket The assassination of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170 is one of the most famous events in European history. It inspired the largest pilgrim site in medieval Europe and many works of literature from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales to T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral and Anouilh's Becket. In a brilliant piece of historical detective work, Christopher de Hamel here identifies the only surviving relic from Becket's shrine: the Anglo-Saxon Psalter which he cherished throughout his time as Archbishop of Canterbury, and which he may even have been holding when he was murdered. Beautifully illustrated and published to coincide with the 850th anniversary of the death of Thomas Becket, this is an exciting rediscovery of one of the most evocative artefacts of medieval England.

Thomas Becket: Friends, Networks, Texts and Cult

Author: Anne J. Duggan

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-05-31

Total Pages: 394

ISBN-13: 1000939073

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Becket's life was lived on a European stage, his cause was conducted in a European setting, and the cult of the new martyr spread with extraordinary rapidity to the furthest reaches of Latin Christendom before the end of the twelfth century. The fifteen studies collected here reflect not only the global reach of the subject but the diverse expertise of their author, whose edition and translation of the Correspondence of Archbishop Thomas Becket (2000) and acclaimed biography (Thomas Becket, 2004) have established her place in Becket studies. Based on the critical examination of manuscripts and texts, this collection focuses first on the papal curia and Becket's household in exile. The following studies deal with Becket's letters and their authorship, the coronation of the young King Henry (1170), and Henry II's reconciliation at Avranches (1172). The final part traces the explosion of Becket's cult, the transmission of hagiographical and liturgical texts to France, Germany, and Portugal, and the role of diverse agencies of dissemination: Henry II's daughters, for example, in Saxony, Castile, and Sicily, and the Cistercian and Augustinian orders whose networks of houses embraced the whole of Europe.

Murder in the Cathedral

Author: T. S. Eliot

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2014-02-25

Total Pages: 86

ISBN-13: 0547542607

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T. S. Eliot's most famous drama, a retelling of the murder of the archbishop of Canterbury Murder in the Cathedral, written for the Canterbury Festival in 1935, was one of T. S. Eliot’s first dramatic achievements, and it remains one of the great plays of the century. It takes as its subject matter the martyrdom of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, depicting the events that led to his assassination, in his own cathedral church, by the knights of Henry II in 1170. Like Greek drama, the play’s theme and form are rooted in religion, ritual purgation and renewal, and it was this return to the earliest sources of drama that brought poetry triumphantly back to the English stage at the time. "The theatre is enriched by this poetic play of grave beauty and momentous decision." —The New York Times

St Thomas Becket

Author: Michael Green

Publisher: Gracewing Publishing

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 94

ISBN-13: 9780852445907

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The murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 is one of the most famous events in English history, creating shock waves which reverberated across Europe. His shrine at Canterbury (destroyed in 1538) became the most famous in Christendom, and after his canonisation the cult of St Thomas of Canterbury was the most important of any English saint. Millions of pilgrims have made the journey to Canterbury Cathedral to visit the shrine and the site of the martyrdom. In modern times his life and death have been celebrated in music, literature, theatre and film. The story of Becket's life and work shows why it has continued to fascinate and enthral across the centuries. A brilliant young man, he studied in London and Paris, and after entering the service of Archbishop Theobald of Canterbury, in Bologna and Auxerre. He accompanied Theobald to Rome to enlist the support of Pope Eugenius III for Henry Plantagenet's claim to the English throne, and after Henry's accession as Henry II in 1154 Thomas became the new king's Chancellor. Becket's relations with Henry deteriorated after 1162, when he unwillingly accepted the position of Archbishop of Canterbury, and championed the rights of the Church in opposition to the wishes of the king. The conflict between the two men reached its tragic climax on the evening of 29th December 1170, when Thomas was murdered by four of Henry's knights in a side chapel of his own cathedral. . Here is a popular introduction to the life and work of this important English saint. Michael Green has spent most of his life in Kent, and in retirement took a degree in Social Science at Canterbury Christ Church University College. Married for fifty years and an active member of the Church of St Thomas of Canterbury.