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Portrait of Thomas Becket
Master Alpais, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Victim

Thomas Becket

Born
21 December 1119
Died
29 December 1170, aged about 51
Record
Wikidata Q192236 · Wikipedia

Victim in Murder in the Cathedral

Chancellor of England 1155 to 1162 and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162; canonised in 1173. Birth year given as 1119 or 1120.

1170–1174 · Canterbury Cathedral, Kent · Never caught

Four of Henry II's knights cut down the Archbishop of Canterbury in his own cathedral in 1170. Within three years he was a saint and the king did penance. Read the case.

Dated events

  1. Becket becomes Henry II's chancellor.

  2. Becket is consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, a day after being ordained priest.

  3. Henry sets out the Constitutions of Clarendon; Becket refuses to seal them.

  4. Condemned by a royal council at Northampton, Becket flees to France.

  5. Becket excommunicates the archbishop of York and the bishops of London and Salisbury, and soon returns to England.

  6. At Bures in Normandy, Henry rages against Becket and four knights set off for England.

  7. The four knights kill Becket in Canterbury Cathedral during vespers.

  8. Pope Alexander III canonises Becket at Segni.

  9. Henry II does public penance at Becket's tomb in Canterbury.

  10. Becket's remains are moved to a new shrine in the Trinity Chapel.