This is the doorway in the Canterbury Cathedral through which four knights entered to kill Thomas à Becket 853 years ago today.
When young, the priest had been drinking buddies with Prince Hal, but over time, Thomas, who became Archbishop of Canterbury, sided with the Pope over the English King’s authority which turned out to be a big stinkin’ mess when all was said and done.
At one point, things got so bad, his former friend, now King Henry II, muttered, “Will no one relieve me of this turbulent priest”.
Four knights, being self-starters, scooted down to Canterbury and offed the Archbishop believing they did the monarch’s bidding.
While in graduate school, I often stood at the spot on which he died. It is a haunted and unforgettable place, especially if one was meant to be in the university library writing a paper due the next day.
When the clerics prepared Thomas’s body for the funeral, they removed layer upon layer of ceremonial robes and vestments. Next to his skin, he wore a horsehair shirt infested with vermin - so as to mortify the flesh, an offering of human torment to God.
Bugs feasted on Becket for years.
A cult of worship grew around St Thomas à Becket in Western Europe, water combined with [supposed] remnants of the man’s blood now surprisingly available.
As you can imagine, Rome frowned on the practice because it was way too close to consuming the blood of Christ, which they totally invented in the first place.
The contest between the English King and the Pope was, naturally, a deeply political matter, rooted in an earthly power struggle. Becket’s role in this titanic match-up is what cost him his life.
He was not, however, lacking a wry sense of humor about the whole thing.
In the months before his death, it came to Thomas’s attention that the Kentish town of Strood, just north of Canterbury, had sided with King Henry, so he, Thomas, decreed that every child born there would have a tail.
I’ve been to Strood and it’s still true to this day.
a tail? long, short or curlique?
Happy not to be a Stroodite. Tails can be so inconvenient. When the Ladies Dancing, and Lords Leaping arrive, one best be far away! Do you suppose when Death Came for the Archbishop, he lost his tail rather than his head?