Thomas à Becket

At last, under threat of papal sanctions, Henry and Thomas agreed to a reconciliation of sorts, and on November 3, 1170, Thomas returned to England. However, when he excommunicated some of the king's bishops and barons, Henry raged against this “low-born clerk”. Four of the king's men, acting on their own accord, crossed over from France to Canterbury and, in Canterbury Cathedral, murdered Thomas on December 29, 1170. Thus, Thomas à Becket became a martyr, and after miracles were said to have been worked at his tomb, he was canonized by Pope Alexander III in February 1173. Pilgrims then began to visit Canterbury in such numbers that it became one of the three most popular shrines in Europe. Henry himself did penance there for Becket's murder in 1174, though not held personally accountable for the crime. Only the Reformation, when Becket's shrine was destroyed and all its treasures confiscated by Henry VIII, brought the pilgrimages to an end.

Not even Henry VIII, however, ended the benefit of clergy, which Henry II had to accept after Becket's death. The pope and king compromised: the pontiff allowed most of the English customs, but Henry had to bow to canon law and the jurisdiction of Church courts over accused clergy. As historians have attempted to understand people in the context of the times, the whole controversy has come to seem tragic—a conflict between the growing self-consciousness of Church and State personified in the figures of Henry and Thomas.