The High Middle Ages was a time of power struggles between the Church and the State. Increases in royal power and expeditions like the Crusades symbolized the teeter-totter of the balance of power between the two foundations, and a prime example of the fight for power is the conflict of Henry II, King of England, and Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry II gained his throne thanks to the efforts of his mother, who fought to maintain her family’s stature in the royal family tree. Thomas Becket was the son of a wealthy London merchant, and lived a life of no worries. Theobald, the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, recognized Becket’s intelligence, and he was put under Theobald’s church tree. There, Becket gained experience and serious attention from his great successes as the Archbishop’s trusty servant, and King Henry II laid an eye on him also.
Seeing Becket’s potential intelligence, Henry II appointed Becket to the position of Chancellor of England. In England, the Chancellor was second-in-command only to the King. Any man of this stature was given great power, and any man placed in this position must be able to match his expectations. Henry’s instincts were accurate, and Becket performed amazingly at his new position. He revolutionized how England’s government was run, and turned the quiet castle into a busy place of work. Becket’s fame rose instantly, gaining attention from all over England, and quickly gained the reputation of being Henry’s greatest loyal worker.
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Becket, aside from being Henry’s most trustworthy servant, also became Henry’s greatest friend. Henry frequently visited Becket for dinner, and the two would discuss issues and exchange ideas almost every night. Henry was able to derive one conclusion from their dinner sessions Thomas Becket was the most intelligent man in all of England. At this point in time, the Church and State of England fought mainly for power over the judicial system of England. Henry II wanted to enforce common law in his country, a system of justice with a jury that accuses suspects and royal judges that determine the sentence on the criminals. The Church, headed by the archbishop of Canterbury, wanted to keep their traditional system of canon law.
The huge flaw in canon law was apparent to all of England, but the church was not willing to back down to the State. In the church’s court system, the two greatest concerns were the immunity granted to church officials and the immunity granted to those who sought sanctuary. Sanctuary was the greatest blockade to any court system in England. Any criminal could, by religious tradition, just hide in any church to flee the hands of punishment for a crime. A thief could rob a man, run into a church, hide there for a night, and go out again the next day to continue his mischief. The church’s easily manipulated emphasis on forgiveness and purity of the human soul made judicial punishments impossible in England. Henry wanted to end the Church’s sympathetic system of law and bring into play common law, a strict code that would govern how to treat criminals all over the country.
Just when Henry was struggling most to figure out how to rob the church of its authority over the courts, a very convenient opportunity was handed to him when Theobald, the Archbishop of Canterbury, died. The Archbishop of Canterbury was the head of the Church of England. What Rome was for the Roman Catholic Church, Canterbury was for all of England. The year was 1162, and to Henry, it seemed like he was finally getting close to achieving the goal of increasing the State’s authority over the courts of England. Henry II had authority to choose who would be the next Archbishop of Canterbury. The man he chose would control the Church of England and lead the Church in any direction the Archbishop of Canterbury wished. The choice was obvious. What man had more intelligence, more loyalty, more trust from the King than the Chancellor of England? Who would possibly be able to be as perfect as Thomas Becket? To the King, it was obvious that his best and loyal friend was the most appropriate, suitable character for the newly opened position.
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If Becket were head of the Church of England, there is no way that the royal government would have to struggle or control. Since Becket is Henry’s loyal servant, the power of the church was about to fall right into the hands of Henry. Or so he thought. Thomas Becket changed. His old life of luxury and accessories morphed into a life of strict obedience and religious zeal to God. His loyalty to the King turned into an immobile trust and love for God, and his great mind was now a property of the Church. When Henry first heard of this unbelievable change in Becket, he sent letter after letter to him just to make sure that his best friend had not sided with his enemy.
Sadly, Becket was a man of God now. To show that his converting was no joke, Becket managed over every church court in England personally. He judged cases and handled them like an ideal church official. He set off a trigger in Henry when he excommunicated a noble for rejecting a church official’s order. Excommunication is one of the deadly weapons of a leader of a church, and an excommunication on any person means that he or she is no longer connected from the Church, and is condemned to hell. This was the first spark of a great storm that was to split apart one of the greatest loyalties and friendships in all of Europe.
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"Friendship often does collapse over such unjust ideas.' This quote alone illustrates the dissolution of friendship that occurs between Thomas Becket and Henry II in early English history. What would one think if a trusted friend turns on them and stabs them in the back? Certain situations in the lives of Thomas Becket and Henry II build up then dissolve their friendship. Thomas Becket and Henry ...
Thomas Becket and Henry II was no longer the friendly pair of a King and his Noble. Now they were bitter enemies, each representing the Church and the State. Henry struck back with what he could. Seeing that Becket held two advantageous church positions, he raised the issue of Plural Appointments (it was illegal to hold more than one church position) and forced Becket to discard the archdeaconry of Canterbury. He also appointed a Norman monk named Clerambault as the abbot of St. Augustine’s Monastery near Canterbury. The monk was notorious for being slovenly and corrupt, and the monastery had always been a pain in Canterbury’s neck by staying out of its jurisdiction.
Henry wanted to aggravate Becket by making annoying changes. Henry also moved to end the Church’s canon law. He called a trial consisting of a jury, to have the jury decide which law was more appropriate for England. Becket and his scholarly subjects prevailed, and Henry’s first attempt at ending canon law failed. His next stab at the termination of canon law came at the Council of Westminster, where the King and Becket each gave a speech co ….
