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If you were convicted of a serious crime in 13th-century England, you could expect to be put to death – unless you made it to the sanctuary of a church first. Kenneth F Duggan reveals the attempts made by criminals to elude justice by fleeing to holy ground...
Published: April 19, 2021 at 4:37 pm On 29 December 1170, four of King Henry II’s knights murdered Archbishop Thomas Becket inside Canterbury Cathedral, scattering his blood and brains across the pavement. The killing, 850 years ago, marked the end of one of the most brilliant, divisive careers of England’s Middle Ages. Yet, in many ways, it was also a beginning. Advertisement News of Becket’s killing spread quickly and, in a matter of months, he had been transformed into one of the most famous martyrs in Christian history. Becket was canonised a mere three years after his dea...
Published: December 29, 2020 at 12:06 pm Eight hundred and fifty years ago today, on 29 December 1170, the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, was brutally murdered in his cathedral, by four knights acting on what they took to be a command from King Henry II. Dr Emily Guerry explains what happened, and why a cult sprang up around Becket almost immediately. Advertisement