[1] William of Newburgh’s “Chronicle.”

Furthermore, the King sems now to have resolved to ruin Becket or drive him from the kingdom.  He accordingly summoned the Archbishop before a royal council at Northampton to answer to certain charges made against him.  Becket answered the summons, but he refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the council, and appealed to the Pope.  “Traitor!” cried a courtier, as he picked up a bunch of muddy rushes from the floor and flung them at the Archbishop’s head.  Becket turned and, looking him sternly in the face, said, “Were I not a churchman, I would make you repent that word.”  Realizing, however, that he was now in serious danger, he soon after left Northampton and fled to France.

167.  Banishment versus Excommunication (1164).

Finding Becket beyond his reach, Henry next proceeded to banish the Archbishop’s kinsmen and friends, without regard to age or sex, to the number of nearly four hundred.  These miserable exiles, many of whom were nearly destitute, were forced to leave the country in midwinter, and excited the pity of all who saw them.

Becket indignantly retaliated.  He hurled at the King’s counselors the awful sentence of excommunication or expulsion from the Church (S194).  It declared the King accursed of God and man, deprived of help in this world, and shut out from hope in the world to come.  In this manner the quarrel went on with ever-increasing bitterness for the space of six years.

168.  Prince Henry crowned; Reconciliation (1170).

Henry, who had long wished to associate his son, Prince Henry, with him in the government, had him crowned at Westminster by the Archbishop of York, the bishops of London and Salisbury taking part.

By custom, if not indeed by law, Becket alone, as Archbishop of Canterbury, had the right to perform this ceremony.

When Becket heard of the coronation, he declared it an outrage both against Christianity and the Church.  So great an outcry now arose that Henry believed it expedient to recall the absent Archbishop, especially as the King of France was urging the Pope to take up the matter.  Henry accordingly went over to the Continent, met Becket, and persuaded him to return.

169.  Reneral of the Quarrel; Murder of Becket (1170).

But though the Archbishop and the King had given each other the “kiss of peace,” yet the reconciliation was on the surface only; underneath, the old hatred smoldered, ready to burst forth into flame.  As soon as he reached England, Becket invoked the thunders of the Church against those who had officiated at the coronation of Prince Henry.  He excommunicated the Archbishop of York with his assistant bishops.

The King took their part, and in an outburst of passion against Becket he exclaimed, “Will none of the cowards who eat my bread rid me of that turbulent priest?” In answer to his angry cry for relief, four knights set out without Henry’s knowledge for Canterbury, and brutally murdered the Archbishop within the walls of his own cathedral.