[Bedhead]

XXXVIII –Thomas à Becket

The son of a London merchant, he became foster father to the King of England’s eldest son - Thomas Becket was the ultimate social climber.

Not especially well educated, Becket rose through the ranks of the clergy because he was ‘second to none in despatch of business’ – as Henry II’s adviser, he was so influential one chronicler said ‘that he seemed to share the government with him’.

Becket’s career appeared to be complete when Henry II made him Archbishop of Canterbury. However, having reached high office, the ultimate fixer turned all patronising and self-righteous.

In one letter to the King, he explained, ‘because you are my king, I am bound to respect and to admonish you; because you are my son, I am bound by the duties of my office to chastise and to correct you. For a father corrects his son, sometimes in kind words and sometimes in harsh, that, by the one means or the other, he may recall him to do what is right.’

Henry did what any self-respecting king would do; he had Becket killed. However, Henry II’s goons lacked the subtlety of Henry VIII and his advisers. Instead of prosecuting Becket on fictitious charges, they hacked the top of his head off as he sought sanctuary in his own Cathedral, ‘so that the blood turned white from the brain yet no less did the brain turn red from the blood’.

The outcry was so huge that the King himself was forced to do public penance. Weeping at Thomas’s grave, Henry “prostrated himself on the ground, and with the utmost humility entreated pardon; and, at his urgent petition, he, though so great a man, was corporally beaten with rods by all the brethren in succession.”

Today, Thomas à Becket, the man who brought a king to his knees, is remembered in his native city with a sprinkling of pubs, streets, schools, plaques and churches – and not least by this gem by Augustus Pugin in Hammersmith.

The church and graveyard were locked when I visited, but there are some great shots of the interior and graveyard at http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2417463 and http://www.flickr.com/photos/simon_p...n/photostream/.