Becket insisted that the Church was above the law. Henry did not accept this – for him the laws of the royal court were greater than the Church – and so the power struggle continued. ‘Will someone rid me of the troublesome priest,’ he muttered. Some quote Henry as saying ‘turbulent’, some say ‘meddlesome’ – either way, Becket was certainly troublesome. Four knights took the King at his word. They entered the cathedral at Canterbury and brought down the defenceless archbishop. They spilled his brains and blood onto the flagstones before the cathedral altar as he quietly spoke, ‘For the name of
...more
