IT COULD HAVE been a scene from “The Sopranos”, only the irascible capo was King Henry II of England. The irksome upstart who had to be neutralised was Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. “Will ...

St. Thomas Becket (1118-1170) is well-known for his martyrdom in Canterbury Cathedral, defending religious liberty in England from the designs of his former friend, King Henry II Plantagenet. But ...

Guy (Queen of Scots) gives us another masterful biography, this time of Thomas Becket (1118–1170), the man who refused to subordinate the power of the church to the power of the state, and was ...

Those whose interest in history lies mainly in its parallels to current events will find little to chew on in John Guy’s fine new biography of Thomas Becket. Centuries have passed since Becket, then ...

On Dec. 29, 1170, the archbishop of Canterbury was cut down in his own cathedral. “Every attempt to tell the story of Thomas Becket,” writes Michael Staunton in his biography of the martyred ...

December 29 is the feast day of St. Thomas Becket. The martyred 12 th century bishop is known for his opposition to the then overreach of state power in the person of England’s King Henry II. Across ...

“If you thought medieval religious art was all clasped hands and uplifted eyes”, this gory, “brilliant” show will put you right, said Jonathan Jones in The Guardian. On 29 December 1170, four knights ...

The chasuble of Thomas Becket (1118?1170) is one of the most magnificent medieval textiles in the Mediterranean region. Richly decorated with ornaments, fabulous animals and figures in lavish gold ...

When the murderers of Archbishop Thomas Becket sliced off the top of his head and scattered his brains on the pavement stones of Canterbury Cathedral, they could hardly have imagined the fascination ...

Enter stage left, Thomas à Becket. The Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered a millennium ago on his cathedral’s floor, appears in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s latest brief to the District of Columbia ...