Thomas Becket: Playing a role
The king's man
Becket became one of Theobald's most trusted clerks. The archbishop sent him to Bologna in Italy and Auxerre in France to study civil and canon law for a year. On his return, he was appointed provost of Beverley and canon at Lincoln Cathedral and then at St Paul's in London.
In 1152, Theobald secretly sent Becket to the papal court in Rome to help in the negotiations over the future successor to the English throne, then held by King Stephen, winner of the terrible civil war against Matilda, daughter of Henry I. With great political tact, Becket thwarted an effort to win over Pope Eugenius to the side of Stephen's son Eustace (who in the event died the following year). As a result, the Church came out in favour of Henry of Anjou, Matilda's son.
King and chancellor
In 1154, when Becket was 36, he was ordained as a deacon and was then appointed archdeacon of Canterbury, an extremely high ecclesiastical office. At about this time, Stephen died and Henry of Anjou ascended the throne as Henry II. On Theobald's recommendation, the new king appointed Becket his chancellor, one of the most powerful positions in the kingdom. Becket was the first Englishman (and a commoner to boot) to have been raised to such a high level since the Conquest.
Then only 21, Henry was 15 years Becket's junior. The new king was physically impressive, as the 12th-century chronicler Giraldus Cambrensis testified:
[He] had a reddish complexion, his eyes were grey, bloodshot and flashed in anger. He had a fiery countenance, his voice was tremulous … he had an enormous paunch, rather by fault of nature than from gross feeding [for] in all things he was moderate, even parsimonious.
He also had a genius for both leadership and organisation. But at the same time, he was self-willed, imperious, and passionate, completely non-spiritual and bent on gaining control of every power in his kingdom, which extended from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees.
Schoolboys
The monarch and his chancellor grew extremely close, so close that people declared that 'they had but one heart and one mind.' They played together like schoolboys, and spent a great deal of time in each other's company. But it was not all play. Both of them worked hard to bring about the reforms in administration and the law that would mark Henry's reign.
At this point, Becket demonstrated the characteristic that would eventually lead to his murder: whatever role he was cast in, he threw himself into it heart and soul. As chancellor, his king's ambitions became his, and he laboured to achieve Henry's goals. In a later post, he would find himself wholeheartedly on the opposite side from the king.
Now, however, the monarch's imperial views and love of splendour were also Becket's. Accepting all the wealth that came his way, he spent lavishly on entertainment, clothes and other possessions and on hunting and hawking. His household was as fine, if not finer, than the king's.
Monkeys and mastiffs
In 1158, when he was sent to Paris to negotiate a royal marriage between Henry's son (also called Henry) and Louis VII's daughter Margaret, he took a personal retinue of 200 men, with a train of several hundred more: knights and squires, clerics, servants, musicians and singers, hawks and hounds, monkeys and mastiffs. No wonder the French gaped and asked: 'If this is the chancellor's state, what can the king's be like?'
The following year, Henry led a military expedition to Toulouse to further his claim on the city as part of his wife Eleanor's duchy of Aquitaine. Becket, decked out in armour, accompanied his king and – very unlike the ecclesiastic that he had been – enthusiastically joined in the fighting. Another churchman, meeting him, exclaimed: 'What do you mean by wearing such dress? You look more like a falconer than a cleric!' For this royal foray into France, Becket had enforced scutage – payment of money in lieu of military service – against the English clerics, who complained about the disproportionately heavy burden this imposed on the Church.
Misgivings
Given this background, it does not come as much of a surprise that, in 1162, following Theobald's death, Henry made sure that 'his' man Becket was elected as archbishop of Canterbury, confident that he would serve the crown's interests. Even at this early stage, Becket had doubts: 'I know your plans for the Church,' he said to Henry. 'You will assert claims that I, if I were archbishop, must needs oppose.' However, Cardinal Henry of Pisa convinced him to accept the post, as a service to religion, despite his misgivings.
There was only one problem – Becket had never been ordained. This difficulty was easily overcome, however. On Saturday, 2 June, he became a priest; on the morning of Sunday, 3 June, he was consecrated a bishop; and in the afternoon, he was made archbishop of Canterbury.
