Thomas Becket

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Thomas Becket Meets His Demise
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"Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" King Henry II was said to have exclaimed. Shortly thereafter, on December 29, 1170, four of the knights present at the time of the king's outburst murdered Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in Canterbury Cathedral. Becket and Henry had been friends until the time Henry became king and appointed Becket as archbishop. From then on, conflict ensued and in 1170, Henry was enraged when Becket vigorously opposed the crowning of Henry's eldest son as Archbishop of York.

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"The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason." — Thomas Becket in T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral