And, whilst the Church swore loyalty to the king, they also insisted that their true allegiance was to God and his earthly representative, the Pope in Rome. Much of the power in the country at that time was enjoyed and exploited by the rich bishops and abbots of the Church. The worst that could happen here was to be issued with a severe penance or exceptionally, expulsion (defrocking) from the priesthood. Priests who murdered or raped could avoid common-law justice by claiming ‘benefit of clergy’, the right to be tried in the bishop’s court. The exception to this was the Church, which had its own courts and own laws. The king’s judges travelled the country administering the common law – the law of all free men. It was during Henry’s reign those legal terms such as ‘trial by jury’ and ‘assizes’ (sittings) became so familiar in the English language. Both furious workers, they laboured tirelessly to bring law and order to Henry’s realm. When at the age of 21 Henry became king, Becket became his Chancellor. They hunted and played chess together, people said the two men ‘had but one heart and one mind’. Thomas Becket, a London merchant’s son, was a complex person – in his youth he was a normal ebullient young man, stormy and proud, selfish and arrogant, vain, and anxious to please, but in later life, became one of the most pious and devout Archbishops of the 12th century.ĭespite differences in their status Thomas’s greatest friend was Henry, who was later to become King Henry II of England.
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