What Happened to Thomas à Becket? - The trouble with Henry.
Henry VIII - from the East Window in the Chapter House © P.E. Blanche

Three Hundred Years Later

Although being The Archbishop of Canterbury seems to have been a somewhat risky occupation at certain times, in that politics and religion frequently became intertwined, there are few people that have run foul of two monarchs that reigned three hundred and fifty years apart. Unfortunately, such was the case with Thomas à Becket. His original difficulties, for which he paid the supreme sacrifice, were with Henry II in 1170. His troubles with a second King Henry, this time the VIII, occurred in 1538, just over three hundred years after the body of Saint Thomas was moved to the new shrine in The Trinity Chapel.

I think most people know the story of Henry VIII, his six wives and something about the problems he had with the Pope, who was basically not prepared to allow Henry to divorce and remarry. This whole set of circumstances did not sit well with Henry and consequently, he decided that rather than being dictated to by Rome, he would form his own "Church" in England of which he would take the place of the Pope as its leader. In really simple terms, (because these pages are not here to go into this issue), he required all priests to join his Church and that the monasteries, which were Catholic, to be dissolved.

The area in The Trinity Chapel where the shrine stood. The candle in the floor marks the centre of the shrine and this picture is taken from the rear of where the shrine was located © P.E. Blanche 1998

It is at this point that Becket seems to have got in the way of history again. Obviously, St. Thomas was a Catholic Saint and "things Catholic" were not at all in favour. To help to completely stamp out this religion, ruled from Rome, Catholic Saints had to be disposed of and one of the most significant from the public perspective was St. Thomas. Consequently, in 1538, Henry ordered that such shrines were to be destroyed and the bones of any Saint burned so that the links to the Catholic religion were completely severed. In conjunction with this destruction of the monasteries and relics of the saints, there was also a great deal to be gained financially by Henry. Obviously, as well as the religious "takeover", the great wealth contained in these shrines and monasteries would assist the Royal purse. I have heard different figures mentioned of the number of oxcarts needed to take away the gold, silver and jewels from Canterbury Cathedral with most of these riches came from the Tomb of St. Thomas. These estimates vary between five and twenty-six. (Sorry, that's a big difference but I think that the amount might well relate to the total number of carts used to carry the whole riches from the Cathedral at the time and those specifically used for the shrine of Becket)

It is at this point that the conjecture begins as to whether the bones of St. Thomas were actually destroy or whether they had been hidden by the monks in advance of this order being carried out. It would have been a relatively simple thing, given their situation, for the monks to have substituted a second set of bones and hidden that actual bones of the Saint.

There are many suggestions as to what might have been done with the original bones of Becket and the next page deals with some of these possibilities.

Page Three

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