Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/173

 by Thomas Becket (Materials, i. 12, ii. 373–374, iv. 23–4;, p. 30; , pp. 328–9; , 2nd ed. pp. 112–13; , i. 462–3; , Feudal England, pp. 500–1. The version of Thomas Saga and its editor, i. 139–41, ii. pref. pp. cvii–viii, is at variance with all extant contemporary authorities).

Henry's irritation was increased by the archbishop's efforts to reclaim all alienated property of his see, even from the crown itself; by his prohibition of an uncanonical marriage which the king's brother, William of Anjou, desired to contract with the widowed Countess of Warenne; by his excommunication of a tenant-in-chief of the crown, without the previous notice to the king which was usual in such cases; and, above all, by his successful opposition to the endeavours made by the king or his justiciars, in several cases during the summer of 1163, to assert the royal jurisdiction over criminous clerks. At last Henry called upon the bishops in a body at Westminster, on 1 Oct., to confirm ‘his grandfather's customs,’ particularly two which he specified, as to the respective shares to be taken by church and state in dealing with criminous clerks. All the bishops answered that they would agree to the customs only ‘saving our order,’ and the primate absolutely refused to sanction the two which Henry had specially mentioned. From this determination Thomas was not to be moved either by the king's wrath, which the latter showed by depriving him first of some castles which he had held as chancellor and still retained, and next of the charge of the boy Henry, or by his persuasions at a personal interview near Northampton. In December, however, the archbishop's resistance was overcome by three persons who professed to have been sent for that purpose by the pope; Alexander, according to their story, having been assured by Henry that the question at issue was merely one of words. On this Thomas gave to the king in private a verbal promise to obey his customs ‘loyally and in good faith.’ But when he was required to repeat this promise publicly, before a council summoned to meet for that intent at Clarendon on 13 Jan. 1164, he saw that he had been deceived, and it was only after three days' resistance that he submitted, saying, if we may believe Gilbert Foliot [q. v.], ‘It is my lord's will that I forswear myself; I must incur the risk of perjury now, and do penance afterwards as best I can.’ By ‘my lord’ he probably meant the pope, at whose supposed command he was giving a promise which he felt he would be obliged to break. Henry now ordered the ‘customs’ to be drawn up in writing. Sixteen ‘constitutions,’ called the constitutions of Clarendon, were accordingly produced. Thomas declared them all contrary to the canon law, and refused to seal them. Some unsuccessful negotiations followed, and twice he attempted to leave England secretly.

Thomas was next summoned to appear before the king's court on 14 Sept., to answer a claim of John the Marshal [see, d. 1164?] touching a manor of the metropolitan see. He excused himself on the plea of sickness, and further urged that the suit ought to be decided in his own court, whence John had procured its removal by perjury. Henry rejected both pleas, and ordered the suit to be tried before a great council at Northampton on Tuesday, 6 Oct. Nothing was actually done till the 8th; then the council was made to give judgment, not on John's claim, but upon Thomas's alleged contempt of court in failing to appear on 14 Sept. The usual sentence for contempt was forfeiture of movables ad misericordiam, commuted for a sum which varied in different districts, and which in Kent was 40s. The archbishop had to pay 500l. Henry next demanded 300l., which he said Thomas owed him for arrears of the ferm of Eye. The authorities say ‘Eye and Berkhamstead;’ but the Pipe roll of Michaelmas 1163 (9 Hen. II, p. 24) records the archbishop as ‘quit’ of all dues from the honour of Berkhamstead, both for that year and for all previous years. For Eye there are, during Becket's tenure of it, no notices of any payment save one of 150l. 3s. 7d., recorded in the same Pipe roll (p. 34) as having been made ‘without rendering an account for it.’ Thomas declared that he had spent far more than 300l. in repairing the Tower of London and other royal palaces. This was probably true; but as he had no formal warrant to show for this employment of the money, Henry could and did compel him to give security for its repayment. Next day Henry demanded of him a further sum of 500l. (or, according to another account, two sums of five hundred marks each), being a loan made by the king to the chancellor during the war of Toulouse. Thomas said this money had been given, not lent; but again he had to find sureties for its repayment. He was then bidden to render up an account of all the revenues of vacant sees, abbeys, and honours which had passed through his hands as chancellor. He asked for a day's delay. On the morrow Henry demanded, no longer a statement of accounts, but a definite sum, variously stated at thirty thousand marks, thirty thousand pounds, and