A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver by E.L. Konigsburg

Author:E.L. Konigsburg
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

11

AND SO IT WAS. The world well knows the story of the feud that developed between my son, King Henry, and his Archbishop, Thomas Becket.

Shortly after he was named Archbishop of Canterbury, Becket resigned as chancellor. Henry went into a rage and removed Young Henry and Marguerite from Becket’s care. He tried to get Becket to sign an agreement that made it illegal for clergy to stand trial in courts different from the laymen’s. Becket would not sign, and the private quarrel that began between Henry and Thomas Becket became public.

I was right. Becket chose to serve God.

He cast away his fine robes and wore a monk’s robe. The man who had worn hose of silk now walked barefoot, and there were people who said that he wore a hair shirt as a constant itch to his conscience. Just as Becket had been popular with lords and barons when he was chancellor, he was now popular with the common folk. They followed him through Canterbury like the children of Israel following Moses to the Promised Land.

Henry’s hopes for uniting the two kinds of law were dashed. He fumed, he raged, he shouted to the world. Henry claimed that Becket was in contempt of the king’s court; he called Becket before him and issued heavy fines. Still Becket would not sign the agreement. Henry accused; Becket refused.

The war between the two men soon became a war between the country and the Church, and Becket fled. He sought shelter with King Louis of France, and he found it.

Henry dissolved into another rage. “If Louis wants some Becket,” Henry shouted, “he shall have a flood of Beckets,” and Henry banished from England everyone who was even remotely related to his old friend Thomas. France found itself with four hundred relatives of Becket, most of them poor.

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