Description
The torturous years-long quarrel between Henry II and Thomas Becket concerning the rights of Crown and Church in Medieval England is the stuff of legend. Close friends turned bitter opponents, they became locked in a feud that culminated in Becket’s gruesome murder shortly after Christmas in the year 1170.
Referencing the people and events that influenced Henry’s reign and Becket’s career all within a generation of the Norman Conquest–Eleanor of Aquitaine, the White Ship, Papal Schism of 1159, Constitutions of Clarendon, etc.–this course follows the quarrel at length from beginning to end and finally invites you to decide for yourself who ultimately prevailed. And why.
