Posted on 12/29/2020 5:54:08 PM PST by marshmallow
The White House on Tuesday issued a proclamation praising St. Thomas Becket, an English archbishop who was martyred 850 years ago after conflict with King Henry II over the rights of the Church.
“Before the Magna Carta was drafted, before the right to free exercise of religion was enshrined as America’s first freedom in our glorious Constitution, Thomas gave his life so that, as he said, ‘the Church will attain liberty and peace,’” President Donald Trump wrote in a Dec. 29 proclamation.
“To honor Thomas Becket’s memory, the crimes against people of faith must stop, prisoners of conscience must be released, laws restricting freedom of religion and belief must be repealed, and the vulnerable, the defenseless, and the oppressed must be protected. The tyranny and murder that shocked the conscience of the Middle Ages must never be allowed to happen again. As long as America stands, we will always defend religious liberty.”
“We pray for religious believers everywhere who suffer persecution for their faith. We especially pray for their brave and inspiring shepherds — like Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong and Pastor Wang Yi of Chengdu — who are tireless witnesses to hope,” Trump’s proclamation added.
Becket was born in the twelfth century, and became an expert in canon and civll law, and eventually the Lord Chancellor of England. But after 1162, when he became Archbishop of Canterbury, he found himself in conflict with King Henry II over the autonomy of the the Church in England. Becket and the king clashed over the freedom of clergymen from secular courts, and, in 1164, the Constitutions of Clarendon, a set of laws passed by Henry II in an effort to limit papal authority and ecclesiastical courts in England.
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicnewsagency.com ...
Thank-you!
I shared the entire proclamation with my mailing list.
God Bless President Trump!
God Bless and Protect President Trump. He has been the greatest defender of Religious Freedom in the office of the President this country has had in quite some time.
On the other hand, VP Pence a widely acknowledged “Christian” man has been sued by Louie Gohmert because he is said to refuse to certify the alternate Trump electors from the disputed states in the face of obvious FRAUD. He is said to have decided to certify the FRAUD and then retire from politics. If true, Pence is a COWARD.
What this article doesn’t say is that Beckett was the Kings best friend and drinking buddy. Henry made him archbishop expecting him to be a puppet.
But to everyone’s surprise Beckett chose to be his own man and put the church first. This is why Henry was extra enraged at Beckett, he felt personally betrayed.
God bless our wonderful president.
Henry, being a Plantagenet of whom every single one were two cards short of a full deck, went ballistic. The Plantagenet's all had serious anger issues. Henry himself would go nuts when angry and would fall on the floor and chew at the carpets.
The Norman Kings were not much better except for Stephen of Blois. He was pretty much even tempered. BTW William the Conqueror was an illegitimate child.
I know, because they are ancestors of mine through both parents and I made it a point to study them. Off the top of my head, there were very few who were mentally stable. Stephen, Edward the Third, Henry the Fifth, Edward the first-who was ruthless, and a couple others I cant think of off the top of my head. And much to the amazement of people, Richard the third was well liked in the north. Except he killed his nephews. But he established the bail system.
The two worst lines of the monarchs of England were the Tudors and Stuarts, One thing though, at least there werent any queers in the Tudors line.
The Magna Carta was a document establishing the rights for the nobility in England.
I have a portrait of Charles II in my living room. I think he was an admirable monarch, who did a fine job walking a fine line.
I too have Henry II and Eleonore for direct ancestors. I mean, don’t we all?
“I mean, don’t we all?”
A good many people do. Mine runs from my mothers side and connects at Edward the 1st. Fathers side goes through at the Stewarts.
The monarchy was some real nasty bastards back then. Being nobility was a real hazardous occupation.
Henry II was one of the biggest characters on the European stage, controlling more of France than the French King did thanks to his marriage to the formidable Eleanor of Aquitaine. But Henry screwed up his relationship with her like he had his relationship with Beckett. In both cases those fallings out almost undid Henry.
In the case of Beckett, his murder on the altar made Henry a pariah in Europe and man you could make war on with a clean conscience, and the French King took advantage of that to whittle away at Henry's empire. This is what forced Henry to ostentatiously humble himself at the shrine of Beckett hoping to undo his foolish whim.
In the case of Eleanor, his disrespect of her rights in Aquitaine humiliated and enraged her and she turned his sons against him and coordinated open rebellion, sons against father. Henry regained control - it was all about control with Henry - but had lost the loyalty of his kin for the rest of his life and ended his days in another war with his sons. Interesting stuff, the sort of stuff that makes "Game of Thrones" look like the child's version of palace intrigue.
Upon hearing reports of Becket's actions, Henry is said to have uttered words that were interpreted by his men as wishing Becket killed.[11] The king's exact words are in doubt and several versions have been reported.[12] The most commonly quoted, as handed down by oral tradition, is "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?",[13] but according to historian Simon Schama this is incorrect: he accepts the account of the contemporary biographer Edward Grim, writing in Latin, who gives us "What miserable drones and traitors have I nourished and brought up in my household, who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric?"[14] Many variations have found their way into popular culture.
Whatever Henry said, it was interpreted as a royal command, and four knights,[11] Reginald FitzUrse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy and Richard le Breton,[1] set out to confront the Archbishop of Canterbury.
On 29 December 1170, they arrived at Canterbury. According to accounts left by the monk Gervase of Canterbury and eyewitness Edward Grim, they placed their weapons under a tree outside the cathedral and hid their mail armour under cloaks before entering to challenge Becket. The knights informed Becket he was to go to Winchester to give an account of his actions, but Becket refused. It was not until Becket refused their demands to submit to the king's will that they retrieved their weapons and rushed back inside for the killing.[15] Becket, meanwhile, proceeded to the main hall for vespers. The other monks tried to bolt themselves in for safety, but Becket said to them, "It is not right to make a fortress out of the house of prayer!," ordering them to reopen the doors.
The four knights, wielding drawn swords, ran into the room saying "Where is Thomas Becket, traitor to the King and country?!". The knights found Becket in a spot near a door to the monastic cloister, the stairs into the crypt, and the stairs leading up into the quire of the cathedral, where the monks were chanting vespers.[1] Upon seeing them, Becket said, "I am no traitor and I am ready to die." One knight grabbed him and tried to pull him outside, but Becket grabbed onto a pillar and bowed his head to make peace with God.[citation needed]
Several contemporary accounts of what happened next exist; of particular note is that of Grim, who was wounded in the attack. This is part of his account: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}
...the impious knight... suddenly set upon him and [shaved] off the summit of his crown which the sacred chrism consecrated to God... Then, with another blow received on the head, he remained firm. But with the third the stricken martyr bent his knees and elbows, offering himself as a living sacrifice, saying in a low voice, "For the name of Jesus and the protection of the church I am ready to embrace death." But the third knight inflicted a grave wound on the fallen one; with this blow... his crown, which was large, separated from his head so that the blood turned white from the brain yet no less did the brain turn red from the blood; it purpled the appearance of the church... The fifth – not a knight but a cleric who had entered with the knights... placed his foot on the neck of the holy priest and precious martyr and (it is horrible to say) scattered the brains with the blood across the floor, exclaiming to the rest, "We can leave this place, knights, he will not get up again."[16] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Becket]
Little late here. I was up at work.
Henry feuded with EVERYONE. His sons especially.
Like you say, he held onto his domains mostly till near his death and then they betrayed him.
The worst of the bunch? His youngest son John Lackland. A pure weasel, coward, backstabber and little bastard.
Hell, Richard never was in England much at all. And then the dumb cluck nearly bankrupted England with his joy of fighting and getting his ass out of hock after he was captured.
An awful lot of what happened between him and Becket could be laid at the feet of Becket.
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