Posted on 12/28/2005 7:27:15 PM PST by Pyro7480
'Worst' historical Britons named
Historians have put together a list of the 10 "worst" Britons of the last 1,000 years. They chose one rogue from each century of the last millennium to compile the list for the BBC History Magazine.
Jack the Ripper, King John and Oswald Mosley - founder of the British Union of Fascists - are among the selection.
Magazine editor Dave Musgrove said the different "definitions of wickedness" of the 10 historians questioned had led to a diverse list....
The "greedy" Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was nominated by Professor John Hudson, of St Andrews University, as the 12th century's worst villain.
"He divided England in a way that even many churchmen who shared some of his views thought unnecessary and self-indulgent," he said.
"He was a founder of gesture politics."
"Those who share my prejudice against Becket may consider his assassination in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December, 1170, a fittingly grisly end."
[The list is the cover story of BBC History Magazine's January 2006 issue.]
I'd never thought I'd see a modern British academic defending the authority of the monarchy, even indirectly.
*No doubt a Poofter Professor; well, he represents Perfidious Albion and he hates Becket, therefore, he can kiss my arse
BTW, Jesus is divisive
***Lol. If only a hair-shirt were to be found on the BBC's dead body. ***
We already know they have lice as their programing is lousy!
Is it true that some people at Becket's funeral went into fits when they saw the lice abandoning his body?
The idea that clergymen are immune to civil law - that rates as evil
Just an amateur opinion, but I don't think the professor can see the sun shine from the current location of his head. Becket and Henry II were reportedly reconciled before his assasination.
I'll nominate this broad:
1114 - Matilda (Maud), daughter of Henry I of England marries Emperor Henry V
1129 - Empress Matilda, widow of Henry V, marries Geoffrey the Handsome, Count of Anjou, nicknamed " Plantagenet "
1139 - Matilda lands in England
1141 - Matilda captures Stephen at the battle of Lincoln, and reigns disastrously as queen; she is driven out by a popular rising and Stephen restored
1148 - Matilda leaves England for the last time
'Civil law' of the time consisted in whatever the king willed and was able to enforce. Must not have been a very popular 'British' concept given that the Magna Carta was signed in 1215.
And yet The Constitution of the United States of America - Fifth Amendment--Rights of Persons with the imprimatur of The Unites States Senate, gives more credit for Henry II's Assize of Clarendon of 1166 as a basis of US civil law than Becket's benefit of clergy.
He assumed Becket would play along... he didn't.
Obviously, you think there should be no separation of church and state... and you must love eminent domain (as evidenced by the raiding and shutting down of the Cathedrals and churches... a lot, and taking the lands?
Go read some more about what happened (history, not BBC)... then get back to me.
One Law for all: lay and clerk: same crime, same penalty.
. . . the shrine shall be pillaged, and the gold spent,
The jewels gone for light ladies' ornament,
The sanctuary broken, and its stores
Swept into the laps of parasites and whores.
When miracles cease, and the faithful desert you.
And men shall only do their best to forget you.
And later is worse, when men will not hate you
Enough to defame or to execrate you,
But pondering the qualities that you lacked
Will only try to find the historical fact.
When men shall declare that there was no mystery
About this man who played a certain part in history.
Piffle! Lotta worse people kicking around the 12th century.
St. Thomas Becket is my son Thomas's patron, since General Jackson isn't "official."
Good point. Of course, as your link points out, the grand jury system existed in pre-Norman England.
The history of the grand jury is rooted in the common and civil law, extending back to Athens, pre-Norman England, and the Assize of Clarendon promulgated by Henry II.
One might argue that Becket the archbishop was more representative of pre-Norman English law and life than Henry II.
He is a martyr for freedom of the Church from government control. Obviously, somebody doesn't like that concept at the BBC!
It's been years since I saw the film "Becket" with Richard Burton in the title role and Peter O'Toole as Henry, but it was marvelous theater.
No "King George III" ??? That memory must be too terribly painful.
Wonderful theory!
"Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through."
-Jonathan Swift
We all know that the rich and powerful rarely if ever suffer the same penalty as the poor and the weak.
How many know that the first article of magna carta guaranteed the liberties of the Church? Beckett was responsible for that.
10:1 that history professor only knew Thomas Becket failed to push for gay rights.
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