He had become Chancellor,when the King thought of making him Archbishop.He was clever,gay,well educated,brave;had fought in several battles in France;had defeated a French knight in single combat,and brought his horse away as a token of the victory.He lived in a noble palace,he was the tutor of the young Prince Henry,he was served by one hundred and forty knights,his riches were immense.The King once sent him as his ambassador to France;and the French people,beholding in what state he travelled,cried out in the streets,'How splendid must the King of England be,when this is only the Chancellor!'They had good reason to wonder at the magnificence of Thomas a Becket,for,when he entered a French town,his procession was headed by two hundred and fifty singing boys;then,came his hounds in couples;then,eight waggons,each drawn by five horses driven by five drivers:
two of the waggons filled with strong ale to be given away to the people;four,with his gold and silver plate and stately clothes;
two,with the dresses of his numerous servants.Then,came twelve horses,each with a monkey on his back;then,a train of people bearing shields and leading fine war-horses splendidly equipped;
then,falconers with hawks upon their wrists;then,a host of knights,and gentlemen and priests;then,the Chancellor with his brilliant garments flashing in the sun,and all the people capering and shouting with delight.
The King was well pleased with all this,thinking that it only made himself the more magnificent to have so magnificent a favourite;
but he sometimes jested with the Chancellor upon his splendour too.
Once,when they were riding together through the streets of London in hard winter weather,they saw a shivering old man in rags.
'Look at the poor object!'said the King.'Would it not be a charitable act to give that aged man a comfortable warm cloak?'
'Undoubtedly it would,'said Thomas a Becket,'and you do well,Sir,to think of such Christian duties.''Come!'cried the King,'then give him your cloak!'It was made of rich crimson trimmed with ermine.The King tried to pull it off,the Chancellor tried to keep it on,both were near rolling from their saddles in the mud,when the Chancellor submitted,and the King gave the cloak to the old beggar:much to the beggar's astonishment,and much to the merriment of all the courtiers in attendance.For,courtiers are not only eager to laugh when the King laughs,but they really do enjoy a laugh against a Favourite.
'I will make,'thought King Henry the second,'this Chancellor of mine,Thomas a Becket,Archbishop of Canterbury.He will then be the head of the Church,and,being devoted to me,will help me to correct the Church.He has always upheld my power against the power of the clergy,and once publicly told some bishops (I remember),that men of the Church were equally bound to me,with men of the sword.Thomas a Becket is the man,of all other men in England,to help me in my great design.'So the King,regardless of all objection,either that he was a fighting man,or a lavish man,or a courtly man,or a man of pleasure,or anything but a likely man for the office,made him Archbishop accordingly.
Now,Thomas a Becket was proud and loved to be famous.He was already famous for the pomp of his life,for his riches,his gold and silver plate,his waggons,horses,and attendants.He could do no more in that way than he had done;and being tired of that kind of fame (which is a very poor one),he longed to have his name celebrated for something else.Nothing,he knew,would render him so famous in the world,as the setting of his utmost power and ability against the utmost power and ability of the King.He resolved with the whole strength of his mind to do it.
He may have had some secret grudge against the King besides.The King may have offended his proud humour at some time or other,for anything I know.I think it likely,because it is a common thing for Kings,Princes,and other great people,to try the tempers of their favourites rather severely.Even the little affair of the crimson cloak must have been anything but a pleasant one to a haughty man.Thomas a Becket knew better than any one in England what the King expected of him.In all his sumptuous life,he had never yet been in a position to disappoint the King.He could take up that proud stand now,as head of the Church;and he determined that it should be written in history,either that he subdued the King,or that the King subdued him.
So,of a sudden,he completely altered the whole manner of his life.He turned off all his brilliant followers,ate coarse food,drank bitter water,wore next his skin sackcloth covered with dirt and vermin (for it was then thought very religious to be very dirty),flogged his back to punish himself,lived chiefly in a little cell,washed the feet of thirteen poor people every day,and looked as miserable as he possibly could.If he had put twelve hundred monkeys on horseback instead of twelve,and had gone in procession with eight thousand waggons instead of eight,he could not have half astonished the people so much as by this great change.It soon caused him to be more talked about as an Archbishop than he had been as a Chancellor.
The King was very angry;and was made still more so,when the new Archbishop,claiming various estates from the nobles as being rightfully Church property,required the King himself,for the same reason,to give up Rochester Castle,and Rochester City too.Not satisfied with this,he declared that no power but himself should appoint a priest to any Church in the part of England over which he was Archbishop;and when a certain gentleman of Kent made such an appointment,as he claimed to have the right to do,Thomas a Becket excommunicated him.