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Thomas Becket

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Thomas Becket
Why was Thomas Becket murdered?

Thomas Becket was made Archbishop of Canterbury in 1162. He and King Henry II were good friends at the time, until they had a power struggle. This leads to an argument. Becket had changed once he had enough power. Becket was murdered by 4 knights in 1170. There were many factors that led to Becket’s death, some irrelevant to the actual murder.
King Henry II made Becket Archbishop of Canterbury. He thought that he would help the Monarchy rule. After Becket knew that he was a high rank in the Church, he knew that he had to commit to his job. He had become very religious. The church thought that they should be able to excommunicate royalty. The Royal disagreed; they thought they should have more power. This was the power struggle they had. Obviously Becket thought that the Church should have more power. King Henry II was on the other side.
Henry and Becket argued because Becket had become religious and that wasn’t why Henry had made him Archbishop. Becket disagreed. This argument between them went on for very long. They did make up after a long time, but Becket didn’t want to be friends with henry after what he had done. This could be one factor that leads to Becket’s murder.
The main factor that led to Beckets murder was their personalities. Henry was serious, ambitious, jealous, greedy and very, very short-tempered. In contrast Becket was calm, modest, cunning, smart, religious, two-faced and determined. The fact that they had very different personalities would’ve obviously caused a problem. I think that because that Henry was short-tempered he cause the biggest personality problem. Although, Beckets personality did cause the same problem. He was two-faced; he might’ve acted friendly knowing that Henry would make him a high rank, and then change. Henry did actually forgive Becket, but he refused to forgive his men. This would’ve obviously make him even more angrier. He might’ve been so angry that he wanted Becket dead. This is

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