§ 31. THOMAS BECKET AND HENRY II. 127
changes of raiment, all kinds of dogs and birds for field sports, eight wagons, each drawn by five horses, each horse in charge of a stout young man dressed in a new tunic. Coffers and chests contained the chancellor's money and presents. One horse, which preceded all the rest, carried the holy vessels of his chapel, the holy books, and the orna ments of the altar. The Frenchmen, seeing this train, ex claimed, "How wonderful must be the king of England, whose chancellor travels in such state! " In Paris he freely distributed his gold and silver plate and changes of raiment, — to one a robe, to another a furred cloak, to a third a pelisse, to a fourth a war-horse. He gained his object and universal popularity.
When, notwithstanding his efforts to maintain peace, war broke out between France and England, the chancellor was the bravest warrior at the head of seven hundred knights, whom he had enlisted at his own expense, and he offered to lead the storming party at the siege of Toulouse, where King Louis was shut up ; but the scruples of Henry pre vented him from offering violence to the king of France. He afterwards took three castles which were deemed impreg nable, and returned triumphant to England. One of his eulogists, Edward Grim, reports to his credit : " Who can recount the carnage, the desolation, which he made at the head of a strong body of soldiers ? He attacked castles, razed towns and cities to the ground, burned down houses and farms without a touch of pity, and never showed the slightest mercy to any one who rose in insurrection against his master's authority." Such cruelty was quite compatible with mediaeval conceptions of piety and charity, as the his tory of the crusades shows.
Becket was made for the court and the camp. Yet, though his life was purely secular, it was not immoral. He joined the king in his diversions, but not in his debaucheries. Being in deacon's orders, he was debarred from marriage, but pre-
128 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1123-1198.
served his chastity at a profligate court. This point is espe cially mentioned to his credit; for chastity was a rare virtue in the Middle Ages.
All together, his public life as chancellor was honorable and brilliant, and secures him a place among the distin guished statesmen of England. But a still more important career awaited him. 1
§ 32. The Archbishop and the King. Compare §§ 22-24 (pp. 80 sqq.).
A year after the death of Theobald, April 18, 1161, Becket was appointed by the king archbishop of Canterbury. He accepted reluctantly, and warned the king, with a smile, that he would lose a servant and a friend.2 The learned and energetic Bishop Gilbert Foliot of Hereford (afterwards of London) remarked sarcastically, perhaps from disappointed ambition, that " the king had wrought a miracle in turning a layman into an archbishop, and a soldier into a saint."
Becket was ordained priest on the Saturday after Pente cost, and consecrated archbishop on the following day with great magnificence in Westminster Abbey, June 3, 1162. His first act was to appoint the Sunday after Whitsunday as a festival of the Holy Trinity in the Church of England. He acknowledged Alexander III. as the rightful pope, and received from him the pallium through his friend, John of Salisbury.
He was the first native Englishman who occupied the seat of the primate since the Norman Conquest ; for Lanfranc and
1 Freeman, who exalts him as chancellor, thinks that he failed as arch bishop ; but his martyrdom was his greatest triumph.
2 Tennyson ingeniously introduces his drama with a game of chess between Henry and Becket, during which the king informs the chancellor of the fatal illness of Theobald, and speaks of the need of a mightier successor, who would punish guilty clerks ; while the chancellor quietly moves his bishop and checkmates the king ; whereupon Henry kicks over the board, saying : —
u Why, there then — down go bishop and king together."