Commentary On Correspondence Of Thomas Becket (1162-1170)

England’s King Henry II appointed his friend Thomas Becket (Thomas Becket,1118-1170) as the Archbishop of Canterbury in the late12thCentury. Before became thearchbishop, Becket justice was Henry II’ reliable trusted follower. As taking up theimportant post of archbishop, he became the bishop of Britain instead of a secular official.Becket should have thanks to his old friend Henry II, but later they separated and godifferent ways. In addition, Becket declared that he was not the king’s servant any longer.Whom he would like to follow was the Pope of Rome. As conflicts intensified, Becketwas finally killed by4knights of Henry II in a Church.Becket was a disputed and tragic figure. The main reason was the battle of theMagisterium and the Kingship. Becket and Henry II were spokesmen for these two kindsof power. They lived in Medieval England and Europe where large-scale religious had notreformed yet.The main way to communicate in Medieval was by letter. Many letters were beingkept after Becket became the bishop. The paper is on the basis of Becket’scorrespondence, using further analysis and interpretation and trying to restore the truehistory.The title of the paper is " Commentary on correspondence of ThomasBecket(1162-1170)", which uses Becket’s tenure of archbishop, his forced to escape andhis letters when he came back as research objects. The paper is divided into five parts.The first part is the background of writing letters, which means the society, religiousbackground and personal background of letters. The second part is the correspondence ofBecket when he was the archbishop. The third part is the correspondence of Becket whenhe fled to France. The fourth part is the correspondence between Becket and Henry IIwhen Becket back. The fifth part evaluates all correspondence’ historical value and itseffect and make a further understanding of political struggle in England in twelfth century.