King of England and sovereign of Ireland (1485-1509), the first monarch of the Tudor dynasty.
From birth to accession to the throne, the future king was named Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond (Earl of Richmond). On his father's side, he belonged to an ancient Welsh family that adopted the surname Tudor in honor of Henry's great-great-grandfather, Tidir ap Goronwy (Tudur). Henry's grandfather, Owen Tudor, was in the service of the widow of King Henry V and mother of Henry VI, the French princess Catherine of Valois; it is not known for sure whether their long-term relationship was consecrated by a secret marriage, from which several recognized children were born. Their son Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, half-brother of King Henry VI, once again intermarried with the Lancaster family by marrying Margaret Beaufort, granddaughter of the illegitimate (later legitimized) son of the founder of the Lancastrian house, John of Gaunt.
13-year-old Margarita gave birth to her only child - the future Henry VII - two months after the premature death of her husband. At this time, the War of the Scarlet and White Roses was already underway. The widowed Countess of Richmond married twice more prominent supporters of the House of Lancaster, the second of them, Thomas Stanley, subsequently helped her stepson by cheating on Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth.
Path to power
No matter how shaky the rights of Henry Tudor, a descendant of an illegitimate son (the Beaufort family was traditionally considered not to have rights to the throne, in addition, the marriage of Owen Tudor and Catherine of France, if any, was considered illegal), after the death of Henry VI and his son Edward , Prince of Wales, in 1471, the Earl of Richmond, who was in exile in France with his uncle Jasper Tudor, was among the few surviving relatives of the Lancastrian dynasty. From 1475, Henry lived in the duchy of Brittany with Duke Francis II as a prisoner, but enjoyed good conditions.
During the stable reign of Edward IV, the Lancastrian pretenders had little chance of success, but after his death and the removal from power (and, as is commonly believed, the murder) of his sons by Richard III (1483), an era of rebellion and unrest of opposition began again in England. Philippe de Commines wrote in his Memoirs: “The Lord very quickly sent an enemy to King Richard, who had not a penny for his soul and, it seems, no rights to the crown of England - in general, there was nothing worthy but honor; but he suffered for a long time and spent most of his life a prisoner ... ". With the support of France in 1485, Henry landed in Wales, where, taking advantage of the Welsh origin of his family, he gained many supporters. On August 22, 1485, at the Battle of Bosworth, King Richard's army was defeated, and he himself died. Henry was proclaimed king on the battlefield and, having entered London some time later, by a parliamentary decree he approved the throne for himself and his descendants without any special justification - thus, he became king of England by right of conquest, like William I. If Henry Tudor had officially claimed the crown by right of inheritance of the House of Lancaster, then it, obviously, should have been received not by him, but by his healthy mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. Margarita, who briefly outlived her son, did not clash with him about claims to the throne, although she sometimes signed "Margaret R" (that is, the queen).
The beginning of the reign
The beginning of the reign of Henry VII was accompanied by the first outbreak of a mysterious disease (presumably brought by his mercenaries from France) with a high mortality rate - the so-called "sweating fever" or English sweat, which was perceived by the people as a bad omen. After the coronation, Henry married the niece of Richard III and daughter of Edward IV, Elizabeth of York, announcing the unification of the previously warring houses. Previously, she was predicted to be the wife of her uncle, Richard III. This marriage, which Henry announced back in Brittany, was a condition for Henry's support from Parliament; it is known that he hesitated to conclude it until January 1486, and crowned his wife only at the end of 1487. As an emblem (badge) of the Tudor dynasty, a combined scarlet and white rose was adopted (which is still present on the British coat of arms). In addition, Henry emphasized his Welsh origin, using the Welsh (and not just a diminutive) version of his name - Harry - in official documents and naming his eldest son Arthur in honor of the legendary Celtic king Arthur.
Tudor assertion against other claimants
The reign of Henry VII, which lasted 24 years, turned out to be one of the most peaceful eras in the history of England, despite the disturbing state in the early years of the uprising of impostors who claimed the throne - Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck. Henry showed truly royal generosity to his (potential) rivals by not subjecting the legitimate heir of Richard III, the Earl of Lincoln, to reprisals (two years later he mutinied and died in battle); Simnel was left alive and worked at the court of Henry as a cook, and Warbeck was kept for many years in the Tower in good conditions and was executed only when he tried to escape.
Nevertheless, there is a version according to which Henry VII, and not Richard III, was the initiator of the murder of the young sons of Edward IV, who allegedly survived until 1485; the murder (along with a number of other notoriously improbable crimes) was, according to this version, attributed to Richard by Tudor panegyrists such as John Morton or Thomas More. It is impossible to consider this version convincingly supported by documents.
Dynastic alliances
Henry VII strengthened the international position of England by marrying his eldest son Arthur, Prince of Wales, to the Spanish princess Catherine of Aragon, and his daughter, Margarita, by marrying King James IV of Scotland. The last step was intended to neutralize the hostile relations between the two British kingdoms (James IV had previously supported Warbeck's claims), and a century later this dynastic union delivered the great-grandson of James and Margaret, James VI, the English throne and led to the unification of the two states. After the early death of Prince Arthur (1502), Catherine of Aragon remained in England, and after the death of her father-in-law, she married the brother of her late husband (usually such a marriage was considered illegal), Henry VIII, for which special permission was received from the pope. This situation subsequently contributed to the scandalous divorce of Henry VIII and the break of England with the Catholic Church (see English Reformation).
In addition, the youngest daughter of Henry VII, Mary, entered, already in the reign of her brother, into marriage with King Louis XII of France (who died shortly after the wedding).
Other events
Henry VII was a thrifty monarch who significantly strengthened the budget of England, ruined during the years of the Hundred Years War and the War of the Scarlet and White Roses. For the trial of the nobles, a special body was established under him - the Star Chamber.
Among the memorable events of the reign of Henry VII is the expedition of the Italian in the English service Giovanni Caboto (aka John Cabot) to America and the discovery of Newfoundland, supported by him. Also, at the request of Henry, the famous historian Polydorus Virgil began to write the History of England.
The king is buried in Westminster Abbey, next to his wife, Elizabeth of York, whom he survived by seven years.
He was succeeded by his second son, Henry VIII.
Greenwich
London
2. Anne Boleyn
3. Jane Seymour
4. Anna Klevskaya
5. Catherine Howard
6. Catherine Parr
daughters: Mary I and Elizabeth I
early years
Having led the religious reformation in the country, in 1534 being proclaimed the head of the Anglican Church, in 1536 and 1539 he carried out a large-scale secularization of the monastic lands. Since the monasteries were the main suppliers of industrial crops - in particular, hemp, which is essential for sailing - one could expect that the transfer of their lands to private hands would adversely affect the condition of the English fleet. To prevent this from happening, Henry issued a decree ahead of time (in 1533) requiring each farmer to sow a quarter acre of hemp for every 6 acres of cultivated area. Thus, the monasteries lost their main economic advantage, and the alienation of their possessions did not harm the economy.
The first victims of the church reform were those who refused to accept the Act of Supremacy, who were equated with traitors to the state. The most famous of those executed during this period were John Fisher (1469-1535; Bishop of Rochester, in the past - the confessor of Henry's grandmother Margaret Beaufort) and Thomas More (1478-1535; famous humanist writer, in 1529-1532 - Lord Chancellor of England ).
Later years
In the second half of his reign, King Henry turned to the most cruel and tyrannical forms of government. The number of executed political opponents of the king increased. One of his first victims was Edmund de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, who was executed back in 1513. The last of the significant figures executed by King Henry was the son of the Duke of Norfolk, the outstanding English poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who died in January 1547, a few days before the death of the king. According to Holinshed, the number of people executed during the reign of King Henry reached 72,000 people.
Death
The Palace of Whitehall where King Henry VIII died.
In the last years of his life, Henry began to suffer from obesity (his waist size grew to 54 inches / 137 cm), so the king could only move with the help of special mechanisms. By the end of his life, Heinrich's body was covered with painful tumors. It is possible that he suffered from gout. Obesity and other health problems may have resulted from an accident in 1536 in which he injured his leg. It is possible that an infection got into the wound, and in addition, due to the accident, the leg wound that he received earlier was reopened and worsened. The wound was problematic to the point that Heinrich's doctors considered it intractable, some even arguing that the king could not be cured at all. Heinrich's wound tormented him for the rest of his life. Some time after the injury, the wound began to fester, thus preventing Heinrich from maintaining his usual level of physical activity, preventing him from exercising daily, which he previously did. It is believed that the wound he received in an accident caused a change in his shaky character. The king began to show tyrannical traits and became increasingly depressed. At the same time, Henry VIII changed his eating style and began to consume mainly large amounts of fatty red meat, reducing the amount of vegetables in his diet. It is believed that these factors provoked the early death of the king. Death overtook the king at the age of 55, on January 28, 1547 at the Palace of Whitehall (it was supposed that his father's 90th birthday party would be held there, at which the king was going to attend). The last words of the king were: “Monks! Monks! Monks! .
Wives of Henry VIII
Henry VIII was married six times. The fate of his spouse is memorized by English schoolchildren using the mnemonic phrase "divorced - executed - died - divorced - executed - survived." From the first three marriages he had 10 children, of whom only three survived - the eldest daughter Maria from the first marriage, the youngest daughter Elizabeth from the second, and son Edward from the third. All of them subsequently ruled. Henry's last three marriages were childless.
- Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536). Daughter of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. She was married to Arthur, the elder brother of Henry VIII. Having been widowed (), she remained in England, expecting either a planned or a frustrated marriage with Henry. Henry VIII married Catherine immediately after his accession to the throne in 1509. The first years of marriage were happy, but all the children of young spouses were either born dead or died in infancy. The only surviving child was Mary (1516-1558).
- Anne Boleyn (c. 1507 - 1536). For a long time she was Henry's unapproachable lover, refusing to become his mistress. After Cardinal Wolsey could not resolve the issue of Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, Anna hired theologians who proved that the king is the lord of both the state and the church, and is responsible only to God, and not to the Pope in Rome (this was the beginning of the detachment of the English churches from Rome and the establishment of the Anglican Church). She became the wife of Henry in January 1533, was crowned on June 1, 1533, and in September of the same year gave birth to his daughter Elizabeth, instead of the son expected by the king. Subsequent pregnancies ended unsuccessfully. Soon Anna lost her husband's love, was accused of adultery and beheaded in the Tower in May 1536.
- Jane Seymour (c. 1508 - 1537). She was a lady-in-waiting to Anne Boleyn. Heinrich married her a week after the execution of his previous wife. She soon died of childbed fever. Mother of Henry's only son, Edward VI. In honor of the birth of the prince, the cannons in the Tower fired two thousand volleys.
- Anna of Cleves (1515-1557). Daughter of Johann III of Cleves, sister of the reigning Duke of Cleves. Marriage with her was one of the ways to seal the alliance of Henry, Francis I and the German Protestant princes. As a prerequisite for marriage, Heinrich wished to see a portrait of the bride, for which Hans Holbein Jr. was sent to Kleve. Heinrich liked the portrait, the engagement took place in absentia. But the bride who arrived in England (unlike her portrait) categorically did not like Henry. Although the marriage was concluded in January 1540, Henry immediately began to look for a way to get rid of his unloved wife. As a result, already in June 1540, the marriage was annulled; the reason was the pre-existing engagement of Anna with the Duke of Lorraine. In addition, Heinrich stated that the actual marriage relationship between him and Anna did not work out. Anna remained in England as "the king's sister" and survived both Henry and all his other wives. This marriage was arranged by Thomas Cromwell, for which he lost his head.
- Catherine Howard (1521-1542). Niece of the powerful Duke of Norfolk, cousin of Anne Boleyn. Henry married her in July 1540 out of passionate love. It soon became clear that Catherine had a lover before marriage (Francis Derem) and was cheating on Henry with Thomas Culpeper. The perpetrators were executed, after which on February 13
King Henry III of France was the sixth child of Henry II and Catherine de Medici. Like all the last representatives of the Valois family, he was distinguished by a weak constitution, but he grew up as a cheerful, friendly and intelligent child. In his youth, he read a lot, willingly talked about literature, studied diligently, danced and fenced well, knew how to charm with his charm and elegance. Like all nobles, he early began to engage in various physical exercises and later, during military campaigns, showed good dexterity in military affairs. In 1561, during the coronation of Charles IX at Reims, he made a better impression on the people than his brother. Catherine herself, who loved Henry more than all her children, dreamed of delivering him the royal crown.
Henry's military and political career began very early. In November 1567, at the age of sixteen, he was appointed lieutenant-general of France, and with this rank received command of the royal troops. Although the direct leadership of military operations was carried out by more experienced military leaders, it was Henry who was credited with two important victories over the Huguenots - at Yarnak and at Moncontour, in March and September 1569. Covered with glory, he returned to Paris and here he made his first victories over the hearts of the ladies of the court.
Following Bartholomew's Night, the civil war between Catholics and Huguenots resumed. In February 1573, Henry took command of the army and arrived at La Rochelle. After a fierce shelling, the royal troops unsuccessfully tried several times to storm the fortress walls, and then proceeded to blockade. Meanwhile, Henry's emissaries were busy in the Polish Sejm about his election as the Polish king. The local gentry, before yielding the throne to the French prince, demanded from him many new liberties and privileges. By their cumulative action, the power of the Polish king was cut to a minimum, and the nobility received almost unlimited influence on all state affairs. In June, the Sejm elected Henry as king by a majority of votes. Upon learning of this, he hastily concluded a very favorable peace with the besieged and went to his new kingdom. In February 1574, Henry was solemnly crowned in Krakow. His short reign lasted 146 days and everything was filled with feasts and holidays. In June 1574, news arrived of the death of Charles IX. Heinrich secretly left Krakow with a handful of close associates and fled to his homeland. In September he was already in France.
Even before the coronation, Henry announced his intention to marry. As his wife, he chose the meek and benevolent Louise de Vaudemont, whom he had only briefly seen before in 1573 in Blamont. On February 13, 1575, the coronation of the king took place, and two days later the betrothal to Louise followed. After magnificent celebrations, the couple returned to Paris. The new king had a lively mind and a good memory, was quick-witted and able to speak fluently. However, Henry's numerous ill-wishers left very unflattering reviews about him. Thus, the Venetian Jean Michel wrote: “He is so devoted to idleness, so delights occupy his life, he avoids all activities so much that it baffles everyone. The king spends most of his time in the company of ladies, fragrant with perfume, curling his hair, putting on various earrings and rings ... ”Another contemporary, Zuniga, reports that Henry arranges a holiday every evening and that he, like a woman, wears earrings and coral bracelets, tints her red hair black, draws her eyebrows and even wears blush. Archbishop Frangipani also reproached Henry with idleness. “At 24 years old,” he wrote, “the king spends almost all his time at home and a lot in bed. He must be strongly intimidated in order to make him do something. Heinrich very little appreciated the usual entertainments of the nobles - tournaments, fencing, hunting. But he surprised his associates with a passion for children's games, like bilbock. The king's immoderate passion for minions ("favorites") even gave rise to obscene suspicions. In 1578, a famous duel took place, known from the descriptions of many contemporaries and later novelists, in which almost all the minions of the king fell. Heinrich came to the mortally wounded Kelus every day and promised the doctors 100,000 francs if they cured him. When he did die, the king's grief was immeasurable. He never parted with his hair again and sighed heavily at every mention of his name. He ordered the bodies of the dead to be buried in beautiful mausoleums and erected magnificent marble sculptures over them. He then had only two "favorites" left - Joyeuse and Epernon. Heinrich showered them with immense tokens of his attention and bestowed on both the titles of duke and peer.
His melancholy intensified and over the years turned into a deep depression. At the same time, there was a craving for monastic solitude. In 1579, the king and queen made their first pilgrimage to the holy places, praying in vain for an heir. Beginning in 1583, Henry lived for a long time in one or another monastic monastery. Together with all the brethren, he got up before dawn and was present at all services. His food these days was very scarce. The king devoted five hours a day to singing services and four hours to praying aloud or to himself. The rest of the time was taken up with processions and listening to sermons. He slept on simple straw, resting no more than four hours a day. A characteristic feature of Heinrich, which explains a lot of his contradictory actions, was suspiciousness, which passed all reasonable limits. So, in 1583, Henry ordered to kill all the lions, bears and bulls in the royal menagerie because he had a bad dream: he dreamed that he was being torn apart and devoured by lions.
Thus, Henry could not be called an active and energetic ruler. Meanwhile, the reign that fell to his lot was one of the most troubling in French history. Religious strife escalated every year. Upon his return, Henry found France close to civil strife. Hopes that the king would be able to reconcile the various parties did not come true. Soon a new war began, in which Henry's younger brother, Francis, fought on the side of the Huguenots. However, the fighting was limited to only minor skirmishes. Henry himself fought without any enthusiasm, was weighed down by the inconveniences of camp life and wanted to return to Paris as soon as possible. In 1576, a peace treaty was signed in Beaulieu. Francis of Valois received Anjou, Touraine and Berry; Henry of Navarre - Guyenne; Prince of Condé to Picardy. The king granted the Protestants freedom of religion, but not in Paris and not at the royal court. In addition, he gave them eight fortresses in which they could find a safe haven. All the estates taken from the Huguenots were to be returned to their former owners. This treaty could be considered a victory for the Protestants, who defended their rights in a difficult war. After that, the Protestant Republic turned into, as it were, an independent state: it had its own religious statutes, its own civil administration, its own court, its own army, its own trade and finances.
The pliability of the king was extremely disliked by the Catholic party. Its head, Duke Henry of Guise, in 1576, with the help of devoted accomplices, began to form secret societies of defenders of the Catholic faith (Catholic League) in different regions of France. In Paris, the main command over them was concentrated under the name of the central committee. With the assistance of parish priests, the league grew enormously, and with it the power of Guise itself grew to dangerous limits. Soon he could expect that, having risen at the head of a religious movement, he could easily overthrow Henry III and take his place. Thanks to papers found in 1577 from a courier who died in Lyon on his way to Rome, the king learned about the existence of the league and guessed the real intentions of his opponent. However, Henry understood that the persecution of the Guises would incite half of the kingdom against him. Therefore, by personal decree, he confirmed the formation of the league and proclaimed himself its head. The edict signed at Beaulieu was annulled, the religious war resumed. The Catholics soon had some success at Bergerac. Therefore, the peace concluded in 1577 in Poitiers was much less favorable for the Huguenots.
But in the mid-1580s, the situation in France again escalated to the extreme. In 1584, the King's younger brother, the Duke of Anjou, died. Henry himself had no heirs. In the coming years, the Valois dynasty expected complete degeneration, and the closest heir to the throne was the head of the Huguenots, Henry of Navarre. In the face of this threat, the ligists resumed their activities. Giza entered into an alliance with Spain and proclaimed Cardinal Charles of Bourbon heir to the throne. As Giza grew stronger, the power of the king became more and more illusory. Both Huguenots and Catholics were hostile to him. In order to keep at least the latter with him, Henry had to agree in 1585 to the signing of the Nemours Edict, which prohibited under threat of death in France any other confession of faith, except for Catholicism. By this edict, the King of Navarre was removed from the legal right to inherit the throne after the death of Henry. The civil war broke out with renewed vigor. In October 1587, the Huguenots defeated the Catholics at the Battle of Cutra. Henry was considered the main culprit of the defeat. When he returned to the capital in December, the Parisians met him with great hostility. The king understood that the arrival of Guise in the rebellious capital would be a signal for general indignation, and forbade him to return to the city. As if mocking his decrees, Guise arrived in Paris in May 1588 and was greeted by jubilant crowds of people. The king tried to send troops into the city, but on May 12 the Parisians blocked their way with barricades. The next day, Henry rode from Paris to Chartres. In vain, the Duke of Guise tried to convince the king that there was nothing dangerous for him in the mood of the Parisians. On August 2, he himself arrived in Chartres. Heinrich, apparently, reconciled with him, granted him the generalissimo, but refused to return to Paris. The court moved to Blois. This was the time of the highest power of Henry of Giese. He behaved in the capital like an uncrowned king, only out of courtesy giving the rightful monarch the signs of attention proper to him. Paris implicitly obeyed his every order. Many openly said then that it was time for King Henry, as once the last of the Merovingians - Childeric, to go to the monastery and cede power to the one "who really rules." The sister of Henry of Guise, the Duchess de Montpensier, openly wore scissors on her belt, with which she threatened to cut tonsure on the head of the last Valois. But it turned out that Giza triumphed early. The king was secretly preparing a retaliatory strike. On November 23, he invited the duke to his palace. On the way to Henry's office, he was surrounded by 45 nobles - the king's bodyguards. With swords and daggers, they inflicted many wounds on Giza, from which he immediately died. His brother, the cardinal, was thrown into prison and killed the next day.
The news of the death of the Guises struck with horror all of Paris, and then all of France. Everywhere the Catholics cursed the king. Masses were served in the churches with prayers for the death of the Valois dynasty. The Parisians proclaimed Henry Guise's brother Charles, Duke of Mayenne, as the head of the league, and Charles of Bourbon as king. Rejected by the party of Catholics, Henry III involuntarily had to get closer to the Huguenots. In April 1589, in the park of Plessis-les-Tours, he met with Henry of Navarre and officially recognized him as his heir. Having united their troops, both Henrys approached rebellious Paris. In May, the pope excommunicated the king from the church. From that time on, he became in the eyes of fanatics the embodiment of all evils. Many of them were ready to kill him and accept a martyr's crown for their faith. On August 1, Jacques Clement, a Jacobite monk, came to the besiegers' camp at Saint-Cloud, as if with news from Paris. Admitted to the king, he handed him some papers, and then stabbed him in the stomach with a dagger. Heinrich pushed the killer away and pulled out a knife from the wound. The guards who ran up cut the monk with reeds. But the deed was already done - the wound turned out to be fatal, and the next day the king died. Shortly before his death, he once again announced Henry of Navarre as his successor and demanded that all those present take an oath of allegiance to him.
In Paris, the news of the death of Henry III caused great joy. The townspeople celebrated it with illuminations and wild feasts. The Duchess of Montpensier took off her mourning for her brothers and traveled around the city in festive clothes. Thanksgiving prayers were served in all churches.
Henry III (1551-1589), French king (from 1574), the last of the Valois dynasty.
Born September 19, 1551 in Fontainebleau. Son of King Henry II of Valois and Catherine de Medici. He succeeded to the throne in 1574, after the death of his childless brother Charles IX.
In the context of the ongoing civil war between Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots), Henry tried to maintain a strong royal power. The most important task in this was to achieve religious peace. But concessions to the Huguenots and their leader Henry IV Bourbo-
well, the king of Navarre and the pretender to the French throne, caused outrage in Catholic circles.
In 1576 the country actually split into two camps. In the south, a Huguenot Confederation arose, independent of royal authority. In the north, the leaders of the Catholic Party, the brothers of Guise, created the Catholic League to fight the Huguenots. The king at first was able to lead the League. But from 1585 the Giza took it completely under their control. In 1588, the king tried to dissolve the League, to which the uprising in Paris became the answer.
Henry III fled the capital, made an alliance with the Huguenots and marched with them on Paris. He also ordered the massacre of Duke Henry of Guise, leader of the League. However, on July 10, 1589, the king himself was killed by one of its members - a Catholic monk.
When Henry II Plantagenet after twenty years of fighting for the English throne, he nevertheless took the crown, he faced a very serious task - to “glue” the state, collect it piece by piece, rebuild it from the ashes into which such a long war plunged it. Strengthening the prestige of royal power and pacifying the unbridled feudal lords turned out to be, as usual, a very difficult task.
First of all, Henry began with the reforms of the judicial system. A very wise decision, given the fact that they were so accustomed to lynching for 20 years of life without a king that people were hung up like washed linen, at the slightest pretext, sparing neither women, nor hungry children, nor the elderly. It was Henry the Second who introduced the jury, which was recruited from among wealthy peasants and knights. Such a ship system is relevant in many countries to this day. However, in matters of governing the country, the first king from the Plantagenet dynasty was in serious competition with church authorities.
The king, in principle, from the very beginning of his reign, tried to subjugate the clergy, for example, the king demanded that the church and the clergy, along with ordinary people, use the royal court in resolving controversial issues. And also Henry decided to take advantage of the experience of the continental, and put forward a demand to the church authorities that the elections of bishops and abbots in large monasteries take place only with the personal presence of His Majesty. And then, completely, he encroached on the most sacred thing - he forbade the English bishops to get in touch to make important decisions without the knowledge of the king. Of course, the English Catholic Church did not tolerate such a daring attack on its sacred rights. Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, with the support of the barons, showed open defiance of the monarch. What was the king to do?
He couldn't kill Beckett. The people considered the archbishop almost a saint, but over time, he got so tired of the monarch that Henry exclaimed in his hearts: “Yes, someone will finally save me from this unbearable Beckett!” The king's words were heard and taken literally. Several knights, armed with swords, hacked Thomas Beckett right during the church service. This caused a huge scandal. The people of England were deeply indignant at such atrocity, and when the murder became known in Rome, the Pope personally threatened King Henry with excommunication, the most terrible punishment for a person who lived in the Middle Ages. And then, if Henry did not repent of the murder, then the Pope threatened with interdicts, that is, temporary suspensions of all church services and church rites throughout England.
A wave of panic swept over Foggy Albion. But what about the remission of sins for the dying, weddings, communion, burials? What awaits the souls of innocent Englishmen in the next world? And the king had to publicly repent of the murder of Thomas on his grave. But still, this rash decision deprived the king of the support of more than half of the people entrusted to him by God. Henry II ruled England from 1154 to 1189.
