Life of Thomas À Becket
1860
The son of a London merchant who rose to become the most powerful figure in England, Thomas à Becket's story reads like Greek tragedy. As Chancellor to King Henry II, he was the king's closest companion, a man of worldly brilliance and reckless ambition. When Henry appoints him Archbishop of Canterbury, expecting a compliant subordinate, he gets something else entirely: a religious convert who will challenge royal authority itself. The transformation is total and catastrophic. What follows is a decade of epic confrontation between two men who once shared a bed, now locked in a battle over whether the Church stands above or below the crown. Milman renders this twelfth-century struggle with Victorian grandeur, Becket's exile, his defiant return, his murder in Canterbury's cathedral. It is the story of what happens when a man decides his conscience is worth more than his king's favor.
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