"So Similar, Yet so Different" - an Essay on the Relationship between Thomas Becket and King Henry II

Finally, in October 1163, Henry called all the bishops to a meeting at Westminster. He told them to hand over criminal clerics to be tried in royal courts, but Becket disallowed this action. Henry countered this move by demanding that the archbishop return estates he had given him as chancellor. Becket was at last forced to reconcile with the king when the pope requested he do so. Once Henry realized his friend had a different attitude, he tried to straighten things out at Northampton. In spite of this, Becket still refused to yield to Henry's wishes. In response, Henry wrote the Constitutions of Clarendon, outlining the royal customs all clergy were to uphold. This included a clause saying that clerics convicted in ecclesiastical courts should also be tried in His Majesty's courts as a double punishment. Because this constitution caught Becket by surprise, he submitted to it decrees without thinking. Although the archbishop did not realize it at the time, this was a huge mistake: "no sooner had the rest of the bishop followed his example than Becket repented of his weakness"(Fraser 51). The archbishop had now confused his fellow churchmen on whether or not to follow the king's wishes.…