The Road to Sainthood
In the Middle Ages, making it to Sainthood was a tedious process. Though, being murdered in the Canterbury Cathedral was a good starting point.
The construction and destruction of a saint: Thomas Becket
Diarmaid MacCulloch and Nicholas Vincent explore the meteoric rise to canonisation of Thomas Becket, his subsequent veneration and the destruction of his reputation during the Reformation, in the Tudor period
Thomas Becket exhibition set to open at the British Museum
After being delayed for six months, the British Museum is now ready to show its new exhibition, Thomas Becket: murder and the making of a saint. The museum reopens on May 17th, with the exhibition starting three days later.
London in the Age of Becket: The 12th century Thames
Becket was born in Cheapside and raised in London, and this short talk will look at the city that Becket would have known during his lifetime, and it’s development into the 13th century, in the years after his martyrdom.
Becket’s shrine recreated digitally
Researchers have used new evidence to create a digital reconstruction of the medieval shrine of Saint Thomas Becket, which was destroyed in the sixteenth century.
Discovery of Earliest Known Image of Pilgrims on the Road to Canterbury
Researchers have made a remarkable discovery of a stained glass panel picturing pilgrims travelling by horse and on foot to visit the tomb of archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The newly discovered stained glass panel dates to the mid 1180s, less than twenty years after Becket’s death.
The Medieval Magazine (Volume 3, No. 12) : Medieval Nation
In this issue we tackle National Holidays and the development of Nations, manuscripts at the Getty, and look at courtly festivities and jousting in London. We’re also baking bread Viking style, taking a trip to Avignon, and joining the medieval navy!
This Week in Medieval Manuscript Images
We begin with several images depicting the martyrdom of Thomas Becket, which took place of December 29, 1170, followed by another 30 interesting medieval manuscript images that have been tweeted out in the last seven days.
Shaping a Saint’s Identity: The Imagery of Thomas Becket in Medieval Italy
This article sets out to trace the visual responses to the sainthood of Thomas of Canterbury outside of his original cultural context, namely in Italy, where his cult was readily received, integrated and modified.
The Lion’s Roar: Anger in the Dispute between Henry II and Thomas Becket
The purpose of this paper will be to analyze representations of anger in the sources on Becket’s life and the place of anger in the dispute, and to assess what that suggests about understandings and uses of anger in twelfth-century English politics.
The Episcopal Body and Sexuality in Late Medieval England
How was long-term celibacy thought to affect the health of religious men? How could medical knowledge help clerics to achieve bodily purity?
Ritual, Behaviour and Symbolic Communication in the dispute between Thomas Becket and King Henry II
From the dispute between Becket and Henry II we see the continuation of many traditional forms of political communication, including the use of symbolic rhetoric and items in the conduct of rituals, and also the deliberate staging of emotions.
THINGS TO SEE: Murder in the Cathedral
This is my review of the T.S. Eliot’s play, “Murder in the Cathedral”, on at St. Bartholomew in Smithfield, London.
BOOK REVIEW: A King’s Ransom – Sharon Kay Penman
A King’s Ransom is the follow up to Lionheart and tells the story of King Richard I’s imprisonment in Germany at the hands of Duke Leopold of Austria and Emperor Heinrich VI and of his battle to win back his Kingdom from his rapacious brother John.
Unpleasant Affairs That Please Us: Admonition and Rebuke in the Letter Collections of the Archbishops of Canterbury, 11th and 12th Centuries
From the Norman Conquest in 1066 up to the famous “murder in the cathedral”2 in 1170, six archbishops of Canterbury ruled over the English church…
BOOKS:Medieval Celebrities!
They may not have won any Oscars, but they were definitely medieval celebrities! Here are some great reads about some of the most famous faces of the Middle Ages
Saintly Rivals – a brief comparison of the cults of Thomas Becket and Edward the Confessor
The trajectories of these two cults make for an interesting comparison because their origins are close to each other in space and time, but also because of the many differences between them.
Mental Disability and Intellectual Impairment in the Middle Ages: Some Preliminary Research Findings
This interesting paper was one of the four given in the Mental Health in Non-medical Terms session at KZOO. It looked at philosophy, iconography and the way mental disability was viewed in the Middle Ages.
Making the martyr: the liturgical persona of Saint Thomas Becket in visual imagery
How was the historical figure of the worldly chancellor reconciled to the saintly archbishop who was martyred for his faith on the floor of Canterbury Cathedral? One of the most important vehicles of expression in the Middle Ages was the liturgy.
England: One Country, Two Courts
The tension created by the two-court system is an integral part of England’s administrative and constitutional history. Exactly how integral has generated a considerable amount of scholarly work, from explanations of the sources of the conflict, to how the disagreement over jurisdiction was addressed throughout the Middle Ages, to what impact the issue had in shaping England’s overall political development.
Comparing Pilgrim Souvenirs and Trinity Chapel Windows at Canterbury Cathedral
The story begins with two tin pilgrim ampullae2 made before 1220 in Canterbury, England, that were found centuries later, one in France (now in the Cluny Museum) and one in Norway (now in the Historical Museum in Bergen, Norway).
Martyrs on the Move: The Spread of the Cults of Thomas of Canterbury and Peter of Verona
No matter how one viewed Peter‟s and Thomas‟s personalities, the glaring fact of their instant and enduring cults forces the conclusion that their contemporaries all over Europe saw in them, and especially in their martyrdoms, desirable and compelling prototypes for Christian perfection. The spread and extent of these cults is the subject of this study.
The daughters of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine: a comparative study of twelfth-century royal women
This thesis is the first study of the daughters of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine which considers them in a dynastic context.