Top Secret: Canterbury Cathedral Plans. Legend: Thomas Beckets Body found Edward Grim Entrance to Cathedral

The Knights of King Henry II Thomas Becket Edward Grim The Knights of King Henry II

Murder Weapon Report Item – Knights Sword Found – Lying next to victims body Condition – Lots of blood including parts of the victim’s brain

Eyewitness Account – Edward Grim ‘Straightway the four knights entered the house of prayer and reconciliation with swords sacrilegiously drawn, causing horror to the beholders by their very looks and the clanging of their arms. [Becket and the knights then argued for a short while, and then one of the knights struck Becket with his sword] Then he received a second blow on the head but still stood firm. At the third blow he fell on his knees and elbows, offering himself a living victim, and saying in a low voice, "For the Name of Jesus and the protection of the Church I am ready to embrace death." Then the third knight inflicted a terrible wound as he lay, by which the sword was broken against the pavement, and the crown which was large was separated from the head... The fourth knight prevented any from interfering so that the others might freely perpetrate the murder. As to the fifth, no knight but that clerk who had entered with the knights, that a fifth blow might not be wanting to the martyr who was in other things like to Christ, he put his foot on the neck of the holy priest and precious martyr, and, horrible to say, scattered his brains and blood over the pavement, calling out to the others, "Let us away, knights; he will rise no more."'

Witness Interview Edward Grim had arrived at Canterbury just a few days before the events took place. He was an eyewitness to Becket's murder and nearly lost his own life in an attempt to save the Archbishop. His arm was nearly severed in two by a savage blow from a sword wielded by one of Henry's four knights as he tried to protect Becket, and his account reflects the emotion that he naturally felt in the aftermath of the attack.

Kent Hospital Psychiatric Report Thomas Becket: In charge of religion in England, as Archbishop of Canterbury. Deeply religious, praying for hours each day. Wears an itchy, goat’s-hair shirt, full of fleas King Henry II: Prone to temper tantrums When angry, his big grey eyes go bloodshot and flash like lightning Once got so angry, he took off all his clothes, threw himself to the floor and started chewing pieces of straw.

A contemporary artist’s impression of the murder of Becket.