ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the conflict between Henry II and Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. The growth of canon law and the consolidation of royal justice and finances gave great weight to the conflict. Becket claimed a separate jurisdiction for clerks who had committed criminal offences against the claim of the superiority of royal justice. The conflict was resolved after much dispute involving also the pope. Becket’s murder brought the whole affair to a higher level and complicated the interplay of power, laws and customs. It was a fundamental conflict about the nature of the coherence of the English Christendom.
