ABSTRACT
It is often surprising to find that questions relating to the accuracy and authenticity of even quite significant documents have remained unresolved, despite the work of many distinguished scholars. One such example is the record of Henry II’s undertakings at the so-called Compromise of Avranches in 1172. The context could scarcely be more well known. After a bitter exile of six years, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, had been murdered in his own cathedral on 29 December 1170, on the day after the Holy Innocents, and within the sacred days dedicated to the celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas. The perpetrators were four knights of substance, known to the King and lately come from the King’s own presence in Normandy. Despite early attempts to distance himself from the outrage and blame the victim for the sacrilegious defilement of a holy place, Henry II could not escape the suspicion that he was implicated in the murder, although his envoys averted interdict and possible excommunication by a judicious submission to future papal judgment, which would be executed by special envoys. 1 Two cardinal legates (Albert, cardinal priest of S. Lorenzo, and Theodwin, cardinal priest of S. Vitale) were duly sent by Pope Alexander III to assess the King’s guilt, impose appropriate penance, and restore the penitent to the bosom of the Church. Leaving the Curia in autumn 1171 (about the same time that Henry embarked on the expedition which established his lordship in Ireland), they arrived in the King’s dominions towards the end of the year, by which time the King was all but cut off from communication with continental Europe by distance and by the perils of the Irish Sea in winter. Notification of the cardinals’ arrival may not have reached Henry II, then in Dublin, where he had spent the heart of the winter [c. 11 November 1171-late February 1172), until some time in February 1172. He then travelled south, reaching Wexford on 1 March, where he waited for good weather to permit the repatriation of his army and household, having abandoned a projected campaign against the king of Connaught. A planned departure on 26 March had to be abandoned because of atrocious weather, and he was trapped by fierce gales for a further three weeks (26 March-16 April 1172), before being able to make the return voyage to South Wales. 1 It is possible, in fact, that he had intended his absolution to take place on Maundy Thursday (7 April), the traditional day for the reconciliation of public penitents, so that he could celebrate Easter (10 April) in style. 2 He moved as swiftly as the encumbrance of an army and the particularly ferocious weather would permit, reaching Normandy, by way of South Wales and southern England, in the second week of May 1172. 3 Negotiations with the legates took only two days (17 and 18 May), following which the full public process of reconciliation was enacted inside and outside the cathedral of Avranches on 21 May (with a recapitulation at Caen on 30 May, to ensure maximum publicity): 4 the powerful King Henry II purged himself of direct complicity in Becket’s murder and bound himself by oath to a series of undertakings, part penance for his acknowledged responsibility for the murder, part settlement of the issues which had given rise to the conflict. The key elements of the King’s purgation and absolution, together with the retractions and penances, were then formally enumerated in Ne in dubium, an instrument drafted by the cardinals in the form of a letter addressed by them to the King. 5
