Description
The assassination of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral on 29th December, 1170 is one of the most famous events in European history. It inspired the largest pilgrim site in medieval Europe and many works of literature from Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ to T.S. Eliot’s ‘Murder in the Cathedral’ and Anouilh’s ‘Becket’. In a piece of historical detective work, Christopher de Hamel here identifies the Anglo-Saxon Psalter which Becket cherished throughout his time as Archbishop of Canterbury and which he may even have been holding when he was murdered.