2-622-894 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury', c1484. Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162, Becket clashed almost incessantly with King Henry II over the question of the independence of the Church from the authority of the state. He was murdered by four knights in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December 1170. Originally published in Jacobus de Varagine's The Golden Legend. From The Connoisseur Volume XCI, edited by F. Gordon Roe. [The Connoisseur Ltd, London, 1933]