British Museum to show how Thomas Becket's murder shook Europe. [View all]

[Tanuki]

https://amp.theguardian.com/culture/2021/may/09/british-museum-show-thomas-becket-murder-shook-europe?CMP=twt_a-culture_b-gdnculture&__twitter_impression=true


"The murder of Thomas Becket in 1170, cut down inside Canterbury Cathedral by knights of King Henry II’s retinue, sent shock waves throughout England and beyond – an act as scandalous, according to one of his successors as archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, as the assassination of JFK or Martin Luther King.

The extent to which those ripples reverberated across Europe will be illustrated by a number of rare exhibits on display for the first time at the British Museum, as part of its forthcoming exhibition later this month about Becket, his murder and its powerful aftershocks.

“It is no exaggeration to say that this was the crime of the century,” said Naomi Speakman, one of the co-curators of the exhibition. Becket was not only a senior churchman in his own right, but was highly connected to rulers and church figures across Europe, including the pope. And so when he died, she says, the outrage and veneration was swift and widespread.

“A key objective of ours was to take what is [often] thought of as an insular British story, and to refocus it and say, actually, this is a European story,” said Lloyd de Beer, the other co-curator. “This murder happens on a European stage. And these objects speak to different elements of how that murder was received in those European countries.”

Two of the most striking exhibits come from Sweden and Norway, where the cult of Saint Thomas of Canterbury quickly became established, though it would also spread across continental Europe and as far afield as Iceland and Sicily."....(more)