Thomas Becket, Henry II, Daughters and Sons: A Family Affair

Abstract

This study examines the intentions and activities of the children of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine in participating in or promoting the cult of Thomas Becket. It looks at the existing material evidence as well as historical accounts. Much valuable recent work has focused on the daughters, Matilda, Leonor and Joanna, and their patronage regarding Becket, which includes the iconography of an illuminated manuscript page, the dedication of an altar and the design of a monumental mosaic. Taking the patronage of the daughters out of isolation, they are seen here in the context of the whole family. Young Henry was particularly involved with his father’s penance and independently venerated Becket. Richard and John also inherited their father’s sense that Becket was a supporter of the crown and honoured him at his tomb at key moments in their lives. Without underestimating both the daughters and other women as patrons of the arts, the relevance of viewing women within the historical framework of their lives and relationships is emphasized, including recognizing the involvement of their husbands. The sibling’s connections with the martyr are also evaluated in the light of the phenomenal success of Becket’s cult that spread so swiftly following his canonization.

Keywords:

• Thomas Becket
• Henry II
• patronage
• women
• representation
• siblings
• salvation

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

An early draft of this paper was given at the conference Thomas Becket–Life, Death, and Legacy held 28–30 April 2021, and I would like to thank the organizers, especially Emily Guerry, for the opportunity to take part. I am greatly indebted to the anonymous readers who offered particularly helpful comments and direction, and to Tom Nickson for his support and advice. I would like to thank Jitske Jasperse for generously sharing her work and images with me, and Richard Plant, Alexandra Gajewski and Lindy Grant for very helpful discussions and insights. Sincere thanks also to Kathleen Doyle and Susan Littledale for their valuable suggestions.

Notes

1 These include K. B. Slocum, ‘Angevin Marriage Diplomacy and the Early Dissemination of the Cult of Thomas Becket’, Medieval Perspectives, 14 (1999), 214–28; C. M. Bowie, The daughters of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, Histoires de famille, La parenté au Moyen Âge, 16 (Turnhout 2014); C. Bowie, ‘Matilda, Duchess of Saxony (1168–89) and the Cult of Thomas Becket: A Legacy of Appropriation’, in The Cult of St Thomas Becket in the Plantagenet World, c. 1170–c. 1220, ed. P. Webster and M. -P. Gelin (Woodbridge 2016), 113–31; J. M. Cerda, ‘Leonor Plantagenet and the Cult of Thomas Becket in Castile’, in The Cult of St Thomas Becket, 133–45; J. Jasperse, ‘Matilda, Leonor and Joanna: the Plantagenet sisters and the display of dynastic connections through material culture’, Journal of Medieval History, 43 (2017), 523–47.

2 For aspects of material culture and patronage associated with the daughters of Henry II, see J. Jasperse, Medieval Women, Material Culture, and Power (Leeds 2020); for sources on queenship and the daughters, see C. M. Bowie, ‘The Daughters of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Comparative Study of Twelfth-Century Royal Women’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Glasgow, 2011), 2–4. For Leonor, see J. M. Cerda Costabal, Leonor de Inglaterra: La reina Plantagenet de Castilla (1161–1214) (Gijón 2021); E. Valdez del Álamo, ‘Leonor Plantagenet: Reina y Mecenas’, in Alfonso VIII y Leonor de Inglaterra: confluencias artísticas en el entorno de 1200, ed. M. P. Yagüe and D. Olivares Martínez (Madrid 2017), 249–68; and for an alternative view, R. Walker, ‘Leonor of England, Plantagenet queen of King Alfonso VIII of Castile, and her foundation of the Cistercian abbey of Las Huelgas. In imitation of Fontevraud?’, Journal of Medieval History, 31 (2005), 346–68. For a concise review of bibliography on women’s power and patronage, see A. Gajewski and S. Seeberg, ‘Having her hand in it? Elite women as “makers” of textile art in the Middle Ages’, Journal of Medieval History, 42 (2016), 26–50, at 28–30; also, with extensive bibliography, B. Kurmann-Schwarz, ‘Gender and Medieval Art’, in A Companion to Medieval Art, ed. C. Rudolph (Oxford 2006), 128–50.

3 See A. J. Duggan, ‘Religious Networks in Action: The European Expansion of the Cult of St Thomas of Canterbury’, in International Religious Networks, ed. J. Gregory and H. McLeod (Woodbridge 2012), 20–43; A. J. Duggan, ‘The Cult of St Thomas Becket in the Thirteenth Century’, in St Thomas Cantilupe Bishop of Hereford, Essays in his Honour, ed. M. Jancey (Hereford 1982), 21–44, especially 25–28 on the early presence of the cult in Germany, Castile and Sicily. For examples of visual material, from before 1220, see R. Gameson, ‘The Early Imagery of Thomas Becket’, in Pilgrimage: The English Experience from Becket to Bunyan, ed. C. Morris and P. Roberts (Cambridge 2002), 46–89.

4 On the dissemination of miracle stories in general and of Becket’s in particular, see R. Koopmans, Wonderful to Relate: Miracle Stories and Miracle Collecting in High Medieval England (Philadelphia 2011), 12–18; 25–27, and also chapters 8 and 9. On the purported first miracle told by William FitzStephen on the day of the murder, ibid., 141. On the lives of Becket, see M. Staunton, Thomas Becket and his Biographers (Woodbridge 2006).

5 ‘E ampolles reportent, enseigne del vëage. Mais de Jerusalem est la palme aportee, E de Rochemadur, Marie en plum getee, De Saint Jame, l’escale qui en plum est müee; Or ad Deus saint Thomas cel ampole done Qui est par tut le mund Cherie e honuree … Deus le sanc al martir pur les enferms saner. En santé e el signe I fait l’onur dubler’: Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence, La Vie de saint Thomas de Canterbury, ed., trans. and annotated by J. T. E. Thomas, 2 vols (Louvain 2002), I, 334–35, lines 5891–5905; A Life of Thomas Becket in Verse: La Vie de saint Thomas Becket by Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence, trans., intro. and notes by I. Short (Toronto 2013), 169; see Gameson, ‘Early Imagery’, 49.

6 ‘Et socios suos cum signaculis B. Thomae a collo suspensis’ : Gerald of Wales, Opera, ed. G. F. Warner, 8 vols (Rolls Series, xxi, 1861–91), I, De rebus a se Gestis, 49–50, 53. See M. Staunton, ‘Thomas Becket in the Chronicles’, in The Cult of St Thomas Becket, 101.

7 For the Saint Fuscian Psalter (Amiens, Bibliothèque d’Amiens Métropole, MS 19), with fol. 8r showing Becket, see Gameson, ‘Early Imagery’, 64, pl. 8. For the Alan of Tewkesbury manuscript, London, British Library, Cotton MS Claudius B II, https://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Cotton_MS_Claudius_B_II, see Gameson, ‘Early Imagery’, 64–67, pl. 9; also L. de Beer and N. Speakman, Thomas Becket: Murder and the Making of a Saint (London 2021), figs 2.12, 2.13, 2.15.

8 London, British Library, Harley MS 5102, fols 17r, 32r, showing Becket entombed and his murder.

9 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 17.190.520, Reliquary Casket with Scenes from the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket, dated 1173–80; London, Victoria & Albert Museum, M.66-1997, The Becket Casket, dated 1180–90; Society of Antiquaries of London, LDSAL 110. See de Beer and Speakman, Thomas Becket, figs 2.17, 0.1, 3.16; also for one in Anagni, see fig. 5.1 and Gameson, ‘Early Imagery’, 51.

10 Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, 1924.108, in de Beer and Speakman, Thomas Becket, fig. 4.16; M. A. Michael, Stained Glass of Canterbury Cathedral (London 2014), 102.

11 Materials for the History of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, ed. J. C. Robertson and J. B. Sheppard, 7 vols (Rolls Series, lxvii, 1875–85), VII, Epistolæ Cantuarienses, the Letters of the Prior and Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, 513–16, 520–22 (nos 771, 774). See also London, British Library, MS Lansdowne 398 in Materials, IV, 173–74; for translation, M. Staunton, The Lives of Thomas Becket (Manchester 2001), 216–17; F. Barlow, Thomas Becket (London 1986), 260–61.

12 A. J. Duggan, ‘Diplomacy, Status and Conscience: Henry II’s Penance for Becket’s Murder’, in Forschungen zur Reichs-, Papst-, und Landesgeschichte. Peter Herde zum 65. Geburtstag von Freunden, Schülern und Kollegen dargebracht, ed. K. Borchardt and E. Bünz, 2 vols (Stuttgart 1998), I, 265–90 at 274–84; also in A. J. Duggan, Thomas Becket: Friends, Networks, Texts and Cult (Aldershot 2007), study VII. On these visits, see T. K. Keefe, ‘Shrine Time: King Henry II’s Visits to Thomas Becket’s Tomb’, Haskins Society Journal, 11 (2003), 115–22.

13 Duggan, ‘Diplomacy’, 284.

14 As noted by Bowie, ‘Matilda, Duchess of Saxony’, 117–18 with references.

15 Duggan, ‘Diplomacy’, 286.

16 On the promise to found three monasteries, see Gerald of Wales, Opera, VIII, De Principis Instructione, 170. See L. Grant, ‘Le patronage architectural d’Henri II et de son entourage’, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 37 (1994), 73–84, at 76; Duggan, ‘Diplomacy’, 286. For a range of other donations to religious foundations, see E. M. Hallam, ‘Henry II as a Founder of Monasteries’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 28 (1977), 113–32. On Dover, see J. Gillingham, ‘King Henry II, Thomas Becket and the building of Dover Castle’, in The Great Tower of Dover Castle, History, Architecture and Context, ed. P. Pattison, S. Brindle and D. M. Robinson (Liverpool 2020), 15–25; J. Goodall, The English Castle (New Haven and London 2011), 140, 144; Keefe, ‘Shrine Time’, 119–20.

17 Duggan, ‘Diplomacy’, 287.

18 Ibid., 285 with references.

19 For a summary of the children’s births, see R. V. Turner, ‘Eleanor of Aquitaine and her children: an inquiry into medieval family attachment’, Journal of Medieval History, 14 (1988), 321–36 at 324–25, and on the marriages, 325, 328.

20 On this period, see N. Strickland, Henry, the Young King (New Haven and London 2016), 78–94, 100–09.

21 Slocum, ‘Angevin’, 214–18; Bowie Daughters, 141–68; Cerda, ‘Leonor’. See also de Beer and Speakman, Thomas Becket, 93–104.

22 Jasperse, Medieval Women; Jasperse, ‘Matilda, Leonor and Joanna’.

23 Slocum, ‘Angevin’, 217.

24 Ibid., 214; Bowie, ‘Matilda, Duchess of Saxony’, 118.

25 See, for instance, Slocum, ‘Angevin’, 217. On the wider issue of the women acting together, see Jasperse, ‘Matilda, Leonor and Joanna’, 546.

26 William FitzStephen, Cantuarensis archiepiscopi et martyris, in Materials, III, 29–33. See Strickland, Young King, 27; Barlow, Thomas Becket, 55–57, and 61, with references.

27 ‘Sed longe uerisimilius quod multorum futura sit casua malroum’: The Letters of John of Salisbury, ed. and trans. W. J. Millor, H. E. Butler and C. N. L. Brooke, 2 vols (Oxford 1979, 1986), II, to Archbishop Thomas Becket, 6–9 (no. 136). See also Slocum, ‘Angevin’, 222; G. Györffy, ‘Thomas à Becket and Hungary’, Hungarian Studies in English, 4 (1969), 45–52, at 49.

28 ‘Cancellarium quoque misit in Angliam pro diversis negotiis, et praesertim ut filio suo, jam tunc coronando in regem, fidelitatem et subjectionem acciperet ab universis, et juraretur in regem’: Edward Grim, Vita S. Thomae, in Materials, II, 366; Staunton, Lives, 62; also Strickland, Young King, 48; Barlow, Thomas Becket, 69–70.

29 The Historical Works of Master Ralph de Diceto, Dean of London, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols (Rolls Series, lxviii, 1876) I, 306–07: ‘Episcopi, abates totius Angliae mandator egis fidelitatem juraverunt Henrico primogenitor filio suo. Thomas autem cancellarius primus omnium ei fecit homagium, salva fide regis quamdiu viveret et regno praeesse vellet’. See also Roger of Pontigny, in Materials, IV, 13.

30 ‘Cancellario et regni Angliae et regnorum vicinorum magnates liberos suos servituros mittebant, quos ipse honesta utriture et doctrina instituit’: FitzStephen, in Materials, III, 22. See Strickland, Young King, 36; Barlow, Thomas Becket, 44.

31 FitzStephen, in Materials, III, 20–21, 33, 34–35; Strickland, Young King, 37–38.

32 Strickland, Young King, 38–39.

33 ‘Et ex tunc rex filium suum eundem Henricum, adolescentem elegantissimum et universorum heredem, beato Thomae cancellario commisit alendum, et moribus ac curialitatibus informandum; unde postea idem Thomas ipsum Henricum jocose filium suum adoptivum apppellavit’: Matthew Paris, Historia Anglorum, ed. F. Madden, Chronicles and memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, 44, 3 vols (London 1866), I, 316; Strickland, Young King, 34.

34 Bosham, in Materials, III, 227–39. See Strickland, Young King, 51.

35 On this development, see Barlow, Thomas Becket, 68–73.

36 For further details and references, see Strickland, Young King, 49.

37 For the letter to Roger: Materials, VII, 206–07 (no. 310); Strickland, Young King, 39.

38 Bosham, in Materials, III, 275; Barlow, Thomas Becket, 94–95; W. L. Warren, Henry II (London 1973), 464–70; A. Duggan, Thomas Becket (London 2004), 39–40; Strickland, Young King, 52.

39 Strickland, Young King, 53–57, with references to all events.

40 For the coronation and the issues surrounding it, see ibid., 77–94.

41 The Correspondence of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1162–1170, ed. and trans. A. J. Duggan, 2 vols (Oxford 2000), II, no. 296: ‘In contumeliam patris et contemptum’. Also Strickland, Young King, 92.

42 Strickland, Young King, 95–100, 102–03. On young Henry and Becket’s relationship in this period, see also Barlow, Thomas Becket, 221, 228–32, 241, 251.

43 FitzStephen, in Materials, III, 129; Letters of John of Salisbury, II, to Peter, abbot of Saint-Rémi, Reims, 722–23 (no. 304). For more detail and references, see Strickland, Young King, 84–89, 100–07.

44 Strickland, Young King, 108.

45 ‘Sed quia rex filium suum voluit adesse, ut quod pater promitteret ille etiam asseveraret’: Materials, VII, 514 (no. 771); see Strickland, Young King, 114. For a description of these events, see Duggan, ‘Diplomacy’, 274–78, esp. 274.

46 ‘Rex filius regis idem quod pater suus juraverat et promiserat, juravit et promisit’: Historical Works of Master Ralph de Diceto, I, 352; also Materials, VII, 516–18 (no. 772); A. Duggan, ‘Ne in dubium: The Official Record of Henry II’s Reconciliation at Avranches, 21 May 1172’, The English Historical Review, 115 (2000), 643–58, esp. 650–51, 653.

47 ‘Qui eum in pueritia nutriverat et quem ipse adprime dilexerat; Deo et sancto martyri Thomae multa donaria obtulit’: Lansdowne Anonymous, in Materials, IV, 178–79. See Strickland, Young King, 14, 117; Barlow, Thomas Becket, 269.

48 The William of Canterbury Miracles were begun mid-1172: Duggan, ‘Cult of St Thomas’, 30, n. 57.

49 ‘Igitur altari consecrato, postera die ventis arridentibus mare, quod per quindecim dies clausum fuerat, navigationi patuit, tanquam obsequeretur eis qui martyri detulerant; locusque per magnalia ejusdem martyris celeber effectus est, infra modicum tempus caecis et claudis compluribus ibi santiti restitutis’: William of Canterbury, Vita, Passio et Miracula Sancti Thomae, in Materials, I, 250 (90). See Strickland, Young King, 22–23.

50 On the dating, see Koopmans, Wonderful to Relate, 139–58, esp. 139, 147, 151, 153–57. Strickland, Young King, 22, dates it to ‘some time after 1170’.

51 On these events, see Strickland, Young King, 119–50; J. Flori, Richard the Lionheart: Knight and King (Edinburgh 1999), 31–34.

52 Guernes, La Vie de saint Thomas de Canterbury I, 346–47, lines 6128–30; A Life of Thomas Becket in Verse, 174.

53 Expugnatio Hibernica: The Conquest of Ireland, by Giraldus Cambrensis, ed. and trans. A. B. Scott and F. X. Martin (Dublin 1978), 124–25, cited in Strickland, Young King, 180. See also Flori, Richard, 27 and references, 37, n. 25.

54 On Henry’s penance and gifts, see Duggan, ‘Diplomacy’, 278–84, including Henry’s donation in 1173 directly after Becket’s canonization.

55 For the events of the previous year, see Strickland, Young King, 181–219, esp. 214–17.

56 Gervase of Canterbury, Opera Historica, ed. W. Stubbs, 2 vols (Rolls Series, lxxiii, 1879/80), I, 256, II, 82. See also Strickland, Young King, 219; Keefe, ‘Shrine Time’, 118.

57 ‘Pariter quidem invitavit, nisi quod rex pater in vigiliis, in afflictionibus, in oration, pernoctans, jejunium usque in diem tertium continuasset’: Historical Works of Master Ralph de Diceto, I, 399.

58 For the Young King, see Canterbury Cathedral Archives, CCA-DCc/ChAnt/B/336; R. J. Smith, ‘The acta and seal of Henry the Young King, 1170-1183’, English Historical Review, 116 (2001), 297–326, at 318, no. 10; for Henry II’s grant, see CCA-DCc/ChAnt/B/337. I would like to thank Tom Nickson for directing me towards this reference.

59 Strickland, Young King, 309, citing Oxford, Bodleian MS Laud Misc. 71, fol. 118v.

60 Strickland, Young King, 25, 27. On Margaret’s connections with Becket, see J. Jasperse, Medieval Women, 222.

61 Strickland, Young King, 108–09, with references.

62 ‘The Pray codex, originally from Vác, provides evidence that his cult was established in Hungary by 1192/95 and probably much earlier’: Duggan, ‘Long Live’, 45–46, with references.

63 On this, see Györffy ‘Thomas à Becket’, 47–49. For a comprehensive view of Lukácz and the political background, see Z. J. Kosztolnyik, ‘The Church and Béla III of Hungary (1172–96): The Role of Archbishop Lukács of Esztergom’, Church History, 49 (1980), 375–86.

64 Györffy ‘Thomas à Becket’, 49; Duggan, ‘Long Live’, 46.

65 It is first mentioned in a text from 1291, which refers to a lawsuit that took place during the reign of Imre: Duggan, ‘Long Live’, 46 and n. 118.

66 Györffy ‘Thomas à Becket’, 49.

67 Slocum, ‘Angevin’, 222; Györffy ‘Thomas à Becket’, 50.

68 Duggan, ‘Long Live’, 46.

69 E. Jamison, ‘The Alliance of England and Sicily in the Second Half of the 12th Century’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 6 (1943), 20–32, at 22. Henry was also considering a marriage between Leonor and Frederick’s son.

70 Benedict of Peterborough, Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi Benedecti Abbatis, 2 vols, ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Series, xlix, 1867), I, 291; S. Church, King John: England, Magna Carta and the Making of a Tyrant (London 2015), 15. For the exile, see K. Jordan, Henry the Lion: A Biography, trans. P. A. Falla (Oxford 1986), 178–85.

71 Jordan, Henry the Lion, 184; A. L. Poole, Henry, the Lion (London 1912), 89.

72 Gervase, Opera Historica, I, 311; Bowie, ‘The daughters’ (Ph.D. thesis), 185 and n. 117.

73 Jordan, Henry the Lion, 185.

74 Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek (henceforth HAB), MS Guelf. 105 Noviss. 2°. See Heinrich Der Löwe und Seine Zeit: Herrschaft und Repräsentation der Welfen 1125–1235: Katalog der Ausstellung, Braunschweig 1995, ed. J. Luckhardt and F. Niehoff, 3 vols (Munich 1995), I, cat. no. D31, 206–10; H. Fuhrmann and F. Mütherich, Das Evangeliar Heinrichs des Löwen und das mittelalterliche Herrscherbild (Munich 1986), pls 27–30; H. Hoffmann, Bücher and Urkunden aus Helmarshausen und Corvey (Hannover 1992), 43–45. On the date and reasons why an alternative date of the early 1170s is less favoured, see R. Haussherr, ‘Zur Datierung des Helmarshausener Evangeliars Heinrichs des Löwen’, Zeitschrift des deutschen Vereins für Kunstwissenschaft, 34 (1980), 3–15; G. Oexle, ‘Lignage et parenté, politique et religion dans la noblesse du XIIe siècle: l’évangéliaire de Henri le Leon’, Cahiers de Civilisation Medievale, 36 (1993), 339–54. For the inscription found on the altar pyx made for the dedication of the altar, see Jasperse, ‘Matilda, Leonor and Joanna’, 530–31 and n. 37.

75 G. W. Leibniz, Scriptorum Brunsvicensia illustratium tomus secundus (Hannover 1710), 61.

76 Wolfenbüttel, HAB, MS Guelf. 105 Noviss 2°, fol. 171v; Heinrich der Löwe, I, 208.

77 For a description of the page, see Bowie, ‘Matilda, Duchess of Saxony’, 120.

78 HAB, MS Guelf. 105 Noviss 2°, fol. 19r: Heinrich der Löwe, I, 207.

79 Heinrich der Löwe, I, 206; J. A. H. Schmidt: Versuch einer historisch-topographischen Beschreibung der Stadt Braunschweig, nach ihren Märkten, Plätzen, Straßen, Kirchen und andern öffentlichen Gebäuden, Promenaden, öffentlichen Gärten u. s. w. (Braunschweig 1821), 72; A. Dylong, ‘Benediktiner St. Ägidien’, in Niedersächsisches Klosterbuch. Verzeichnis der Klöster, Stifte, Kommenden und Beginenhäuser in Niedersachsen und Bremen von den Anfängen bis 1810, ed. J. Dolle with D. Knochenhauer, Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Historische Landesforschung der Universität Göttingen Band 56,1 (Bielefeld 2012), 131–38.

80 On this see R. Haussherr, ‘Zur Datierung’; Oexle, ‘Lignage et parenté’, 347–48.

81 Heinrich der Löwe, I, 176 and 221; U. Nilgen, ‘Thomas Becket und Braunschweig’, in Der Welfenschatz und sein Umkreis, ed. J. Ehlers and D. Kötzsche (Mainz 1998), 219–42, at 219; Leibniz, Scriptorum Brunsvicensia, 61.

82 Heinrich der Löwe, I, D28, esp. 202. See also Nilgen, ‘Thomas Becket’, 219–20.

83 Heinrich der Löwe, I, D23.

84 Flori, Richard, 30.

85 The Chronicle of Robert of Torigni, 4 vols, ed. R. Howlett (Rolls Series, lxxxii, 1884), IV, 282: ‘Comes Richardus, filius regis Henrici, post destrutionem Taillebore, cum perrexisset in Angliam ad sanctum Thomam et ad videndum patrem suum’. See Gillingham, Richard I (New Haven and London 1999), 62.

86 L. Landon, The Itinerary of King Richard I with Studies on Certain Matters of Interest Connected with his Reign (Rolls Series, li, N.S. xiii, 1935), for 13 August–11 December 1189, 2–23; for 13 March–12 May 1194, 85–93, with visit to Canterbury 85; in Webster, ‘John’, 148. See also P. Webster, ‘Crown, Cathedral and Conflict: King John and Canterbury’, in Cathedrals, Communities and Conflict in the Anglo-Norman World, ed. P. Dalton, C. Insley and L. J. Wilkinson (Woodbridge 2011), 203–19, at 206–07; Flori, Richard, 176.

87 ‘Dedit autem dominus rex domino archiepiscopo, qui cum eo ipso die comedit, cornu eburneum mirae magnitudinis, quod comes Willelmus ei praesentaverat, quod et achiepiscopus per sacristam beato Thomae nisit’: Materials, VIII, 308 (no. 324). See Webster, ‘Crown, Cathedral and Conflict’, 206, n. 17. On the coronation, see Itinerary of King Richard, 3–4.

88 Itinerary of King Richard, 4–23.

89 ‘Venit rex Cantuariam, et a conventu Sancti Augustini susceptus in directum ad processionem conventus matricis ecclesiae, sicque ab utroque conventu in ecclesiam Christi deductus est. Noluit enim aliquam ecclesiam ingredi donec matrem suam Cantuariensem ecclesiam, per quam coronam regni meruit accipere, visitasset’: Gervase, Opera Historica, I, 524; Itinerary of King Richard, 85. See Webster, ‘John’, 148.

90 ‘Vouimus ad memoriam beati et gloriosi martiris Thome ut liberationem domini regis filii nostri possemus eius interuenientibus meritis et precibus optinere’: Literae Cantuarienses, ed. J. B. Sheppard, 3 vols (London 1887–89), III, appendix 379–80, no. 38. I am grateful to Lindy Grant for supplying this reference.

91 For instance, Chronicles and Memorials of the Reign of Richard I, vol. 2, Epistolae Cantuarienses, ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Series, xxxviii, 1864–65), 362–63 (no. 399) and 364–65 (no. 403) (both 1193).

92 Epistolae Cantuarienses, 358 (no. 393); 437–38 (no. 472).

93 ‘Et humiliter adorato Deo at beato Thoma martyre’: Gervase, Opera Historia, I, 322.

94 Benedict of Peterborough, Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi, I, 320–21. For Geoffrey’s itinerary, see The Charters of Duchess Constance of Brittany and her Family 1171–1221, ed. J. Everard and M. Jones (Woodbridge 1999), 7–10, indicating that Geoffrey was in Canterbury.

95 On the marriage, see Cerda, Leonor de Inglaterra, 44–51, 73–91; Cerda, ‘Leonor’, 133.

96 On Becket and Toledo in this period, see D. G. Cavero et al., Tomás Becket y la Península Ibérica (1170–1230) (León 2013), 49–52. For Count Nuño, see S. Barton, The Aristocracy in Twelfth-Century León and Castile (Cambridge 1997), 269–70; Cerda, ‘Leonor’, 136; Los Anales Toledanos I y II, ed. J. P. Martín-Cleto (Toledo 1993), 147; Los Cartularios de Toledo: Catálogo documental, ed. F. J. Hernández (Madrid 1985), 180–81 (no. 180). For the text of the charter, see Barton, Aristocracy, Appendix 3, XVII, 328, also 200.

97 Cerda, ‘Leonor’, 136, and n. 1; see Cartularios de Toledo, 184–85 (no. 184); J. González, El Reino de Castilla durante el reinado de Alfonso VIII, 3 vols (Madrid 1960), II, 505–7 (no. 307).

98 Archivo Capitular de Toledo, A.2.G.1.5, in Jasperse, ‘Matilda, Leonor and Joanna’, 536–37 and fig. 3 (a–b). I would like to thank the author for allowing me to reproduce this image; Cerda, ‘Leonor’, 137; Cartularios de Toledo, 186–87 (no. 186); González, Alfonso VIII, II, 542–43 (no. 324). On Leonor, the altar and Becket, see Miriam Shadis, Berenguela of Castile (1180–1246) and Political Women in the High Middle Ages (New York 2009), 35–37.

99 For instance, Slocum, ‘Angevin’, 220.

100 Shadis, Berenguela, 36. On other documents confirmed by Leonor (with which she did not necessarily have a personal connection), see ibid., 35; also M. Shadis, ‘Piety, Politics, and Power: The Patronage of Leonor of England and Her Daughters, Berenguela of León and Blanche of Castile’, in The Cultural Patronage of Medieval Women, ed. J. H. McCash (Athens, GA and London 1996), 202–27.

101 Cerda, ‘Leonor’, 140.

102 Cerda ‘Leonor’, 136, 138; Los Cartularios de Toledo, 191–92 (no. 191); González, Alfonso VIII, II, 603–04 (no. 355).

103 Cerda, ‘Leonor’, 140–42. Cerda, Leonor de Inglaterra, 96–98 reconsiders her influence. On early dedications to Becket, in Sigüenza, Zaragoza, Salamanca and Ripoll, see Cavero, Tomás Becket, 52–57. On Terrassa, C. Sánchez, ‘An Anglo-Norman at Terrassa? Augustinian Canons and Thomas Becket at the end of the twelfth century’, in Romanesque Patrons and Processes Design and Instrumentality in the Art and Architecture of Romanesque Europe, ed. J. Camps, M. Castiñeiras, J. McNeill and R. Plant (London 2018), 219–34.

104 R. A. Fletcher, ‘Notes on the early history of the cult of St. Thomas Becket in western Spain’, in Salamanca y su proyeccion in el Mundo. Estudios históricos en honor di D. Florencio Marcos (Salamanca 1992), 491–97, esp. 494. I thank Tom Nickson for this reference.

105 Ibid., 495.

106 T. Minguella y Arnedo, Historia de la diócesis de Sigüenza y de sus obispos, 3 vols (Madrid 1910–13), I, 490.

107 Cerda, ‘Leonor’, 140–41; also Gameson, ‘Early Imagery’, 51; Shadis, Berenguela, 36.

108 Slocum, ‘Angevin’, 220–21.

109 O. Demus, The Mosaics of Norman Sicily (London 1949), 131; Jamison, ‘Alliance’, 27.

110 Demus, Norman Sicily, 115; Jamison, ‘Alliance’, 27.

111 See Jamison, ‘Alliance’, 27–29.

112 Demus, Norman Sicily, 123–34.

113 Described in Jamison, ‘Alliance’, 25.

114 Demus, Norman Sicily, 114–15, pl. 59; E. Kitzinger, I Mosaici del Periodo Normanno in Sicilia, vol. 3: Il Duomo di Monreale, I mosaici dell’abside, della solea e delle cappelle laterali (Palermo 1994), figs 60, 74.

115 Demus, Norman Sicily, 129; Jamison, ‘Alliance’, 25; Slocum, ‘Angevin’, 221.

116 For instance, Jamison, ‘Alliance’, 25; Cerda, ‘Leonor’, 141; conversely, T. Borenius, St. Thomas Becket in Art (London 1932), 13; D. Matthew, The Norman Kingdom of Sicily (Cambridge 1992), 205.

117 Kitzinger, Il Duomo di Monreale, figs 285, 290.

118 On the iconography and themes, see T. Dittelbach, Rex Imago Christi: Der Dom von Monreale. Bildsprachen und Zeremoniell in Mosaikkunst und Architektur (Wiesbaden 2003), 295–319, figs 50–51; D. Booms and P. Higgs, Sicily Culture and Conquest (London 2016), figs 144, 182. On George of Antioch and the Martorana, see H. Takahyama, The administration of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily (Leiden 1993), 7, 53, 66–68, 90–91, 93.

119 As in portraits of Empress Zoe and her husband Constantine Monomachos, c. 1040 and of John II and Irene, c. 1118.

120 Jamison, ‘Alliance’, 22–25.

121 Materials, VII, 142–43 (no. 595); T. Hoving, ‘A Newly Discovered Reliquary of St. Thomas Becket’ Gesta, 4 (1965), 28–30, figs 2–3, at 29; Jamison, ‘Alliance’, 23; C. Cipollaro and V. Decker, ‘Shaping a Saint’s Identity: The Imagery of Thomas Becket in Medieval Italy’, in A. Bovey, ed., Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology at Canterbury, BAA Trans. xxxv (Leeds 2013), 116–38, at 116.

122 On this, see Jamison, ‘Alliance’, 23–24.

123 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Acc. no. 63.160, 50 × 31 × 7 mm. On the reliquary, see Hoving, ‘Newly discovered’; Booms and Higgs, Sicily: Culture and Conquest, 240–43, fig. 193; M. Bagnoli, H. A. Klein, C. Griffith Mann, and J. Robinson, ed., Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe (Cleveland, Baltimore and London 2010), no. 98, 186–87; Gameson, ‘Early Imagery’, 51.

124 Hoving, ‘Newly discovered’, 28–29.

125 On these, see Jamison, ‘Alliance’, 24.

126 Capua, Tesoro della Cattedrale, c. 1176–82 (340 × 240 mm); for images, see E. Galasso, Oreficeria Medievale in Campania (2009) at https://issuu.com/diegolibere/docs/orefic_medievale (accessed 18 April 2023), pls 22, 25; Cipollaro and Decker, ‘Shaping a Saint’s Identity’, 134, n. 3; T. Dittelbach, Rex Imago Christi, 38–39; Gameson, ‘Early Imagery’, 51.

127 Itinerary of King Richard, 17–21.

128 ‘Itinerary of King John, &c.’, cited in Webster ‘Crown, Cathedral and Conflict’, 207.

129 Webster, ‘John’, 148; Webster ‘Crown, Cathedral and Conflict’, 204–09.

130 For a synopsis of this issue, see R. Turner, King John (London 1994), 155–74; also P. Webster, King John and Religion (Woodbridge 2015), 131–52. For visits, see T. D. Hardy, ‘Itinerary of King John, &c.’, in Rotuli Litterarum Patentium in Turri Londinensi asservati. Vol. 1, Pt. 1, 1199–1216, ed. T. D. Hardy, Record Commission (London 1835), unpaginated.

131 For this, see Webster, ‘John’, 147, 153–54.

132 Rotuli Chartarum in Turri Londinensi asservati, vol. I, pars. I. 1199–1216, ed. T. D. Hardy, Record Commission (London 1837), 13v–14b; see Webster, ‘John’, 148–49 and n. 13 for further references.

133 See Hardy, ‘Itinerary of King John, &c.’, unpaginated.

134 Rotuli Litterarum Clausarum In Turri Londinensi asservati, Vol. 1, 1204–1224, ed. T. D. Hardy, Record Commission (London 1833), 140b, cited in Webster, ‘John’, 148.

135 Rotuli Chartarum, 65b–66a. On this with further references, see Webster, ‘John’, 148.

136 On all these foundations and John’s participation in them, with references, see Webster, ‘John’, 149; also, Webster, King John, 99.

137 Webster, ‘John’, 154–69.

138 Itinerary of King Richard, 21.

139 For further details of the event, see M. Staunton, ‘Thomas Becket in the Chronicles’, in The Cult of St Thomas Becket, 95–111, at 109–10; Church, John, 44–45.

140 On the absence of letters from Eleanor to her daughters, see Bowie, Daughters, 44–45.

141 Bowie, The daughters of Henry II and Eleanor, 17; Jasperse, ‘Matilda, Leonor and Joanna’, 526.

142 Pipe Roll 34 Henry II (1187/8) (London 1925), 18, cited in K. Thompson, ‘Matilda, countess of the Perche (1171–1210): the expression of authority in name, style and seal’, Tabularia, 3 (2003), 69–88, at 78, https://journals.openedition.org/tabularia/1546. Thank you to Lindy Grant for this reference.

143 Flori, Richard, 94–107; Jamison, ‘Alliance’, 31.

144 Magistri Rogeeri de Houedene, Chronica, in Materials, IV, 114: ‘Interim Alienor regina, mater Johannis regis Angliae, quam ipse miserat ad Aldefonsum regem Castellae pro {Blanca} filia ejusdem regis Castellae maritanda Lodowico filio Philippi regis Franciae, rediit, recepta praefata regis Castellae filia’. Cited in Cerda, Leonor de Inglaterra, 163–64; Shadis, Berenguela, 37.

145 Foedera: conventiones, litterae, ed. T. Rymer, 3 vols (London 1816–30), I, pt I, 94, in Shadis, Berenguela, 32, and see 37.