Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel, Victim: A 900-Year-Old Story Retold
John Guy
Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel, Victim: A 900-Year-Old Story Retold
In 1120 the wife of a Norman draper's merchant gave birth to a baby boy in London's bustling Cheapside. Despite his sickly constitution, middle-class background and unremarkable abilities, he rose within the space of thirty-five years to become the most powerful man in the kingdom, second only to Henry II himself. At his height, he led seven hundred knights into battle, brokered peace between nations, held the ear of the Pope and brought one of the strongest rulers in Christendom to his knees. And within three years of his bloody assassination, he was a saint whose cult had spread the length and breadth of Europe, and a legend who remains as controversial and compelling today as he was during his life.The story of Thomas Becket is the story of an enigma, as well as of one of the most tumultuous periods in English history. Drawing on a vast array of contemporary records, personal letters and first-hand accounts, John Guy has reconstructed a new account of this most remarkable man, the dramatic times in which he lived and the pivotal role he played in his nation's history.
4.4 out of 5 based on 7 reviews
|
Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Non-fiction |
| Genre |
Biography, History |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
448 |
| RRP |
£25.00 |
| Date of Publication |
April 2012 |
| ISBN |
978-0670918461 |
| Publisher |
Viking |
| |
In 1120 the wife of a Norman draper's merchant gave birth to a baby boy in London's bustling Cheapside. Despite his sickly constitution, middle-class background and unremarkable abilities, he rose within the space of thirty-five years to become the most powerful man in the kingdom, second only to Henry II himself. At his height, he led seven hundred knights into battle, brokered peace between nations, held the ear of the Pope and brought one of the strongest rulers in Christendom to his knees. And within three years of his bloody assassination, he was a saint whose cult had spread the length and breadth of Europe, and a legend who remains as controversial and compelling today as he was during his life.The story of Thomas Becket is the story of an enigma, as well as of one of the most tumultuous periods in English history. Drawing on a vast array of contemporary records, personal letters and first-hand accounts, John Guy has reconstructed a new account of this most remarkable man, the dramatic times in which he lived and the pivotal role he played in his nation's history.
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Reviews
The Financial Times
John Cornwell
“Suspenseful, meticulously researched … Guy’s biography scintillates with energetic scene-setting, giving us wherever possible a tactile, visual feel for early medieval England, and London especially. His portraits of the two men, from the early period of their relationship, are subtle and telling ... However well you think you know the story, it is well worth the read.”
23/03/2012
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The Literary Review
Edward Norman
“At first sight the book might seem to be a quasi-polemical attempt to rescue Becket’s reputation from the mauling it has received at the hands of revisionists … Yet it rapidly becomes clear that no such thing is happening. This is an important study of Thomas Becket, not so much for its original research as for its original assessments and balanced judgements. John Guy is a valuable and reliable guide and this book is a model of what a popular presentation of history should be: accessible and accurate, and distinguished by measured conclusions, especially in relation to personalities. What he achieves is a series of interpretations of the shifting contexts in which the most significant conflicts of Church and State occurred ... a splendid book.”
01/04/2012
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The Times
Dan Jones
“… a triumph: a beautifully layered portrait of one of the most complex characters in English history, which gives a new narrative coherence to a very peculiar life ... It is to Guy’s immense credit that he has written such a lively, effortlessly readable biography — a book that not only corrects many historical errors and uncertainties, but merits reading more than once, for the sheer joy of its superb storytelling.”
24/03/2012
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The Daily Telegraph
David Horspool
“From a biographer’s point of view, the central question of Becket’s life is how the bond between the king and his Chancellor didn’t just deteriorate, but became so poisoned that Guy is sure that even Henry’s extravagant penance after the murder was a sham, and that to think otherwise is “romantic and absurd”. Guy’s explanation is that the bond was not all it has been made to seem ... [An] intelligent, confident and absorbing book.”
03/04/2012
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The Sunday Times
Helen Castor
“[A] fine and thoughtprovoking book … Guy compellingly questions the tradition that the closeness between king and chancellor was an intensely personal bond. Instead, he shows us a relationship that was a meeting of interests rather than minds.”
18/03/2012
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The Spectator
Blair Worden
“It is Guy’s achievement, when he has stripped the embellishments, to leave us with a sense of Becket’s greatness. Yet he has a problem he never quite solves. The less romantic the relationship between Henry and Thomas appears, the less satisfying biography becomes as a means of explaining it. The clash of personalities heightened but did not create the great issue on which Henry’s demands for obedience turned, and which Guy is content to sketch: the contest of church and state.”
07/04/2012
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The Sunday Telegraph
Noel Malcolm
“John Guy is a skilful explainer of historical complexities to the general reader, and there is much to be learnt from this book. Too often, however, his prose relapses into slackness and cliché…”
10/04/2012
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