by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2021

• Official Website: Canterbury Cathedral
• Oprah Book Clubs: Cathedral Floor Plan and Cathedral Building Terms

Originally a Roman Catholic church, Canterbury Cathedral, which this writer has visited, is a Church of England church (also known as Anglican and in the United States, Episcopal) located in Canterbury, Kent, England. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Church of England, and the symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Together with the Church of St. Martin, the oldest church in England, and the ruins of the Abbey of St. Augustine, both also in Canterbury, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In 597, Pope Gregory the Great sent Augustine, the prior of a monastery in Rome, to convert King Æthelberht and his Kingdom of Kent to Christianity. After the conversion, Canterbury, originally a Roman town, was chosen by Augustine as the center for his diocese in Kent, and an abbey and cathedral were built. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury and is known as St. Augustine of Canterbury.

Augustine’s original building was extensively rebuilt and enlarged but it was destroyed by fire in 1067 and was completely rebuilt from 1070-1077 by Lanfranc, the first Norman Archbishop of Canterbury. Lanfranc had been the abbot of the Abbey of Saint-Étienne in Caen, Normandy, now in France, and the design of the new cathedral was based upon the Abbey of Saint-Étienne, using the same material, Caen stone, a light creamy-yellow limestone quarried near the city of Caen.

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Over the years, there has been new construction and repairs including:

• 1098-1130: A longer quire was built over a crypt (present Western Crypt) doubling the length of the cathedral.
• 1175-1184: In September 1174 the quire was severely damaged by fire, necessitating a major reconstruction. The Eastern Crypt, Trinity Chapel, and Corona Chapel were added.
• 1377-1405: The nave and transepts were rebuilt.
• 1498: The original Norman northwest tower was replaced.
• 1660-1704: In 1642-1643, during the English Civil War, Puritans caused significant damage during their “cleansing” of the cathedral, necessitating repair and refurbishing.
• 1834: The original Norman northwest tower was demolished and rebuilt due to structural issues.
• 1986: A new Martyrdom Altar was installed in the northwest transept, on the site where Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170.

The most famous event that occurred at Canterbury Cathedral was the murder of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1170. In 1162, King Henry II of England (reigned 1154-1189, also Duke of Normandy, Count of Anjou and Maine, and Duke of Aquitaine) had named his Lord Chancellor Thomas Becket the Archbishop of Canterbury following the death of the previous Archbishop, Theobold of Bec. Henry hoped that by appointing Becket there would be a return to royal supremacy over the English Church as it had been in the days of Henry’s grandfather King Henry I. However, Becket wanted to prove that he was no mouthpiece for Henry. An argument developed between the two men over the issue of whether clergy who had committed secular crimes should be tried in secular courts or church courts. Attempts at negotiations failed and in 1164, Becket fled to France to seek sanctuary.

On June 14, 1170, Henry II’s eldest surviving son, Henry the Young King, was crowned junior King of England while Henry II was still alive, adopting the practice of the French monarchy. Roger de Pont L’Évêque, Archbishop of York, Gilbert Foliot, Bishop of London, and Josceline de Bohon, Bishop of Salisbury all participated in the crowning. This infringed on the right of Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury to crown English monarchs and drove Pope Alexander III to allow Becket to lay an interdict on England as punishment, which would forbid the public celebration of sacred rites. This threat forced Henry back to negotiations and terms were agreed to finally in July 1170.

Becket returned to England in early December 1170. Just when the dispute with Henry II seemed resolved, Becket excommunicated the three bishops who had participated in the crowning of Henry the Young King. Henry II’s anger at the timing of the excommunications led him to supposedly ask the question: “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?” This inspired four knights to set off from Henry’s court in Normandy to Canterbury. They interviewed Becket at the Archbishop’s Palace and then Becket, fearing violence, sought refuge in Canterbury Cathedral. The murder took place while the monks were singing vespers, the evening prayer, on December 29, 1170, in what is now known as The Martyrdom in the northwest transept of the cathedral. As Becket was praying, he was hit by a violent sword stroke that sliced off the crown of his head.

The monks were afraid that Becket’s body might be stolen and so his remains were placed beneath the floor of the eastern crypt of the cathedral. A stone cover was placed over the burial place with two holes where pilgrims could insert their heads and kiss the tomb. Canterbury Cathedral had always been popular with religious pilgrims and after the death of Thomas Becket, the number of pilgrims visiting the cathedral rose rapidly and continued until the Protestant Reformation. The income from pilgrims who visited Becket’s shrine, such as those portrayed in Geoffrey Chaucer‘s famous Canterbury Tales (written 1387-1400), helped to pay for the subsequent rebuilding of the cathedral. This revenue included the profits from the sale of pilgrim badges depicting Becket, his martyrdom, or his shrine.

On February 21, 1173, a little more than two years after his death, Thomas Becket was canonized as a saint by Pope Alexander III. King Henry II performed a public act of penance on July 12, 1174, at Canterbury Cathedral, when he publicly confessed his sins, then allowed each bishop present to give him five hits with a rod, and then each of the 80 monks of Canterbury Cathedral gave him three hits with a rod. Finally, Henry offered gifts to Becket’s shrine and spent a night-long vigil at Becket’s tomb.

In 1220, fifty years after his death, Becket’s remains were moved to a new gold-plated and bejeweled shrine behind the high altar in the Trinity Chapel. The shrine was supported by three pairs of pillars, placed on a raised platform with three steps. The shrine and Becket’s remains were destroyed in 1538, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, on orders from King Henry VIII. In 2020, researchers at the Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture at the University of York in England used computer-generated imagery to reconstruct how the shrine would have looked in 1408. Today, an empty space with a single candle represents the site of Becket’s destroyed shrine.

• Smithsonian Magazine: Researchers Digitally Reconstruct Thomas Becket’s Razed Canterbury Cathedral Shrine

Canterbury Cathedral has three royal burials: Edward, Prince of Wales known as The Black Prince, King Henry IV, and his second wife Joan of Navarre.

Edward, Prince of Wales (1330-1376) was the eldest son and heir of King Edward III. Best known for his military career in the Hundred Years War, he is commonly referred to as “The Black Prince” although he was not called that in his lifetime. The first appearance of the reference occurred more than 150 years after his death. It is thought it may refer to Edward’s black shield, and/or his black armor or from his brutal reputation, particularly towards the French in the Duchy of Aquitaine.

Around 1367, Edward, Prince of Wales contracted an illness that ailed him until his death in 1376. It was believed that he contracted dysentery, which killed more medieval soldiers than battle, but it is unlikely that he could survive a nine-year battle with dysentery. Other possible diagnoses include edema, nephritis, or cirrhosis. On June 8, 1376, a week before his forty-sixth birthday, Edward died at the Palace of Westminster. Edward had requested to be buried in the crypt at Canterbury Cathedral. His request was denied because of the popular feeling that Edward should be buried in a grand tomb close to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket. Edward, Prince of Wales was buried in a tomb with a bronze effigy on the south side of the Trinity Chapel, the site of Becket’s shrine. Edward’s heraldic helmet and gauntlets were placed above his tomb. Today, replicas hang above his tomb and the originals are in a glass case nearby.

King Henry IV of England (1367-1413), who usurped the throne from his first cousin King Richard II (the son of Edward, Prince of Wales above) and became the first Lancaster king, was the eldest surviving son of John of Gaunt (third surviving son of King Edward III) and his first wife Blanche of Lancaster. In his last years, Henry suffered from a disfiguring disease (possibly leprosy, syphilis, or psoriasis) and had severe attacks (possibly from epilepsy or cardiovascular disease). On March 20, 1413, while in prayer at the shrine of Edward the Confessor at Westminster Abbey, Henry IV suffered a fatal attack, possibly a stroke. He was carried to the Jerusalem Chamber, a room in the house of the abbot, where he died at age 45.

Henry IV was not buried at Westminster Abbey but instead, he had requested to be buried at Canterbury Cathedral, presumably because of an affinity towards St. Thomas Becket. His tomb is on the north side of Trinity Chapel and was directly adjacent to the shrine of  St. Thomas Becket. You can see how close Henry’s tomb was to Becket’s shrine in his tomb’s photo above. The single candle on the floor on the site of Becket’s destroyed shrine can be seen in the tomb photo. When Henry IV’s second wife Joan of Navarre died in 1437, she was buried with her husband.

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Works Cited

• Canterbury-cathedral.org. 2021. Welcome to Canterbury Cathedral. [online] Available at: <https://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/> [Accessed 21 February 2021].
• En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Canterbury Cathedral. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canterbury_Cathedral> [Accessed 21 February 2021].
• Flantzer, Susan, 2017. Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales (The Black Prince). [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/edward-of-woodstock-prince-of-wales-the-black-prince/> [Accessed 21 February 2021].
• Flantzer, Susan, 2016. King Henry II of England. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/king-henry-ii-of-england/> [Accessed 21 February 2021].
• Flantzer, Susan, 2013. King Henry IV of England. [online] Unofficial Royalty. Available at: <https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/march-20-daily-featured-royal-date/> [Accessed 21 February 2021].
• Keates, Jonathan, 2001. Canterbury Cathedral: Official Cathedral Guide. Canterbury: Cathedral Enterprises Ltd.