Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel - Hardcover

Guy, John

3.97

798 ratings by Goodreads

9781400069071: Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1400069076 ISBN 13: 9781400069071

Publisher: Random House Inc, 2012

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A revisionist new biography reintroducing readers to one of the most subversive figures in English history—the man who sought to reform a nation, dared to defy his king, and laid down his life to defend his sacred honor

Becket’s life story has been often told but never so incisively reexamined and vividly rendered as it is in John Guy’s hands. The son of middle-class Norman parents, Becket rose against all odds to become the second most powerful man in England. As King Henry II’s chancellor, Becket charmed potentates and popes, tamed overmighty barons, and even personally led knights into battle. After his royal patron elevated him to archbishop of Canterbury in 1162, however, Becket clashed with the King. Forced to choose between fealty to the crown and the values of his faith, he repeatedly challenged Henry’s authority to bring the church to heel. Drawing on the full panoply of medieval sources, Guy sheds new light on the relationship between the two men, separates truth from centuries of mythmaking, and casts doubt on the long-held assumption that the headstrong rivals were once close friends. He also provides the fullest accounting yet for Becket’s seemingly radical transformation from worldly bureaucrat to devout man of God.

Here is a Becket seldom glimpsed in any previous biography, a man of many facets and faces: the skilled warrior as comfortable unhorsing an opponent in single combat as he was negotiating terms of surrender; the canny diplomat “with the appetite of a wolf” who unexpectedly became the spiritual paragon of the English church; and the ascetic rebel who waged a high-stakes contest of wills with one of the most volcanic monarchs of the Middle Ages. Driven into exile, derided by his enemies as an ungrateful upstart, Becket returned to Canterbury in the unlikeliest guise of all: as an avenging angel of God, wielding his power of excommunication like a sword. It is this last apparition, the one for which history remembers him best, that will lead to his martyrdom at the hands of the king’s minions—a grisly episode that Guy recounts in chilling and dramatic detail.

An uncommonly intimate portrait of one of the medieval world’s most magnetic figures,Thomas Becket breathes new life into its subject—cementing for all time his place as an enduring icon of resistance to the abuse of power.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
Kansas City Star � Bloomberg

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Product Description:

Described by The Times as 'a beautifully layered portrait of one of the most complex characters in English history', this biography of Becket sheds new light on his relationship with Henry II and his transformation from worldly bureaucrat to devout archbishop. John Guy uses the rich body of early biographical material to cut through centuries of myth-making: he examines Becket's skill as a warrior and casts doubt on the assumption that king and archbishop were once close friends. American-cut pages.

Review:

Suspenseful, meticulously researched... Guy's biography scintillates with energetic scene-setting, giving us wherever possible a tactile, visual feel for early medieval England... however well you think you know the story, it is well worth the read (Financial Times)

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 super storytelling (The Times)

Fine and thought-provoking (Sunday Times)

A nuanced portrait of one of English history's most controversial figures (TLS)

Entertainingly astute, and in places positively moving - essential reading (The Independent)

Meticulously sifts the contemporary sources for Becket's life (The Telegraph)

An elegantly written, scrupulously researched and original study (The Herald)

A wonderfully moving and subtle new biography - the reading of the assassination in the north transept of the cathedral is almost unbearably intense and brings tears to one's eye (Daily Express)

Thoroughly researched. . . an impressive array of contemporary accounts (Sunday Express)

The most accessible Life of Thomas Becket to be published in recent years (TLS)

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