Hello and welcome to the History of England Episode 40 Bishop Trouble.

Now my grandmother once told me never to apologise and never to explain.

Have I told you that before?

Well anyway, I have to start this episode with both, unfortunately.

In the last episode I described Henry the Second as a tyrant.

Now my point really was that Henry had a vast amount of power that monarchs in later

centuries could only dream of. But Kim quite rightly posted a comment on my Facebook

side pointing out that a good king, which Henry surely was, and a tyrant,

are surely incompatible. And yes, I think it's true, I'm guilty of an appalling

inaccuracy in my use of terms. Plato defined a tyrant as someone who

rules without law, looks to his own advantage rather than that of his subjects,

and uses extreme and crawl tactics against his own people, as well as others.

Now this description certainly doesn't describe Henry. In fact, he was scrupulous in clarifying

and improving the delivery of justice. So Henry fits Empress, please accept my humble apologies.

Now gentle listeners, I approached this week's episode with fear dread and trepidation,

because I need to talk this week about Henry and his relationship with the church,

and in particular with his archbishop of six years Thomas Beckett.

I'm constantly surprised about which key events of English history are known to the English.

I'm not having a go at history education in general, you understand? It's just that there's a

different focus now. So for example Simon de Montford, a man who had a fundamental impact on

English history, is a pretty unknown figure now. But Thomas Beckett is still right up there as a

core part of every school child's education, while in England that is to say.

...