On December 29, 1170, the Archbishop of Canterbury was brutally murdered on the floor of the Canterbury Cathedral by four armed knights while preparing for his evening prayers.

The ramifications of that incident shook the country of England, its king, and the Catholic Church.

Over 850 years later, it's still remembered and remains one of the most significant events in English history.

Learn more about the murder of Thomas Beckett and why and

how it happened on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. Thomas Beckett was born in the year 1120 to a Norman family living in England.

His father was probably a low-ranking night and may have owned a small amount of land.

The senior Beckett was also a merchant, probably trading in

textiles or wine from continental Europe. Being Norman instead of Anglo-Saxon

meant that they were culturally part of the same group which ruled England since

the Norman conquest. And having some money in land,

together meant that they would at least rub elbows with the upper class of English society,

even if they weren't at the top themselves.

He attended a grammar school in London where he studied the basics of education in the Middle Ages.

The Trivium, which is grammar, logic, and rhetoric, and the quadrievium, which consists of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.

At the age of 20, he went music, and astronomy.

At the age of 20, he went to Paris for a year of further study,

and a few years after he returned in 1146,

he managed to get a job in the household of the Bishop of Canterbury,

Theobald of Beck.

The Archbishop of Canterbury was the highest-ranking church official in England.

His position was probably that of a clerk or a secretary for the Archbishop, although it isn't totally clear.

But whatever he did, he must have done it well because Becket was assigned several important tasks

...