Who was the English king in conflict with Thomas Becket?

The story behind the answer

The English monarch who reigned from 1154 to 1189 appointed his friend Thomas Becket as Archbishop of Canterbury to tighten royal control over the Church. Instead, Becket defended ecclesiastical privilege, resisting measures like the Constitutions of Clarendon that aimed to curb clerical courts, leading to a fierce clash and Becket’s exile.

In 1170, four knights, spurred by the king’s angry outburst, murdered Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. The shock reverberated across Europe: Becket was canonized within three years, the king performed a dramatic public penance in 1174, and Canterbury became a major pilgrimage site—later immortalized in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The conflict stands as a defining episode in the medieval struggle between royal authority and the autonomy of the Church.