Which English archbishop’s murder in 1170 symbolized church–royal conflict under Henry II?

The story behind the answer

As Archbishop of Canterbury, he opposed Henry II’s attempts to curb clerical privilege via the Constitutions of Clarendon, insisting church courts judge clerics. The clash culminated when four knights, spurred by the king’s angry outburst, slew him before the altar in Canterbury Cathedral, turning him into a symbol of resistance to royal encroachment on ecclesiastical authority.

Canonized in 1173, his shrine drew pilgrims across Europe and compelled Henry II to perform public penance. The cult’s influence echoed through literature, notably Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Centuries later, Henry VIII destroyed the shrine as part of the Reformation, underscoring how his martyrdom long embodied the fraught church–state balance.