Thomas Becket consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury

June 3, 1162

Henry II's worldly, ambitious chancellor was installed as primate of England and almost immediately underwent a conversion so severe his king thought him insane. He gave up hunting, started wearing a hair shirt, and began defending ecclesiastical privileges he had formerly attacked. The transformation from royal servant to ecclesiastical champion astonished contemporaries and set the stage for one of the most dramatic confrontations between church and state in medieval history.