The Chronicle of the Kings of England by Robert Dodsley

29th December 1170. Then certain of the priests and the nobles came unto the king, and complained of Becket, saying, O king! the man whom thou forgavest is now more wicked than he was before, his crimes are increased seven-fold.

Then the king waxed exceeding wrath, and his countenance changed, and be cried out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this turbulent priest¹?

Now this saying was heard by certain of the king's servants, and they went forth privily, and finding the high priest at the altar, they fell on him and slew him, and dashed out his brains at the foot of the altar, and his blood stained the holy place².

And the priests were inflamed with fury, and they sent unto the pope, accusing the king for the murder of Becket,

Note 1. Henry said, "Shall this fellow, who came to court on a lame horse, with all his estate on a wallet behind him, trample on ih» King, the royal family, and the whole kingdom. Will none of all these lazy insignificant persons, whom I maintain, deliver me from this turbulent priest?"

Note 2. Historians differ as to the rank of the persons who undertook to despatch Becket; some say they were barons, others knights, belonging to the King's household. Their names were Reginald Fitzurse, William Tracy, Richard Britton, and Hugh Morvill. They went first to his house, expostulated with him about the excommunicated bishops, his pride, and Ingratitude: to which Becket returned a firm and resolute answer. They then left him; but in the evening, the archbishop going into the cathedral to vespers, they followed him, and clave his skull with their clubs at the foot of the altar. The murderers, not daring to return to the King, staid a year at Knaresborough castle, in Yorkshire, belonging lo Morvill; after which they went to Rome for absolution, and were enjoined to do penance on the Black Mountain for life. Some chroniclers say, they all died miserably three or four years after. But this must be false; for we are told by the annotator on Camden, that one of the assassins, William Tracy, retired twenty-three years after, to Mort, in Devonshire.