Category: Thomas Becket

Henry de Tracy and the Devon Manor of Lapford

9/2/2025

Nicholas Vincent, a Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia wrote in 2004 that the descent of the de Tracy’s is a ‘veritable mare’s nest, from which few genealogists have emerged unscathed’ and how right he was! If an expert can say that, what chance does an enthusiastic amateur like me have?

Arms of de Tracy: Or, a lion passant sable between two bends gemelles gules

Firstly, my interest in this family is regarding one Henry de Tracy who was the overlord of the manor of Lapford, a parcel of the barony of Torrington, held by my ancestor Richard Umfreville, and secondly the feudal baronies of Bradninch, Barnstaple and Torrington. A Henry de Tracy is known to have held these baronies, or parts of them during the reigns of King Stephen, Henry II and King John. There is a Henry de Tracy who died in 1165 and there is a Henry, his great-grandson, who died in 1274, however ‘my’ Henry appears not to be either of them. He had been quite elusive until I looked into the life of William de Tracy, one of the four murderers of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170. I discovered, to my delight, that he had a son named Henry, this Henry is the one I have been looking for.

Miniature of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket c 1430 – 1440, Harley MS 2900, f. 56v

In 1180, some ten years after his father died in the Holy Land, Henry, later named Henry the Hunchback* appears holding the aforementioned Devon manor of Lapford where he is said to have ‘enlarged the Norman church.’ It would seem that the families of the four murderers inherited their guilt and made amends with charitable donations and repaired or enlarging churches in their manors as a form of penance. In Henry de Tracy’s case, the church of All Saints in Lapford received a brand-new tower, and later when the cult of Becket took off, it would be rededicated and its name changed to St Thomas of Canterbury.

St Thomas of Canterbury, Lapford, Devon. Photo Credit Philip Halling

Henry de Tracy held the manor of Lapford until it passed to the crown and in 1189 when it was returned to the aforementioned Richard Umfreville

* In 1236, an inquisition into the Devon manor of Morton (Morton Hampstead) we can find Henry referred to as a hunchback:

‘... the martyrdom of St. Thomas of Canterbury, for which deed he went into exile and the barony became the escheat of King Henry the king's ancestor. The same William had a son Henry de Tracy, le Bozu (a derogatory French term for a person with kyphosis or an abnormal convex curvature of the spine) was born in Normandy…’ - Inquisition Post Mortem, Saturday after St. Edmund the King, 4 Edw. I.

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St Aelfheath

19/4/2018

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Sometimes when you read about events in history you have to wonder whether the tale that is told is true or has to be taken with a pinch of salt. The story of the martyrdom of Aelfheah, the 11th-century Archbishop of Canterbury and the link with the murder of Thomas Becket is one of them.

In 1170 Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury was murdered as he prayed before the alter Canterbury Cathedral. The story goes that it was to St Aelfheah that his prayer was directed before he was hacked to death by four rebellious knights. For this to be true Becket had to be praying aloud, and maybe he was, but it's a bit too much of a coincidence for me - you see Aelfheah was murdered in the exact same way as poor Becket just 158 years before by a band of marauding Vikings.

Like Becket, Aelfheah is considered a saint and a martyr, he is usually portrayed in art with an axe. The images we see of Becket's death and Aelfheah's are similar, both are in prayer and behind them are their armed murders ready to pounce.

We all know Thomas Becket's story, but what was Aelfheah's?

Aelfheah was a West Country hermit and later a monk who was Prior at Glastonbury Abbey - he liked to build new churches and liked music, when played a church organ he commissioned could be heard over a mile away. He became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1006 - strangely, he had arrived at his new position with the head of St Swithun neatly packed in his bag! - What's that all about?

Aelfheah had been Archbishop in Canterbury for five years when in 1011 the Vikings arrived, they ransacked the town, took Aelfeah prisoner and demanded money with menaces. Aelfeah was held captive for seven months. Despite the willingness of the people of Canterbury to dig deep into the pockets to pay the ransom Aelfheah, in true martyr fashion, told them to keep it. On the 19th April in 1012 Aelfheah was bashed over the head by an axe-wielding Norseman and according to a chronicler of the time
 ‘his holy blood fell on the ground and his holy soul was sent forth to God’s kingdom’.

Aelfheah's body was originally buried in the church of St Pauls in London but in 1023 reinterred in Canterbury to rest along side St Swithun's head.

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Thomas Becket

29/12/2017

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The subject of the life and death of Thomas Becket is one the most written about and studied in history, and nearly everybody knows of this man's death at the hands of four murderous knights.

Stained glass window of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral

Thomas Becket was the son of wealthy city merchant Gilbert Becket, who saw to it that his son was well-educated. Becket became Chancellor and a good friend of Henry II. His patron was Theobald of Bec, Archbishop of Canterbury. Only a few months following Theobald's death in 1161 Becket was nominated as Archbishop of Canterbury and took up this position following the confirmation by royal council on the 23rd May of 1162. As Archbishop of Canterbury, he became a strong defender of the Church and the rights of those under him and this was the beginning of his fall from grace.

His quarrel over the role of church and crown with Henry II ended in his horrific death at the altar of Canterbury Cathedral. It was on this very day in 1170 that Hugh de Morville, Reginald FitzUrse, Richard le Brito and William de Tracey, knights of Henry's court stormed into Canterbury Cathedral and murdered Becket, slashing him repeatedly with their swords.

At the time Becket's death provoked widespread outrage, but soon he had a cult following and there was talk of miracles.

The four knights had misinterpreted Henry's angry rantings as an order for sanctioned murder and it is still unclear whether it was Henry's intention to have Becket killed or not, but the blame for his death did land firmly on his shoulders. In punishment, Henry was banned from taking Mass until he had completed a penance and following this, the king promised to provide money for two hundred knights to go on Crusade.

The four knights who took Becket's life were excommunicated on the 25th of March 1171 and it is commonly thought that they were exiled to Jerusalem after which they disappeared. Sadly, the true story of the lives of these men following the events at Canterbury Cathedral is not well recorded, therefore all four's stories fade into history.

In the three images above you can see depictions of the death of Becket, the first can be found on the south porch of Chartres Cathedral. The carving is dated to between 1194 and 1230. The second is an ivory representation of Becket's martyrdom dated to around 1400 and the third can be found in a manuscript held by the British Library.

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King Henry II

6/11/2016

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On the 5th March 1133 Henry II, son of Empress Matilda and Geoffrey, Count of Anjou was born at Le Mans in France.

Henry II, as king of England, owes his place on the throne to the early death of William Adelin, his uncle and King Henry I’s only son and heir, who had perished when a ship in which he was travelling sank in the English Channel. What followed is known as The Anarchy, an era of broken promises and a major fallout between cousins.

King Henry II was no clotheshorse, he cared little for appearance and he did love kingship, or at least everything that came with it. He was often rude and had a quick temper, quite a match for the wonderfully feisty Eleanor of Aquitaine who he married in the May of 1152. His children with Eleanor, among others, were Henry, Richard, Geoffrey and John.

Henry II was often unfaithful to Eleanor, their relationship was unsettled and stormy and this eventually lead to Eleanor being placed under arrest after she encouraged her children to rebel against their father. During the years of their marriage, Eleanor gave her love to Richard, whilst Henry’s affections were with John, even though John was his father's favourite he was given nothing in regard to lands and estates.

Henry's family are a prime example of a dysfunctional one and this lead to problems on many different levels, especially in regard to their children. To many people John was cruel, greedy and ultimately a failure as king, the exact copy of his brother Richard, yet Richard is seen as a hero and John a villain. Both sons disagreed with their father's policies and had fallen out with him over them. Richard rebelled and took up arms against his father, and John conspired sometimes with and sometimes against his elder brothers.

Henry was not oblivious of this, he made a curious statement regarding a painting in a chamber of Winchester Castle, depicting an eagle being attacked by three of its chicks, while a fourth crouched chick waits for its chance to strike. When asked about the meaning of this picture, King Henry said:

"The four young ones of the eagle are my four sons who will not cease persecuting me even unto death. And the
youngest, whom I now embrace with such tender affection, will someday afflict me more grievously and perilously
than all the others."

Henry's involvement in the death of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, is what Henry is most famous for, yet there was so much more to this king than that.

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Henry de Tracy and the Devon Manor of Lapford

St Aelfheath

Thomas Becket

King Henry II

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