Story as related by Edward Grim
Edward Grim, MTB 2. 389-90.
Story of one attempt according to Alan of Tewkesbury
Biala, Mary De Chantal, "Annotated Translation of the Life of Saint Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury By John of Salisbury and Alan of Tewkesbury" (1945). Master's Theses. Paper 51. http://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/51 p. 41-2
https://archive.org/stream/materialsforhist02robe#page/325/mode/1up
Therefore the Archbishop in fear turned to flight and came to his manor at Aldington. While the others were sleeping, he secretly started out with only two companions and having found a boat, he embarked on the sea. Worn by adverse wind for a long time, he returned ashore barely alive as day dawned. When his departure was discovered, his household and friends dispersed.
...
The Archbishop called some of the monks to the Church of Canterbury, and explained to them what happened to him and how it was the will of God that he should not yet leave. He rested after a light refreshment. In the morning the officials by the order of the king rushed in order that in the Archbishop's absence they might confiscate all, but seeing and hearing him, they were confused into silence by his presence.
As related by Garnier [Guernes de Pont-Sainte-Maxence]
E pur ceo que Deus aime mult mercial justise
E plus misericorde k'il ne fet sacrifise,
A li bons arceveske cele bataille emprise
Pur les clers maintenir e pur sa mere iglise.
Bien veit que laie mein n'i devreit estre mise. - 1355
E plus misericorde k'il ne fet sacrifise,
A li bons arceveske cele bataille emprise
Pur les clers maintenir e pur sa mere iglise.
Bien veit que laie mein n'i devreit estre mise. - 1355
Quant l'arceveske veit ne purra conquester
L'amur al rei, kil het cume del chief colper
(Car cu'il het une feitz, nel voldra puis amer),
Sun eire apareilla, si se mist en la mer.
Dejuste Rumenel comencent a sigler. 1360
Quant furent luinz en mer e empeinz e siglé,
Li notunier k'i ierent unt ensemble parlé ;
E Adam de Cherringes dient k'il sunt desvé,
Ke l'enemi le rei unt del païs geté ;
E il e lur lignage erent desherité. 1365
A l'arceveske vunt tut ensemble parler :
Dient li k'il ne poent cuntre le vent sigler,
Ne nuls hum a cel vent ne purreit passer mer.
"Quant nus estuet, fet il, pur oré returner,
Pernez port la u Deus le vus voldra doner. " 1370
L'arceveske l'a puis suvent issi cunté,
E a sun escïent sunt pur ceo returné.
E a sun escïent sunt pur ceo returné.
272
When the archbishop saw that he could not regain the friendship of the king of which hate was principally to blame (because whatever he hated once he could never love again), he made ready for his journey: thus he put to sea near Romney; it was from here he set sail. 1360
273
When they were far out to sea buffeted by a gale and under sail, the sailors who were there came together to speak with one another; and they said to Adam de Charing [master of the ship?] that they were enraged that they would be ejected from the country as enemies of the king, and that both they and their lineage [family] would be disinherited. 1365
274
Together they came to speak with the archbishop. They said to him they could not sail against the wind, that no one in this gale could cross the sea. <<Do whatever is necessary for us;>> he said, << when a favourable wind returns, make for whatever port God is willing to give you.>> 1370
275
The archbishop afterwards often told this story like this. Indeed, to his mind, they had returned for these reasons: God had not yet made him ready to undergo the crossing; nor had he yet engaged on the field of battle in close quarters [either in a real or mock battle in the lists of a tournament], nor had the great skirmish which God was to throw him into yet taken place. 1375
276
But when the king heard that he [Becket] must have crossed [over the Channel] he was very much upset by it, and was very anxious, because he was very afraid for this reason, he [the king] feared that he [Becket] would go to the Pope and that the whole of the kingdom would be placed under an interdict. 1380
The Archbishop was aware that he could not regain the affection of the King. Henry hated Thomas to the point of wanting to cut off his head, (because his hate was such that once made, he would never again want to love). And so Thomas prepared to put to sea, sailing from Romney. When they had sailed far from the shore, the sailors were overheard talking together saying that they had spoken to Adam of Charing, who had said they had lost their reason wanting to bear the king's enemy out of the country and that their line of descendants would be disinherited. They all went up to the Archbishop and said to him that they could not sail against the wind: no one could pass across the sea against the wind. "Take the port," he [Becket] said, "that which God gives to you." The archbishop often spoke of this later in these terms; in so far as we knew they had put back because of the wind
Hutton (1899)
...
Becket at home attempted to see Henry at Woodstock
in vain. Then, going to his manor of Aldington, he
made two attempts to escape, from Romney. The
first time the wind drove him back ; the second the
sailors put back, recognising him and dreading the
king's wrath, and he returned to Canterbury.
One of his servants was audaciously going to sleep
in the archbishop's own chamber. After supper he
began to think sadly of his master's evil case ; then
when night was half over he wished to sleep and told
a boy to go and shut the outer door. There on the
doorstep sat the archbishop himself alone. The lad
in terror fled in, thinking he had seen a vision, but the
clerk would not believe him and went to see for himself.
There was the archbishop, who then entered
the house, and, sending for some of the monks, told
them of what had happened to him, and so after a
brief supper went to bed. Next morning came some
of the king's men to seize his goods, but when they
saw him they retired in silent confusion. Henry,
indeed, knew of his attempt at flight, and, in another
meeting at Woodstock, half laughingly reproached
him for it. He did not give him all the ceremony that
was the due of the primate of all England. He asked
him whether he did not think the kingdom big enough
to hold them both.
...
References
John Allen Giles (1846). The Life and Letters of Thomas À Becket: Now First Gathered from the Contemporary Historians. Whittaker and Company. pp. 228–.
F. R. H. Du Boulay (1966). The lordship of Canterbury: an essay on medieval society. Nelson. page 201-3
Saint Thomas (à Becket) (2000). The Correspondence of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1162-1170: Letters 176-329. Oxford University Press. pp. 853–. ISBN 978-0-19-820893-8.
Guernes (de Pont-Sainte-Maxence); tr. Janet Shirley (1975). Garnier's Becket: translated from the 12th-century Vie saint Thomas le martyr de Cantorbire of Garnier of Pont-Sainte-Maxence. Phillimore. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-85033-200-1.
Frank Barlow (1990). Thomas Becket. University of California Press. pp. 106-. ISBN 978-0-520-07175-9.
Frank Barlow (1990). Thomas Becket. University of California Press. pp. 322–. ISBN 978-0-520-07175-9.
John Allen Giles (1846). The Life and Letters of Thomas À Becket: Now First Gathered from the Contemporary Historians. Whittaker and Company. pp. 228–.
Gourde, Leo T., "An Annotated Translation of the Life of St. Thomas Becket by William Fitzstephen" Volume 1 (1943).
Master's Theses. Paper 622. pp. 63-4
Fisher, M. Ann Kathleen, "An Annotated Translation of the Life of St. Thomas Becket By Herbert Bosham (Part Two)" (1947).
Master's Theses. Paper 171.
http://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/171
Book 3 Chapter 31 p. 87-92
Aldington manor, the Archbishop of Canterbury's enormous demesne manor, in 1164 it was by the sea coast, and very near to the Roman haven, Portus Limanus.
Near Romney Marsh, In medieval times the marsh was sea. New Romney [and Lydd] was the principal Cinque port. It was once a port of considerable importance at the mouth of the river Rother until it became blocked in 1287.
Thomas Downes Wilmot Dearn (1814). An Historical, Topographical and Descriptive Account of the Weald of Kent.
William Holloway (1849). The History of Romney Marsh ... J.R. Smith. pp. 66–.
Edward Hasted, 'Parishes: Aldington', in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 8 (Canterbury, 1799), pp. 314-327
Edward Hasted, 'Romney Marsh', in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 8 (Canterbury, 1799), pp. 465-473
Edward Hasted, 'The town and port of New Romney', in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 8 (Canterbury, 1799), pp. 446-464
Aldington, Kent - Wikipedia
Aldington manor, the Archbishop of Canterbury's enormous demesne manor, in 1164 it was by the sea coast, and very near to the Roman haven, Portus Limanus.
Near Romney Marsh, In medieval times the marsh was sea. New Romney [and Lydd] was the principal Cinque port. It was once a port of considerable importance at the mouth of the river Rother until it became blocked in 1287.
Thomas Downes Wilmot Dearn (1814). An Historical, Topographical and Descriptive Account of the Weald of Kent.
William Holloway (1849). The History of Romney Marsh ... J.R. Smith. pp. 66–.
Edward Hasted, 'Parishes: Aldington', in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 8 (Canterbury, 1799), pp. 314-327
Edward Hasted, 'Romney Marsh', in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 8 (Canterbury, 1799), pp. 465-473
Edward Hasted, 'The town and port of New Romney', in The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent: Volume 8 (Canterbury, 1799), pp. 446-464
Edward Grim, MTB 2. 389-90.
Michael Staunton (2001). The Lives of Thomas Becket. 22. Thomas attempts to flee (August- September 1164): Manchester University Press. pp. 99–100. ISBN 978-0-7190-5455-6.
Patres ecclesiae anglicanae : Aldhelmus, Beda, Bonifacius, Arcuionus, Lanfrancus, Anselmus, Thomas Cantuariensis. J.-H. Parker. 1845. pp. 38–.
Archaeologia Cantiana. Kent Archaeological Society. 1954. p. 92-
Archaeologia Cantiana - Vol. 66 1953
Edward Hasted (1798). The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent. W. Bristow. pp. 432–.
La vie de Saint Thomas le martyr
Adam of Charing
Adam of Charing is often reported in various biographies of Becket to be the skipper of one of the ships which transported Becket to the continent in the summer of 1164. I disagree with this. There is no substantive evidence confirming that he was the skipper or boat owner on this or any other occasion.. It is true that he was a well-known and leading citizen of Canterbury, possibly a lawyer, merchant or a business man, that later he had a significant role in the king's programme for the sequestering the property of the church of Canterbury after Becket had fled into exile after the Council of Northampton, and for which he is excommunicated by Becket at Vézelay. It could be true that he did tell those sailors who did try to transport Becket across the Channel that they had been very foolish, risking everything by doing so, though Becket was not strictly an outlaw at this point in the proceedings, but was breaking the law as stated in the Constitutions of Clarendon by not obtaining the king's permission for this journey first. Adam of Charing's comment to these sailors might have been at a much later date, long after the events described here, his having experienced having to pay a huge sum of money in three installments into the king's treasury, as recorded in the pipe rolls for the years 1165, 1166 and 1167. We do not know the reason why he had to make these payments. They are simply described as an amercement.or fine. We are not told what the fine was for: smuggling, or some other crime. It is often presumed that he was fined for the attempt to transport Becket to France. However there is no substantive evidence that this was what the fine was for.
Adam of Charing is often reported in various biographies of Becket to be the skipper of one of the ships which transported Becket to the continent in the summer of 1164. I disagree with this. There is no substantive evidence confirming that he was the skipper or boat owner on this or any other occasion.. It is true that he was a well-known and leading citizen of Canterbury, possibly a lawyer, merchant or a business man, that later he had a significant role in the king's programme for the sequestering the property of the church of Canterbury after Becket had fled into exile after the Council of Northampton, and for which he is excommunicated by Becket at Vézelay. It could be true that he did tell those sailors who did try to transport Becket across the Channel that they had been very foolish, risking everything by doing so, though Becket was not strictly an outlaw at this point in the proceedings, but was breaking the law as stated in the Constitutions of Clarendon by not obtaining the king's permission for this journey first. Adam of Charing's comment to these sailors might have been at a much later date, long after the events described here, his having experienced having to pay a huge sum of money in three installments into the king's treasury, as recorded in the pipe rolls for the years 1165, 1166 and 1167. We do not know the reason why he had to make these payments. They are simply described as an amercement.or fine. We are not told what the fine was for: smuggling, or some other crime. It is often presumed that he was fined for the attempt to transport Becket to France. However there is no substantive evidence that this was what the fine was for.
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