What happened to the four knights that killed Archbishop Thomas Becket, were they tried etc?
Hugh de Morville, Lord of Westmoreland (inherited from his father). Thought to be the eldest son, he was a principal player in the assassination by four English knights of Thomas á Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1170. He subsequently fell out of favour with the king and was forfeited (1174) when the Lordship of Westmoreland passed to his sister (some sources say niece), Maud. He appears in the service of Henry II from 1158. After the Archbishop’s murder, Hugh and his associates at first took refuge in Knaresborough Castle; afterwards the king sent them to obtain absolution from Pope Alexander III. It is said that all four were enjoined to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but it is not known whether they made it there. Hugh made his expiation in this way. The date of his death is unknown, but it was in or before 1202/3, when his English lands were in the hands of co-heiresses.
Four knights—Reginald Fitzurse, Hugh de Moreville, William de Tracy, and Richard le Breton—set out to plot the murder of the archbishop. Generally speaking they were excommunicated by the pope, and the king advised them to flee into Scotland. There, however, the king and people were for hanging them, so they were forced to return into England (ib. iv. 162). They took shelter in Knaresborough, which belonged to Hugh Morville, and remained there a year (BENEDICT, i. 13). All shunned them and even dogs refused to eat morsels of their meat (ib. p. 14). At last they were forced by hunger and misery to give themselves up to the king. He did not know what to do with them, for as murderers of a priest they were not amenable to lay jurisdiction (NEWBURGH, ii. 157; JOHN OF SALISBURY, Epp. ii. 273); so he sent them to the pope, who could inflict no heavier penalty than fasting and banishment to the Holy Land. Before he left Reginald Fitzurse gave half his manor of Williton to his brother and half
.King Henry II only said something like I wish Archbishop Thomas a Beckett would stop annoying me or words to that effect. So the Knights thinking they would do the king a good turn and get promotion murdered poor Thomas and the King was very sad because Thomas was his best friend. So to cut a long story short the King had them promoted into the next world.
