Today, December 29, is the feast day of St. Thomas Becket who was killed by knights of King Henry II after the king uttered his famous words "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" There are other translations as well.
To summarize, very basically, the king wanted to remove some of the privileges enjoyed by the Church in England. St. Thomas objected to these changes. Although Thomas and the king had been friends for some time, and the king assumed Thomas would support his ambitions, Thomas remained steadfast in supporting the Catholic Church.
After St. Thomas was killed in the cathedral of Canterbury, the king expressed remorse and did public penance. He confessed publicly and then monks and others whipped him.
I found a really good summation of the whole thing here: https://epicpew.com/st-thomas-becket/
Unfortunately the Canterbury Cathedral is no longer under Catholic control. Also, part of the public contrition of King Henry II was to build a shrine to St. Thomas a Becket. In his insane lust for power, Henry VIII, several hundred years later, destroyed the shrine and then put the deceased Becket on trial. What an absolute mockery and sacrilege to such a great man of God.
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