Reginald Fitzurse

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The assassination of Becket in a depiction from the 13th century

Reginald Fitzurse (* probably 1145; † after 1173) was one of the four knights who murdered Thomas Becket , Archbishop of Canterbury , in December 1170 . It is said that Fitzurse carried out the first stroke of the sword in the direction of Becket.

Life

Reginald Fitzurse was the eldest son of Richard Fitzurse. His last name means son of a bear. The part of the name Fitz is of Anglo-Norman origin. Derived from the Norman fiz , this usually means the son of a (significant) father , more rarely a mother or a parent's title (French: fils , Latin: filius ). The name urse means bear (Latin ursus ). Its escutcheon contained a bear.

Fitzurse had estates in Williton, Somerset , Northamptonshire, and Barham , Kent , between Canterbury and Dover . He lived at Barham Court in Teston for some time . The name of the town of Barham, which is in his possession, can be derived from Bär (urse in Fitzurse, English Bear ).

Reginald Fitzurse was, along with William de Tracy , Hugh de Moreville and Richard le Breton , one of the four knights who murdered Archbishop Becket at the behest of King Henry II . After the crime, they invaded the archbishop's palace and looted papal bulls and treaties, gold, silver, vestments, books, and ecclesiastical items. King Henry II did nothing to arrest the knights; rather he advised them to flee to Scotland. He confiscated their possessions for a short time, but they got it back after a while. They stayed only briefly in Scotland and returned to Knaresborough , Yorkshire , which belonged to Hugh de Moreville, one of the four murderers.

Pope Alexander III excommunicated Fitzurse and the other murderers on March 25, 1171. While William de Tracy set out for Rome in September, Fitzurse's departure was prevented because he was involved in a major rebellion against King Henry II in 1173/74. However, the archbishop's murderers obtained their audience with the Pope, who, despite their repentance, told them to go into exile in Jerusalem for a few years and to fight there. In due time, they were to return to Rome.

There is no reliable knowledge of what happened after that. Tradition has it that the Pope instructed the knights, should their duty one day be fulfilled, to visit the holy places and then to live alone in prayer, devotion and lament in the Black Mountains of Antioch for the rest of their lives. Allegedly the bodies of the knights were buried in front of the gate of the temple after their death in Jerusalem. Another tradition says that the dead knights were transferred to Brean Down , an island off Weston-super-Mare . A legend about Fitzurse has it that he returned to Ireland and became the founding father of the McMahon family .