Becket’s Tuesdays

Tuesday, the day of Mars the god of war, was held to have been the fateful day of Thomas Becket’s whole life. The chroniclers counted that on a Tuesday he was tried by the peers at Northampton, was banished, saw a vision of Christ at Pontigny, came back from exile and was martyred at Canterbury on 29 December 1170. His body was translated to its new shrine on a Tuesday as well, fifty years later. Aubrey reprinted the list from Gibbon, who took it from Weever and Matthew Paris.