It all came to a head here at Clarendon, early in 1164, when Henry summoned a special council of the princes of the Church and the most important nobles of the realm. There he asked, well, actually, he demanded that they assent unconditionally to what he chose to call the "customs of the realm." Becket was no idiot. He knew exactly what this meant, royal control over the clergy. He'd seen it coming for months and had been urging his bishops to resist it at all costs. After endless prevarication, in the end Becket refused the King's demands, ordering total resistance, a position from which he'd never budge. The King now moved the way he liked best, through the law. In October, 1164, Becket was brought to trial at Northampton, accused and this was the killer, of improper use of funds when he'd been Chancellor. So all those half-joking comments about fancy clothes that Henry had thrown Becket's way now stopped being funny. They'd become a deadly criminal accusation.


1164年初，事态在克拉登宫受到激化，亨利召开了一次特殊议会由教会领袖和国内位高权重的贵族组成。他要求，实际上是命令他们无条件地赞同。他所谓的"王国惯例"[《普通法》]，这次会议上，全体贵族通过了一个《克拉伦登宪章》。贝克特并非愚昧之人，他对其中深意一清二楚。王室想要控制神职人员，他早在数月前就已预料到，并一直要求手下的主教们不惜一切反对。经过无穷无尽的推诿拖延，最终，贝克特拒绝了国王的命令，并下令全面抵抗。他绝对不会妥协，而这次国王利用他最钟爱的法律方式解决。1164年10月，贝克特在北安普顿接受审判。他受到了致命的指控，称他作为大法官曾不当挪用资金。因此，那些亨利对于贝克特的华服，半开玩笑的评论也都已不再好笑，而变成了致命的指控。