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The Medieval Church · c. 1173–1175
The Life of Thomas Becket
William FitzStephen · d. c. 1191
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What it is
The archbishop's career by a clerk who was present at the murder, prefaced by a famous description of London — its schools, cookshops, and boys skating on bone skates.
Why it lasted
The most vivid of the many lives of Becket, and the earliest detailed portrait of a medieval city.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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