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Secondary sourcePaintingc. 1250

Wall Painting of Thomas Becket, St Edmund's Church, Hauxton

Unknown English painter · c. 1250

A faded 13th-century English wall painting showing Thomas Becket as archbishop, raising his hand in blessing.

This painting depicts Becket as archbishop and survived efforts to destroy his images after his death.

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Faded medieval wall painting in an arched recess showing a bishop saint with a mitre, raising his right hand in blessing and holding a cross-topped staff. Red and ochre tones, partly worn away.
Unknown English painter, Wall painting of Thomas Becket, c. 1250. St Edmund's Church, Hauxton, Cambridgeshire.

About this source

What it is

This is a wall painting in a recess in St Edmund's Church, Hauxton, Cambridgeshire, made by an unknown English painter around 1250. It shows a bishop saint, identified as Thomas Becket, wearing a mitre and raising his hand in blessing while holding a cross-topped staff.

Why it matters

This painting is a rare surviving example of a 13th-century English parish-church image of Becket. Many such images were destroyed on the orders of King Henry VIII, who sought to erase Becket's cult after breaking with Rome. That this one survived, hidden until it was rediscovered in 1860, makes it a valuable link to how ordinary people honoured Becket soon after his death.

Look closer

  • What details show that this figure is meant to be a bishop or archbishop?
  • Why might this image have been hidden or covered rather than destroyed?
  • What does the survival of this painting tell us about how people felt about Becket centuries after his death?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Thomas Becket on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Secondary source

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Secondary source

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Secondary source

Becket Liturgical Garments, Sens Cathedral

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