The Becket Casket
About 1180-1190
Limoges, France
Gilt copper and champlevé enamel on a wooden core
Museum no. M.66-1997
Acquired with assistance from the National Art Collections Fund, the Heritage Lottery Fund and many anonymous private donors

The murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, in Canterbury Cathedral on 29 December, 1170 by four knights in the service of King Henry II, is one of the few episodes of British medieval history that is still widely familiar.

It provoked outrage throughout Europe, and Becket's tomb became a place of pilgrimage within days of his death. He was canonised in 1173 and his shrine was one of the most famous in the Christian world, until its total destruction in 1538 during the reign of Henry VIII.

Relics of Becket were much in demand and were often housed in elaborate caskets. Numbers of these survive today, scattered worldwide, most made of Limoges enamel, like this example.

The V&A chasse is the most elaborate, the largest, and possibly the earliest in date. It is a magnificent example of Romanesque art, probably made for an important religious house.

The casket, or 'chasse', shows the murder of Becket, his burial, and the raising of his soul to heaven. These scenes were made familiar in Canterbury by their depiction in the stained glass windows of the Trinity Chapel, near the shrine itself. This was made in 1220, when Becket's relics, newly enclosed in a shrine of gold and silver encrusted with gems, was placed behind the Archbishop's throne.