12 Days: The Murder of Thomas Becket and the Wounded Knee Massacre

概览

This episode marks December 29 through two violent historical anniversaries: the murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 and the Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota in 1890. The hosts begin with Becket, mixing theatrical jokes with the political and religious conflict between Henry II and his former friend.

The discussion then turns to Wounded Knee, setting the massacre against the collapse of the Plains world, the reservation system, the Ghost Dance movement, and the fear of U.S. authorities. The hosts stress that the killing was later understood not as a battle but as a massacre.

The broader thread is martyrdom and memory. Becket’s death became a source of pilgrimage and political-religious power, while Wounded Knee became a symbol of Native American suffering, delayed recognition, and unresolved historical guilt.

分段落总结

[00:09] Opening with Becket and Theatre

[事实] The episode is part of the hosts’ Christmas-period series and focuses on events connected to December 29.

[事实] Tom introduces the murder of Thomas Becket as the first subject, and Dominic links it humorously to his own past performance as Becket in a student production.

[事实] Dominic describes a production of Jean Anouilh’s Becket that was reworked with explicit Third Reich imagery and received a poor review at the Edinburgh Festival.

[推测] The theatrical anecdote functions as a comic entry point before the episode moves into a violent and serious historical story.

[04:01] Becket’s Rise and Conflict with Henry II

[事实] Becket is described as a Londoner from relatively humble origins who became Henry II’s chancellor and close companion.

[事实] Henry II appointed Becket Archbishop of Canterbury expecting him to remain loyal and useful to the crown.

[事实] Once Becket became archbishop, he adopted a more saintly posture and increasingly opposed Henry, leading to worsening relations and exile.

[推测] Henry’s miscalculation was assuming personal loyalty would outweigh Becket’s new religious role.

[05:51] Becket Returns to England

[事实] In 1170, after negotiations involving Henry II, the pope, Becket, and the king of France, Becket returned to England.

[事实] Becket landed at Sandwich on December 1 and was welcomed enthusiastically by people in Kent.

[事实] One chronicler compared his reception to Christ entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

[推测] The popular acclaim around Becket increased the political danger he posed to Henry and Henry’s allies.

[06:57] Bishops, Excommunication, and Henry’s Fury

[事实] Several churchmen were angry with Becket, especially the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of London, and the Bishop of Salisbury.

[事实] They had participated in crowning Henry’s son, Henry the Young King, which Becket saw as violating Canterbury’s right to crown English kings.

[事实] Becket excommunicated them, and they went to Henry in Normandy claiming Becket was questioning the legitimacy of Henry’s dynasty.

[事实] The hosts say the famous phrase “Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?” is not contemporary and comes from the 18th century.

[推测] The accusation against Becket appears to have escalated Henry’s anger by turning a church dispute into a dynastic threat.

[10:23] Henry’s Temper and the Four Knights

[事实] Henry is described as prone to extreme rages, though people close to him usually knew not to act literally on them.

[事实] Four knights, Reginald FitzUrse, William de Tracy, Richard Britto, and Hugh de Morville, interpreted Henry’s anger as a call to action.

[事实] They crossed to England, gathered at Saltwood Castle, and went to Canterbury with support from a local landowner’s men.

[推测] The hosts present the murder as emerging from a combination of royal fury, social ambition, and misread signals.

[11:38] The Murder in Canterbury Cathedral

[事实] The knights first confronted Becket in the archbishop’s hall, but he stood his ground and sent them away.

[事实] Becket later entered the cathedral for Vespers, and when the monks tried to secure the doors, he ordered them opened because it was the church of God.

[事实] The knights entered and killed Becket brutally inside the cathedral.

[事实] The hosts emphasize that Becket could have fled or hidden but chose not to.

[推测] Becket is presented as consciously accepting, or even courting, martyrdom.

[14:20] Relics, Pilgrimage, and Becket’s Afterlife

[事实] After Becket’s death, his relics were said to perform miracles, and Canterbury became a major pilgrimage site.

[事实] Henry II later submitted to public humiliation, walking barefoot through Canterbury and being birched by monks.

[事实] The hosts connect Becket’s shrine to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and note that Henry VIII later hated and destroyed Becket’s cultic power.

[推测] Becket’s death became more dangerous to kings after his murder than his opposition had been during his life.

[15:22] Becket, Cromwell, and the Temptation of Martyrdom

[事实] The hosts compare Becket with Thomas Cromwell as another low-born Londoner who rose through royal service and became entangled with church politics.

[事实] They note the contrast that Cromwell served the king, while Becket refused to become the compliant royal servant Henry expected.

[事实] The discussion also mentions T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral and its focus on the temptation of martyrdom.

[推测] The segment frames Becket not just as a victim but as someone whose self-understanding was shaped by the possibility of sanctity.

[17:21] Turning to Wounded Knee

[事实] After the break, Dominic introduces the Wounded Knee Massacre of December 29, 1890.

[事实] The hosts describe it as one of the most famous incidents in the history of conflict between European Americans and Native Americans.

[事实] They connect it to Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and to the wider history of the American West.

[推测] The episode pairs Wounded Knee with Becket because both deaths became historically charged symbols.

[18:30] The Collapse of the Plains World

[事实] The massacre is set in the Great Plains, specifically what is now South Dakota.

[事实] The hosts say the U.S. Army had spent decades subduing Plains Indians and that the railroads and destruction of bison devastated the Native way of life.

[事实] The Lakota Sioux were pushed onto reservations and pressured to become farmers, wear Western clothes, speak English, and abandon traditional religion for Christianity.

[事实] Harsh winters, droughts, and reduced government rations worsened their condition.

[推测] The material collapse of Lakota life created the conditions in which religious hope and apocalyptic expectation could spread.

[20:28] Wovoka and the Ghost Dance

[事实] The Ghost Dance movement is described as revived by Wovoka, whose background included exposure to Christianity.

[事实] Wovoka’s vision promised that if Native people performed the ritual dance and followed instructions, the earth would be restored, the buffalo would return, white settlers would be buried, and ancestors would rise from the dead.

[事实] Some Lakota wore decorated ghost shirts that they believed would protect them from American bullets.

[事实] Federal agents feared the movement could become an insurgency, and by November 1890 the U.S. Army was sent to suppress it.

[推测] The hosts interpret the Ghost Dance as partly shaped by Christian ideas of resurrection and second coming.

[23:09] Sitting Bull, Panic, and Big Foot’s Band

[事实] U.S. forces tried to round up Sioux near Standing Rock Agency, where Sitting Bull was killed around December 15.

[事实] The hosts recount the story that Sitting Bull’s horse, trained in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, danced at the sound of gunfire as Sitting Bull lay dying.

[事实] News of Sitting Bull’s death horrified other Sioux groups and heightened the sense of impending confrontation.

[事实] Big Foot, also called Sitanka in the transcript, led about 350 Miniconjou Lakota men, women, and children toward Pine Ridge to join Red Cloud.

[推测] The hosts describe the mood as apocalyptic rather than conventionally military, because the Lakota had little realistic chance in a direct fight.

[25:49] Disarmament and the Outbreak of Shooting

[事实] The Seventh Cavalry intercepted Big Foot’s group on December 29 and tried to confiscate their weapons.

[事实] The soldiers surrounded the group with cavalry and positioned guns facing them.

[事实] A man identified as Sits Straight began performing the Ghost Dance while telling others that their shirts would protect them from bullets.

[事实] Black Coyote, who was deaf, was ordered to give up his gun; something unclear happened, a gun went off, and the nervous soldiers began firing.

[推测] The hosts suggest that fear, misunderstanding, and trigger-happy tension turned the situation into sudden mass violence.

[27:37] Casualties and Official Response

[事实] About 146 Native people were later buried in a mass grave, and the hosts say the total killed was probably around 300.

[事实] About half of the Native dead were women and children.

[事实] Around 25 American soldiers were killed, probably by their own side because of the circular firing pattern.

[事实] The Bureau of Indian Affairs initially presented the event as a battle, but it soon became understood as a massacre.

[推测] The massacre is presented as a moment when armed panic became an uncontrollable frenzy.

[28:48] Wounded Knee as Historical Climax

[事实] The hosts describe Wounded Knee as the final chapter often used in books about direct combat between the U.S. Army and Native Americans.

[事实] They call it a microcosm or metaphor for the wider tragedy of Native American history.

[事实] The commanding officer, Forsyth, was temporarily stripped of command but later cleared and restored.

[推测] The hosts argue that 19th-century white Americans did not fully admit the scale of what was happening to Native Americans.

[30:36] Delayed Guilt and the Power of Memory

[事实] The hosts compare Henry II’s delayed reckoning with Becket’s death to the delayed recognition of Wounded Knee.

[事实] They discuss how Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee helped make the name Wounded Knee powerfully evocative.

[事实] They say portrayals of “cowboys and Indians” with Indians as villains became difficult after this shift in memory.

[事实] They mention the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee by Native activists protesting the American government.

[推测] The hosts see Wounded Knee as acquiring a form of martyr-like symbolic power.

[33:17] Martyrdom, Massacre, and Winter Tragedy

[事实] The hosts explicitly try to link Becket’s death and Wounded Knee through the memory of martyrdom.

[事实] They also compare Wounded Knee with the Massacre of the Innocents and mention My Lai as another famous massacre in American history.

[事实] They reject the idea that treating Wounded Knee seriously is merely “woke” commentary.

[事实] The episode closes by emphasizing the tragic force of blood in snow and the contrast between popular images of the West and the snowy setting of Wounded Knee.

[推测] The winter imagery gives the massacre a stark symbolic ending to the story the hosts are telling.

播客点评/总结

[推测] The episode’s main value is the bold juxtaposition of two very different events on the same calendar date. By linking Becket and Wounded Knee through martyrdom, memory, and delayed guilt, the hosts create a thematic episode rather than a simple anniversary list.

[事实] The discussion combines serious historical narrative with frequent comic asides, especially in the Becket section. The Wounded Knee section is more somber and focuses on dispossession, religious desperation, military panic, and later historical recognition.

[推测] Its limitation is that the broad comparison leaves less room for detailed Native American perspectives or deeper source analysis. It is best suited to listeners interested in narrative history, moral memory, and how violent deaths become symbols across centuries.