Becket’s Cap and the Broken Sword. Jacques de Vitry’s English Mitre in Context

Abstract

Jacques de Vitry’s embroidered English mitre is one of only three surviving episcopal mitres which portray the martyrdom of St Thomas of Canterbury, and which, moreover, are characterised by the inclusion of unexpected details in the depiction of the murder in the cathedral: Becket’s close-fitting cap, both segments of Richard Brito’s broken sword and Becket’s ‘crown’, the piece of bone severed in Brito’s assault. This study traces the emergence of these details in religious art of various kinds and sets the images on Jacques de Vitry’s mitre and its two companions in the general development of Becket iconography across Europe.