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What agreement allowed Thomas Becket to return to Canterbury in 1170?
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St. Thomas Becket
Murder of St. Thomas Becket, illustration from an English psalter, c. 1200; in the British Library.
Thomas Becket returned to Canterbury in 1170 following a meeting with King Henry II at Fréteval on July 22, 1170.1
The agreement reached at this meeting was an "open-ended" concordat in which it was decided that Becket should return to Canterbury and have all the possessions of his see restored to him. Notably, this reconciliation settled none of the underlying points of contention between the two, and neither party withdrew from their respective positions regarding the Constitutions of Clarendon, which were not even mentioned during the meeting.12