Why did Henry II have his eldest son crowned by the archbishop of York?

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St. Thomas Becket Murder of St. Thomas Becket, illustration from an English psalter, c. 1200; in the British Library.

In 1170, King Henry II had his eldest son, Henry the Young King, crowned by the archbishop of York because the rightful official, Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury, was in exile due to their ongoing conflict over the rights and jurisdiction of the church.12

By choosing the archbishop of York to perform the ceremony, Henry II bypassed the traditional prerogative of the see of Canterbury. This act was a deliberate provocation, as it violated both papal prohibitions and the established custom that only the archbishop of Canterbury held the right to crown the English monarch. The decision exacerbated the already deep-seated tensions between the King and Becket, ultimately contributing to the events that led to the archbishop's murder later that same year.231