A couple years ago on Wikipedia I was reading a quite amusing article about a petty fight between a king of England and the Vatican. It was very similar in scope to the Acts of Supremecy fight but I can't find mention of what I'm looking for and was hoping you guys could help me.
Basically what I remember is that the pope or someome else high up in the church at the time was wanting to gain power over the king, so he passed a ruling that said the king had to send all potential laws to him for approval. The king didn't like this, so he sent men to imprision/irritate the guy. The church dude then excommunicated the king and so the king had the guy beaten up (I may be remembering it wrong). Help me remember historians!
I suspect that the fight you are referring to is that between Henry II and the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket which ended with Becket’s death in 1170.
Henry II had hoped that by appointing Thomas Becket Archbishop in 1162 that his erstwhile friend and chancellor would facilitate the reassertion of royal supremacy over the English branch of the Church. Contrary to expectation, on assuming the position of Archbishop, Becket resigned his chancellorship and pressed ecclesiastical interests.
Matters came to a head in 1163 with the Constitutions of Clarendon through which Henry sought to curb the powers of church courts and papal authority in England.
In 1164 Becket faced trial for breaching the Constitutions of Clarendon and having been found guilty he was exiled.
Whilst in exile in France Becket met Pope Alexander III to try and settle the matter. Then in 1166 Beckett started threating Henry II with various ecclesiastical punishments if he refused to settle with him. When Becket was also made papal legate to England in 1166 he began excommunicating a number of Henry’s advisors. In 1167 Becket excommunicated even more of Henry’s noblemen.
Conflict between Henry and Becket continued, but as the Pope needed both the King and his bishop Alexander sought a resolution to the dispute. Eventually a compromise was reached which allowed Becket to return to England which he did in December 1170, but not before excommunicating the Bishops of Salisbury and London and the Archbishop of York. The two bishops appealed to King Henry who reputedly responded with the outburst Will no one rid me of the turbulent priest whereupon four of his knights rode to Canterbury and did.
Thomas Becket was murdered on 29 December 1170.