Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Thomas Becket had been back in England from exile for less than a month; fear of a papal interdict had led Henry to allow him to return. . . . The following year Henry traveled to Canterbury to do penance. Barefoot and wearing sackcloth, he was publicly flogged and spent the night in prayer at the tomb. Thomas became one of the most popular saints of the later Middle Ages--numerous churches were dedicated to him, and his shrine was notorious throughout Europe as a place of pilgrimage. . . . Thomas's shrine was destroyed in 1540, on the orders of King Henry VIII, and the venerable saint's bones were scattered." [1001 Days]