At the war camp in France, the four barons discuss what sort of a man Becket is. One baron says not to think too much about it, while another suggests they wait until Becket shows his true colors. Becket enters and inquires about the camp marshal, Beaumont; the barons inform him that he fell from his horse in battle and was savagely killed by the French. Becket shrugs this off and says that the English must become “cutthroats” if they are to win the war.

Becket goes into the King’s tent and finds him in bed with a French woman. The two men discuss the management of the war, and Becket urges the King to crack down hard on the clergy in England to prevent them from becoming more powerful than the crown.

The King prepares to march victoriously into the city and meet the bishop. Just then, a soldier brings in a young monk who was arrested for carrying a knife under his robe. Becket questions the monk, a Saxon, and determines that he was trying to assassinate the King. Becket recognizes something of his younger self in the monk. Becket arranges to have the monk sent back to England and closely guarded.