<P> The phrase is now used to express the idea that a ruler's wish can be interpreted as a command by his or her subordinates . </P> <P> Henry's outburst came at Christmas 1170 at his castle at Bures, Normandy, at the height of the Becket controversy . He had just been informed that Becket had excommunicated a number of bishops supportive of the king, including the Archbishop of York . Edward Grim, who was present at Becket's murder and subsequently wrote the Life of St. Thomas, quotes Henry as saying </P> <P> What miserable drones and traitors have I nurtured and promoted in my household who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low - born clerk!" </P> <P> In George Lyttleton's 1772 History of the Life of King Henry the Second, this is rendered as "(he said) that he was very unfortunate to have maintained so many cowardly and ungrateful men in his court, none of whom would revenge him of the injuries he sustained from one turbulent priest ." In The Chronicle of the Kings of England (1821) it becomes "Will none of these lazy insignificant persons, whom I maintain, deliver me from this turbulent priest?", which is then shortened to "who shall deliver me from this turbulent priest?" </P>

Who shall rid me of this turbulent priest