Sir Richard le Breton was one of the four knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

s who murdered Saint Thomas Becket.

He was the son of Simon le Bret or Simon Brito of Sampford Brett in Somerset and a near neighbour of the FitzUrses of Williton. He served in the household of Henry II's brother William X, Count of Poitou.

During the attack on Becket in 1170 by the four knights, Sir Reginald FitzUrse

Reginald Fitzurse

Sir Reginald FitzUrse was one of the four knights who murdered Thomas Becket in 1170.His name is derived from Fitz which is a contracted form of the Norman-French fils de, meaning "son of" and Urse from the Latin ursus, meaning a bear, probable nom de guerre of his ancestor...

, Sir Hugh de Morville

Hugh de Morville, Lord of Westmorland

Sir Hugh de Morville was an Anglo-Norman knight who served King Henry II of England in the late 12th century. He is chiefly famous as one of the assassins of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1170...

, Brito and Sir William de Tracy

William de Tracy

Sir William de Tracy, Knt., was Lord of the Manor of Toddington, Gloucestershire, feudal Baron of Bradninch, near Exeter, and Lord of Moretonhampstead, Devon...

, Brito is said to have broken his sword when chopping at Becket's head.

According to Edward Grim

Edward Grim

Edward Grim was a clerk from Cambridge who was visiting Canterbury Cathedral on Tuesday 29 December 1170 when Thomas Becket was murdered. He subsequently researched and published a book, Vita S. Thomae , published in about 1180, which is today known chiefly for a short section in which he gives an...

 :
He shouted "Take that, for the love of my lord William, the king's brother!" when he delivered the fatal blow. It was believed by William's friends that the count had died of a broken heart after Thomas Becket refused to allow his marriage.

After the assassination the four knights fled to Scotland and from there to Knaresborough Castle in Yorkshire. All four were excommunicated by the Pope Alexander III at Easter,1171 and ordered to undertake penitentiary pilgrimages to the Holy Land for 14 years.

Brito eventually retired to the island of Jersey

Jersey

Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...

. One of his descendants was Lillie Langtry

Lillie Langtry

Lillie Langtry , usually spelled Lily Langtry when she was in the U.S., born Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, was a British actress born on the island of Jersey...

, the mistress of King Edward VII.

There is a gravestone for one of the le Bretons from Jersey in St. Thomas Church in Salisbury, Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

, England, among its many hatchments and memorial stones.