Henry II (1133-1189)

King of England from 1154. The son of Matilda and Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, he succeeded King Stephen (c. 1097-1154). He brought order to England after the chaos of Stephen's reign, curbing the power of the barons and reforming the legal system. His attempt to bring the church courts under control had to be abandoned after the murder of Thomas à Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170. The English conquest of Ireland began during Henry's reign. On several occasions his sons rebelled, notably in 1173-74. Henry was succeeded by his son Richard (I) the Lionheart.

Henry was lord of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and Count of Anjou, Brittany, Poitou, Normandy, Maine, and Gascony. He claimed Aquitaine through marriage to the heiress Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152. Henry's many French possessions caused him to live for more than half his reign outside England. This made it essential for him to establish a judicial and administrative system which would work during his absence. Before his reign, execution of the law was the job of a number of different courts - the shire courts for major offences, the hundred courts for petty crimes, the manor courts for village issues, and the church courts for the clergy. Trials still might involve trial by battle or by ordeal. In 1166 Henry published the Assize of Clarendon, which established regular visits to towns by royal justices ‘in eyre’ (judges who travelled in circuit to hold court in the different counties) and trial by a ‘jury’ of 12 men who - unlike in modern courts, where the jury is required to judge the evidence - were called upon to give evidence.

Henry's parallel attempt to bring the medieval church courts under royal control, through a collection of decrees known as the Constitutions of Clarendon (1164), had to be dropped after the murder of Becket. Initially Henry's chancellor and friend, Becket was persuaded to become archbishop of Canterbury in 1162 in the hope that he would help the king curb the power of the ecclesiastical courts. However, once consecrated, Becket felt bound to defend church privileges, and he was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170 by four knights of the king's household.