OUTSTANDING CHARACTERISTICS OF HENRY IIS REIGN

1. Royal Revenue: to maintain his vast holdings Henry II needed increased revenues, he restored
the exchequer to the position of prominence it held under Henry I, extended scutage to the lay
nobles and hired (contrataba) mercenaries with the money raised, and levied (imponer) an
income and personal property tax on everyone not embarking on the second Crusade.
2. COMMON LAW: King Henrys organization and efficiency resulted in better justice and a wider
respect for royal authority. The outcome was a distinctive legal system known as English
Common Law. Judges selected the best of local laws and customs and applied them to the whole
realm. A disputed question of law was decided by legal precedent. The law was supreme, and
even the King could not disregard (indiferencia) it.
3. Kings Justices: itinerant judges became trustworthy agents of the Crown as King Henry
increased their jurisdiction and introduced courts into every county. The expansion of royal
justice made access to the courts easier for the people and at the same time curtailed (abreviar,
reducir) the power and jurisdiction of the local sheriff or baron. In the Assize of Northampton the
powers of the royal judges were increased to try all criminals. In civil cases the extension of the
royal writ (orden judicial) increased the business of the royal courts. Under Henry II new writs
were introduced and any freeman who had a suit which fit any of these judicial forms could pay a
fee for a royal writ and secure trial in a royal court with a better chance of justice being rendered.
Royal writs became popular and royal courts expanded rapidly.
4. Development of the jury: although Henry II did not introduce the jury system, he made it a
part of the royal judicial procedure. The jury idea arrived in England at the time of the Norman
invasion and was expanded under Henry II. At the Assize of Clarendon, King Henry ordered that
juries of twelve men in each hundred moot at county court sessions were to denounce (denuncia,
acusar) criminals in their neighborhood; such groups were called presentment or accusing juries.
Trial by jury was also introduced in assizes to decide disputes over ownership of land. In time trial
by jury replaced all other types of trial and was extended to criminal cases through the efforts of
the church.
5. Property Law: in civil cases King Henry introduced the writ of right which ordered a feudal lord
to provide justice for the plaintiff (demandante). The writ of praecipe ignored the feudal court
and ordered the sheriff to command the restoration of land to the plaintiff or have the defendant
appear in royal court to explain his failure to comply.
6. Church and State: the churchs authority had grown greatly. Powerful popes, the increasing
stature of canon law, and a religious revival that resulted in the erection of thousands of
churches in eleventh-century. In Henrys effort to reform the legal system, he ran into conflict
with the church over the jurisdictions of secular and ecclesiastical courts.
7. Constitution of Clarendon: the church included the right to try all cases involving the clergy,
whatever their offense. The benefit of clergy was claimed by people who could read and speak
latin.
Constitution of Clarendon decreed that accused clergy could be tried in church courts, but if they
were found guilty of criminal offenses, they would be turned over to secular courts for
punishment.
8. Thomas Becket: Henry II nominated him for the vacant archbishopric in 1162. To Henrys
angry amazement the investiture turned his former close friend into an adamant champion of the
church. Archbishop Beckets stubborn resistance to the Clarendon reforms resulted in his exile.
The unbending archbishop provoked Henry s anger by refusing to absolve the bishops who had
participated in the coronation ceremonies of the Kings son. Four knights took the law into their
own hands and murdered Becket on the altar steps of Canterbury. This event canonized him and

brought public humiliation to Henry. The king tried to make atonement by visiting Beckets tomb
as a penitent and embarking on a crusade to conquer Ireland for the church.
9. Henry & his sons: his wife, Eleanor and their 4 sons at one time or another all plotted with
his enemies to unseat him. Two sons Henry and Geoffrey died before their father, but Richard
and John continued plotting until King Henrys death. In 1188 Richard and King Philip Augustus of
France attacked Henry and forced humiliating terms on him the following year. When Henry
heard that his favorite son, John, had also betrayed him, he died, a broken man.

10. The Angevin Empire: It was needed a skillful and powerful ruler to keep both channel side
together. Henry was forced to being protecting his domains. King Richard the lion Hearted spent
most of his reign in France and died besieging a castle. Jhon lost Normandy, Poitou and Anjou to
the king of France. These defeats broke up the Angeving empire although Henry III made feeble
efforts to recapture these legacies.u