Introduction
Henry II built the foundations of law as it sits today. Assize of Clarendon was an act that came in 1166 that transformed the English law. As trial jury was a way where evidence and inspection came before the punishment. Inquiry was my under oath by freemen. This shaped the new way of law in England. This act would be eventually known as common law.
Why did Henry need a new way of dealing with crime?
The Assize addressed many problems. When Henry II inherited the throne, he had to find a way to run the troubled kingdom. The Crusades were happening at the time Henry II took over. The Crusades were several Religious Wars happening in the Eastern Mediterranean. These wars happened for many years. The Crusades disrupted the people …show more content…
The Crusades were in full swing at the time, a military endeavour that kept noble landowners away from their castles for years at a time. Unoccupied and unclaimed land invited squatters; since there was no central recording office for real property in England at the time, and sorting out who owned what fief was entrusted to human memory, disputes arose when aristocrats returned, or died thousands of miles from home.
Another, even more serious problem requiring royal action was the aftermath of the disastrous civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda. The two competing factions had hired mercenary soldiers, and when there was no one left to pay them, many of them took up robbery and other forms of violence as a profession. Crime followed the breakdown of local authority. The quarrel between the King and the Empress created more property troubles; as communities were divided, both factions were happy to reward their supporters with the lands of the local …show more content…
In 1215, moreover, the Fourth Lateran Council forbade clergymen from participating in trial by ordeal. After this date, trials after indictment by the grand jury were conducted by juries as well.
The large changes brought to the English system of justice did not go unchallenged. The dispute over jurisdiction over the one-sixth of the population of England who were clergy was the chief grievance between the King and Becket. Disgruntled peers attempted to undo Henry's reforms by the Magna Carta forced on King John, but by that time the reforms had progressed too far—and their superiority over the system they had replaced was too obvious—for the forces of reaction to gain much ground. Henry II's reforms laid the groundwork for the system of trials in common
Henry II built the foundations of law as it sits today. Assize of Clarendon was an act that came in 1166 that transformed the English law. As trial jury was a way where evidence and inspection came before the punishment. Inquiry was my under oath by freemen. This shaped the new way of law in England. This act would be eventually known as common law.
Why did Henry need a new way of dealing with crime?
The Assize addressed many problems. When Henry II inherited the throne, he had to find a way to run the troubled kingdom. The Crusades were happening at the time Henry II took over. The Crusades were several Religious Wars happening in the Eastern Mediterranean. These wars happened for many years. The Crusades disrupted the people …show more content…
The Crusades were in full swing at the time, a military endeavour that kept noble landowners away from their castles for years at a time. Unoccupied and unclaimed land invited squatters; since there was no central recording office for real property in England at the time, and sorting out who owned what fief was entrusted to human memory, disputes arose when aristocrats returned, or died thousands of miles from home.
Another, even more serious problem requiring royal action was the aftermath of the disastrous civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda. The two competing factions had hired mercenary soldiers, and when there was no one left to pay them, many of them took up robbery and other forms of violence as a profession. Crime followed the breakdown of local authority. The quarrel between the King and the Empress created more property troubles; as communities were divided, both factions were happy to reward their supporters with the lands of the local …show more content…
In 1215, moreover, the Fourth Lateran Council forbade clergymen from participating in trial by ordeal. After this date, trials after indictment by the grand jury were conducted by juries as well.
The large changes brought to the English system of justice did not go unchallenged. The dispute over jurisdiction over the one-sixth of the population of England who were clergy was the chief grievance between the King and Becket. Disgruntled peers attempted to undo Henry's reforms by the Magna Carta forced on King John, but by that time the reforms had progressed too far—and their superiority over the system they had replaced was too obvious—for the forces of reaction to gain much ground. Henry II's reforms laid the groundwork for the system of trials in common