Henry II
historical figure · 5 works · 33 mentions · 94 anchored passages
Henry · Henry II. · Henry of Anjou · Henry Plantagenet · Henry the Second · King Henry II · Henry's diplomacy · King Henry · King's father · that monarch
spoken of as
1 expressionHenry II of England5 mentions
Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John (English) · Dissertations on Early Law and Custom (English)
(2) By insisting that ordeal should supersede compurgation as the test of guilt or innocence, Henry unconsciously prepared the way for a second form of jury.
in the texts
Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John
Grandson of Henry I, King of England 1154-1189, who brought the medieval English monarchy to the height of its power.
attempted to define the position in the Constitutions of Clarendon (1164), clause 12 of which provided that in filling vacant Sees the King should summon potiores personas ecclesiae and that the “election” should take place in the King’s chapel with consent of the King and consilio personarum regni, vague words which seem to reserve to Henry the decision as to who constituted “the more influential …
The reorganization of the army was another reform that helped to strengthen the throne of Henry and his sons.
Closely connected with these innovations was the new system of procedure instituted by Henry.
An Essay on the Trial by Jury
King of England credited with the 1164 law establishing a juror oath.
, in 1164, it was directed that the sheriff “faciet jurare duodecim legales homines de vicineto seu de villa, quod inde veritatem secundum conscientiam suam manifestabunt,” (shall make twelve legal men from the neighborhood to swear that they will make known the truth according to their conscience.
, the best and most just of these (the Norman) princes, * * Peter, of Blois, a judicious and even elegant writer, of that age, gives a pathetic description of the venality of justice, and the oppressions of the poor, * * and he scruples not to complain to the king himself of these abuses.
It appears, also, that the barons desired of John (what he afterwards granted by Magna Carta) “that the laws and liberties of King Edward, with other privileges granted to the kingdom and church of England, might be confirmed, as they were contained in the charters of Henry the First;
Institutes of Roman Law
English king who substituted the Grand assize (trial by jury) as an alternative to wager of battle.
So, in English law, trial by Wager of battle, introduced by William the Conqueror, was first partially superseded by the Grand assize, or trial by jury, an alternative substituted by Henry II, and was finally abolished in the reign of George III.
Dissertations on Early Law and Custom
Son of Empress Matilda who inherited the English throne through her claim.
and Matilda, herself a woman, and but faintly objected to by the English barons on that account, transmitted an unquestioned title to her son Henry II.
The Genius of the Common Law
Twelfth-century English king credited with founding reforms of royal justice, including the Assize of Novel Disseisin.
But at this day we can see that the growth of the Chancellor’s equity, and the fixing of it in a model as regular as that of the common law (on which Blackstone again speaks profitably), were really a continuation of the very same historic process which began with Henry II’s reforms and was witnessed and confirmed by the Great Charter.
The doctrine of the twelfth century under Henry II, is that the hundred and county courts are still the instruments of ordinary justice.
Did King Henry II sit up o’ nights over the Assize of Novel Disseisin, whatever that may have been?