had long been kept, the Plea Rolls consisted of strips of parchment filed together by their tops, on which, in an uncertain and at first a blundering fashion, the clerks noted down their records of judicial proceedings.  But practice soon brought about an orderly and mechanical method of work, and the system of procedure in the Bench rapidly attained a scientific perfection.  Before long the name of the Curia Regis was exclusively applied to the new court of appeal.

The work of legal reform had now practically come to an end.  Henry indeed still kept a jealous watch over his judges.  Once more, on the retirement of De Lucy in 1179, he divided the kingdom into new circuits, and chose three bishops—­Winchester, Ely, and Norwich—­“as chief justiciars, hoping that if he had failed before, the seat least he might find steadfast in righteousness, turning neither to the right nor to the left, not oppressing the poor, and not deciding the cause of the rich for bribes.”  In the next year he set Glanville finally at the head of the legal administration.  After that he himself was called to other cares.  But he had really finished his task in England.  The mere system of routine which the wisdom of Henry I. had set to control the arbitrary power of the king had given place to a large and noble conception of government; and by the genius of Henry II. the law of the land was finally established as the supreme guardian of the old English liberties and the new administrative order.

CHAPTER X

THE COURT OF HENRY

In the years that followed the Assize of Northampton Henry was at the height of his power.  He was only forty-three, and already his triumph was complete.  One of his sons was King of England, one Count of Poitou, one Lord of Britanny, one was named King of Ireland.  His eldest daughter, wife of the Duke of Saxony, was mother of a future emperor, the second was Queen of Castile, the third was in 1176 married to William of Sicily, the wealthiest king of his time.  All nations hastened to do honour to so great a potentate.  Henry’s counselors were called together to receive, now ambassadors from Sicily, now the envoys of the Emperors both of the East and of the West, of the Kings of Castile and Navarre, and of the Duke of Saxony, the Archbishop of Reims, and the Count of Flanders.

In England the king’s power knew no limits.  Rebellion had been finally crushed.  His wife and sons were held in check.  He had practically won a victory over the Church.  Even in renouncing the Constitutions of Clarendon at Avranches Henry abandoned more in word than in deed.  He could still fall back on the law of the land and the authority which he had inherited from the Norman kings.  Since the Conqueror’s days no Pope might be recognized as Apostolic Pope save at the king’s command; no legate might land or use any power in England without the king’s consent; no ecclesiastical