172.  The King’s Penance (1173).

The revolt against Henry’s power began in Normandy (1173).  While he was engaged in quelling it, he received intelligence that Earl Bigod of Norfolk[2] and the bishop of Durham, both of whom hated the King’s reforms, since they curtailed their authority, had risen against him.

[2] Hugh Bigod:  The Bigods were among the most prominent and also the most turbulent of the Norman barons.

Believing that this new trouble was a judgment from Heaven for Becket’s murder, Henry resolved to do penance at his tomb.  Leaving the Continent with two prisoners in his charge,—­one his son Henry’s queen, the other his own,—­he traveled with all speed to Canterbury.  There, kneeling abjectly before the grave of his former chancellor and friend, the King submitted to be beaten with rods by the priests, in expiation of his sin.

173.  End of the Struggle of the Barons against the Crown.

Henry then moved against the rebels in the north (S171).  Convinced of the hopelessness of holding out against his forces, they submitted.  With their submission the long struggle of the barons against the Crown came to an end (SS124, 130).  It had lasted nearly a hundred years (1087-1174).

The King’s victory in this contest was of the greatest importance.  It settled the question, once for all, that England was not, like the rest of Europe, to be managed in the interest of a body of great baronial landholders always at war with each other; but was henceforth to be governed by one central power, restrained but not overridden by that of the nobles and the Cuhrch.

174.  The King again begins his Reforms (1176).

As soon as order was restored, Henry once more set about completing his legal and judicial reforms (S165).  His great object was to secure a uniform system of administering justice which should be effective and impartial.

Henry I had undertaken to divide the kingdom into districts or circuits, which were assigned to a certain number of judges who traveled through them at stated times collecting the royal revenue and administering the law (SS137, 147).  Henry II revised and perfected this plan.[1]

[1] This was accomplished by means of two laws called the Grand Assize and the Assize of Clarendon (not to be confounded with the Constitutions of Clarendon).  The Assize of Clarendon was the first true code of national law; it was later expanded and made permanent under the name of the Assize of Northampton. (See the Constitutional Summary in the Appendix, p. vii, S8.)

In addition to the private courts which, under feudal law, the barons had set up on their estates (S150), they had in many cases got the entire control of the town and other local courts.  There they dealt out such justice or injustice as they pleased.  The King’s judges now assumed control of these tribunals, and so brought the common law of the realm to every man’s door.