he proceeded to extend his power, above all by imposing royal justice. Already the
Anglo-Saxon kings had claimed rights in local courts, particularly in capital cases,
even though powerful men largely independent of royal authority dominated those
courts. The Norman kings added to Anglo-Saxon law in the area of landholding.
Henry built on these institutions, regularizing, expanding, and systematizing them.
The Assize of Clarendon in 1166 recorded that the king
decreed that inquiry shall be made throughout the several counties and
throughout the several hundreds... whether there be... any man
accused or notoriously suspect of being a robber or murderer or thief...
. And let the justices inquire into this among themselves and sheriffs
among themselves.^2
“Throughout the several counties and throughout the several hundreds”: these were
the districts into which England had long been divided. Henry aimed to apply a
common law regarding chief crimes—a law applicable throughout England—to all
men and women in the land. Moreover, he meant his new system to be habitual and
routine. There had always been justices to enforce the law, but under Henry, there
were many more of them; they were trained in the law and required to make regular
visitations to each locality, inquiring about crimes and suspected crimes. (They were
therefore called “itinerant justices”—from iter, Latin for journey. The local hearing
that they held was called an “eyre,” also from iter.) The king required twelve
representatives of the local knightly class—the middling aristocracy, later on known
as the “gentry”—to meet during each eyre and either give the sheriff the names of
those suspected of committing crimes in the vicinity or arrest the suspects themselves
and hand them over to the royal justices. While convicted members of the knightly
class often got off with only a fine, hanging or mutilation were the normal penalties
for criminals. Even if acquitted, people “of ill repute” were to be exiled from
England.
Henry also exercised new control over cases that we would call “civil,” requiring
all cases of property ownership to be authorized by a royal writ. Unlike the Angevin
reforms of criminal law, this requirement affected only the class of free men and
women—a minority. While often glad to have the king’s protection, they grumbled at
the expense and time required to obtain writs. Consider Richard of Anstey’s suit to
gain his uncle’s property: over the course of five years, he paid out a great deal of
