Assize of Clarendon facts for kids

The Assize of Clarendon was a very important law made by King Henry II of England in 1166. It started big changes in English law and helped create the idea of trial by jury. This system is now used in many countries around the world. It also set up special courts called assize courts.

Before this law, people used different ways to decide if someone was guilty, especially for serious crimes. These included trial by ordeal (like walking over hot coals), trial by battle (fighting), or trial by compurgation (getting friends to swear you were innocent). After the Assize of Clarendon, the idea of a jury trial slowly grew. Some historians think parts of the jury system existed before this law. The change didn't happen overnight; trial by combat, for example, wasn't officially stopped until 1819, though it was rarely used by then.

The law gets its name from Clarendon Palace in Wiltshire, England. This was a royal hunting lodge where the law was announced.

Why New Laws Were Needed

When Henry II became king in 1154, England was facing many problems.

Land Disputes and Missing Owners

Many noble landowners were away fighting in the Crusades. They were gone for years. This meant their land was often left empty. People sometimes moved onto these lands without permission. Back then, there was no central record of who owned what land. So, when nobles came back or died far from home, it was hard to figure out who truly owned the land. This caused many arguments.

Crime After Civil War

Another big problem was the aftermath of a terrible civil war called The Anarchy. This war was fought between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda. Both sides hired soldiers who were paid to fight. When the war ended, many of these soldiers had no jobs or money. They turned to robbery and violence. This led to a lot of crime because local authorities were weak. The civil war also caused land problems. Both sides would give land belonging to their enemies to their supporters.

Challenges from the Church

Finally, there was a long-standing issue with the Catholic Church. This problem became very serious and led to the murder of Thomas Becket, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury. The King's problem was that the Church acted like a "kingdom within a kingdom." This meant it had its own rules and courts. These courts answered to the Pope, not to King Henry. The Church also owned a lot of land and had great power. Henry wanted to create a system of justice that would give more power to the King and less to the Church.

How the Assizes Worked

To fix these problems, King Henry created different assizes. These were like traveling courts that visited towns regularly instead of staying in one place.

The Main Assize

The most important and general one was the Assize of Clarendon, issued in 1166. Other smaller assizes, like the "assize of novel disseisin," helped with specific problems. The assize of novel disseisin became very popular. It meant "assize of recent dispossession." If someone had recently been unfairly kicked off their land, they could use this law to get it back.

This law led to a new way of trying cases. Twelve "lawful men" from the local area were called by the king's sheriff. They had to use their own knowledge to decide who truly owned the property. This new way of doing things was the start of the civil petit jury (a small jury that decides guilt or innocence) in common law. It helped sort out the land chaos caused by the crusades and civil war.

New Criminal Justice Ideas

King Henry was also very smart with his changes to criminal justice. He appointed special judges called "justices in eyre." These judges were like today's circuit judges. They traveled from town to town. When they arrived, they asked the sheriff to gather twelve free men from the area. These twelve men were an early version of a grand jury.

Their job was to report, under oath, any crimes they knew about in their community. In theory, then and now (in places like the United States), the grand jury only made accusations; they didn't decide if someone was guilty or innocent. The Assize of Clarendon said they should investigate robbery, murder, theft, or anyone who helped a robber, murderer, or thief. Later, the Assize of Northampton (1176) added counterfeiting, forgery, and arson. These new assizes focused on serious crimes, which we now call "felonies."

This new law also stopped the old "compurgation" trial method for accusations made by the grand jury. In compurgation, an accused person could be found innocent if they swore they didn't commit the crime and enough neighbors swore they believed them. This was no longer allowed if the grand jury brought the charges.

The only way for a defendant to be tried was still the traditional trial by ordeal, specifically "the ordeal of water" under the Assize of Clarendon. However, Henry didn't fully trust the results of the ordeal. If someone was found guilty through the ordeal, they were often punished severely. The Assize of Northampton (1176) later said that losing a hand would be added to losing a foot for those who failed the ordeal. This suggests that execution wasn't always the outcome. But even if someone accused by the grand jury was found innocent in the ordeal, they were still banished from the kingdom. This meant that the grand jury's accusation was very powerful. Everyone they accused was punished in some way, and the community was rid of the troublemaker. This was decided "by the oath of twelve knights of the hundred—or, if knights were not present, by the oath of twelve lawful freemen."

Impact of the Assize

These new legal processes greatly shifted power from local barons to the king's court and his judges. Later, in 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council made it illegal for church leaders to take part in trial by ordeal. After this, trials following a grand jury accusation were also decided by juries.

The big changes to England's justice system were not always popular. The main disagreement between the king and Thomas Becket was about who had jurisdiction (the power to make legal decisions) over the clergy, who made up about one-sixth of England's population. Some unhappy nobles tried to undo Henry's changes with the Magna Carta, which they forced King John to sign. But by then, Henry's reforms had gone too far. Their benefits were also too clear for people to want to go back to the old ways. King Henry II's changes created the foundation for the system of trials we see in common law today.

See Also

• Assize of Northampton
• Assize of novel disseisin
• Assize of mort d'ancestor
• Assize of darrein presentment