Henry II is best remembered for his reform of the courts and the system of law. He sent out his own judges to make regular tours of the country, and any freeman could take a case to them if he didn’t trust the local courts. Most important was Henry’s jury system. In Henry’s times the jurors were witnesses themselves, and no man could be tried unless a jury of 12 men swore that there was a true case against him. This was real progress. In England now there are two kinds of law: statute law, that is Acts made by Parliament, and common law. Common law was first collected together by Henry II. It reflects the changing customs of the land which have been expressed in court judgments through the ages. Henry believed so strongly in the rule of law that he kept no army in England, but laid down the exact weapons and armour that every free man should hold ready for the defence of his country.

What proved a real problem was the king’s relationship with the church and the man who was to become first his chancellor and then his Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. Many practices of the church courts were an insult to Henry’s rule of law, for they often let even murderers go unpunished. Besides, by the close of the 11th century, the church was undergoing a revolution, asserting the dignity of the priestly office and the power of the popes as direct successors of Christ through St. Peter. The Anglo-Saxon and the Norman church had been at the service of the state. The kings were sacred beings and appointed both bishops and abbots. The king presented them on appointment with a staff and a ring, symbols of their office. The staff, called a crozier, symbolized their role as the shepherd of their flock. They then did homage to the king and received their lands. The struggle to separate the church from the control of the state was to become focused on the one act of the king giving the office holder his staff and ring. In the reign of Henry I a compromise was reached: the king no longer gave the cleric his ring and staff but retained the right to receive his homage. But neither side was happy.

The struggle between the church and the state reached a crisis in the reign of Henry II. When the king came to the throne he appointed Thomas Becket to the major administrative post of chancellor. Becket and the king became great friends. In Becket the king saw a means of tidying up relations between church and state. He believed that with his friend as Archbishop of Canterbury the situation could return to how it had been just after the Conquest. In 1161 the opportunity came with the death of the archbishop. On 2 June 1162 Becket was ordained priest and on the following day appointed Archbishop of Canterbury. After that he immediately resigned all his secular offices and changed his style of life to self-denial and humility. Henry, however, failed to recognize that times had changed and his old friend had been trained in the new canon law in which the clergy were exempt from lay interference. Henry decided that criminal clerks must in future be tried by lay courts, for in a church court the worst sentence was to defrock the clerk. Public opinion supported the king and most bishops agreed, but Thomas refused and fled abroad. For 6 years there followed endless attempts to bring about a reconciliation. In July 1170 Becket returned to England. His first act was to excommunicate all the bishops who had taken part in the coronation of Henry’s son as successor in Becket’s absence. The king was seized with fury, crying in an unguarded moment ‘Who will rid me of this low-born priest?’ In all too eager response four knights slipped out of the room, set sail for Kent and on 29 December murdered the archbishop in his own cathedral.