A Brief Study On The Angevin Kingship In England(1154-1189)

The kingship of English King Henry Ⅱ was significant for the evolution of English history,that was in consequence of Henry strengthen his power.Of his historical basis to consolidate the King’s power was hierarchical feudalism which established by Norman monarchs,the realistic one was to rebuild the peace and order which destroyed in the civil war of King Stephen,so he reconstruct the royal administration.In his era,owing to the revival of Roman law and the effect of Gregorian Reform leading to a political change and social contradictions,all of these forced Henry had to make a decision to take a measure to expand his power further,in order to achieve justice in his rule.So he attempts to administer the church and the secular through legislation and centralized judgment.And then,for the church,he issued The Constitution of Clarendon,although it produced a collision on the principle of jurisdiction between the King and archbishop Becket,and the outcome of the collision forced Henry into giving up this charter,finally the King still realized part of control to the church’s judgment by the way of judicial technique.For the secular,the King issued The Assize of Clarendon and The Assize of Northampton,and to administer the two procedural legislation through itinerant court,In practice the itinerant court not only consolidated the King’s authoritative governance,but also accumulated numerous judicial cases,henceforth the common law came to appear,as one achievement that belongs to Henry Ⅱ.Another one was his administration centralizing,the crown of his was increasingly administrative when he developed his royal government organizations.In the shires,he controlled the power to appoint local officials,after the Inquest of Sheriffs,Henry deposed malpractice’s sheriffs,then he deprived of judicial power of sheriff and guided sheriff’s administrative power.All of these measures not only effectively avoid the collapse of hierarchical feudalism,but also make the feudal society obtain development in a relative peace circumstance,this contributed to breeding necessary elements of the origin of English modern country inside feudal society——sovereignty and rule of law.