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.