Henry II of England

What separated the king and archbishop was more than the personality of the two antagonists. Each had become by the time of Clarendon a fierce and unyielding representative of opposing views regarding the nature and purpose of law. Germanic law, which only in the Angevin lands was maintaining its purity against the spread of the Roman concept of justice, operated pragmatically to settle disputes by appealing to earlier practices. Custom and precedent, rather than an abstract concept of “justice,” determined what was just in a given case. This explains Henry’s conservatism and obsessive search for the practices of his ancestors. By Roman (and Canon) lawyers, on the other hand, a law was deemed just not because it was aligned to the past, but because it borrowed its justness from an a priori, rational, transcendental concept of justice.

Chapter 6, “The Challenge from Canterbury” (pp. 103-104), 1973

Henry II’s introduction of English authority into southern Ireland was to last exactly 750 years. Eight centuries later the native Irish in the north were still discontent with the nature of English rule.

Chapter 8, “Peace with the Pope” (p. 133), 1973

The production at this time of the Dialogue of the Exchequer, which a leading historian would characterize as “one of the most wonderful things of Henry’s wonderful reign,” further suggests that Henry’s innovative days were over, for only after an institution has settled down and begun to harden is it considered worthwhile to commit such a detailed description of it to writing.

Chapter 10, “Death of the Young King” (pp. 151-152), 1973

As a by-product of his attempt to solve the problem of law and order, the Plantagenet king was creating the foundation of English common law.

Chapter 7, “Storm Clouds over the Continent” (p. 115), 1973

To a mind such as Henry’s Thomas’s preference for principle, even to the point of personal disloyalty, was incomprehensible. Within the black and white cavities of the king’s mind the idea was forming that Becket must have been carrying on a false front all these years in hopes of greater preferment, and that his present rejection of the secular office was an act of disloyalty and even treason.

Chapter 6, “The Challenge from Canterbury” (p. 93), 1973

Once again Henry showed a lack of subtlety which remained his own worst enemy throughout his life. His obsession with order and precise definition smashed the interplay of fragile and tacit forces which is required for successful diplomacy. He disregarded the first law of negotiation, namely, always to give your opponent the opportunity to save face, especially when he is yielding the substance of his position.

Chapter 6, “The Challenge from Canterbury” (p. 101), 1973

Henry Plantagenet, no less than any political leader in the second half of the present century, was confronted with such varied problems as law and order, a war weariness which brought about a military organizational revolution, economic inflation, the choice between isolation and “internationalism,” sovereignty, and even, on a personal level, women’s lib. To maintain that any of these tensions are new to the twentieth century is the highest form of self-adulation and to hold that nothing can be learned from their past appearances the height of historical nearsightedness.

Epilogue (p. 178), 1973

Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?

Becket (1964). Screenplay by , based on Anouilh’s play. Spoken by Henry II (Richard Burton), 1964

Will no one rid me of him? A priest! A priest who jeers at me and does me injury.

Jean Anouilh, '''' (tr. Lucienne Hill, 1960), 1960

And let all the sheriffs make a list of all fugitives who have fled from their counties; and let them do this before the county courts, and they shall bring the names of these men in writing before the justices when first they come to them, in order that they may be sought throughout all England and their chattels seized for the benefit of the king.

Assize of Clarendon, § 18. Made by King Henry with the assent of clergy and nobility in 1166. Latin text in: , Select Charters, 9th ed. (1913), pp. 170–173. Translation in: A. B. White; W. Notestein, Source Problems in English History (1915), Appendix, III, 1913

Laymen ought not to be accused save by dependable and lawful accusers and witnesses in the presence of the bishop, yet so that the archdeacon lose not his right or anything which he ought to have thence. And if there should be those who are deemed culpable, but whom no one wishes or dares to accuse, the sheriff, upon the bishop's request, shall cause twelve lawful men of the neighbourhood or the vill to take oath before the bishop that they will show the truth of the matter according to their conscience.

Constitutions of Clarendon, § 6. Presented by King Henry to the bishops at Clarendon in January 1164. Latin text in: , Select Charters, 9th ed. (1913), pp. 163–167. Translation in: A. B. White; W. Notestein, Source Problems in English History (1915), Appendix, II. See also: , The Plantagenets (2014), pp. 19–22, 1913

O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this turbulent priest?

The Chronicle of the Kings of England (1821); expanded in footnote: "Shall this fellow, who came to court on a lame horse, with all his estate on a wallet behind him, trample on the King, the royal family, and the whole kingdom. Will none of all these lazy insignificant persons, whom I maintain, deliver me from this turbulent priest?", 1821

[He said] that he was very unfortunate to have maintained so many cowardly and ungrateful men in his court, none of whom would revenge him of the injuries he sustained from one turbulent priest.

George Lyttleton, History of the Life of King Henry the Second (1772), 1772

O wretched Man that I am, who shall deliver me from this turbulent Priest?

, Chronicle of the Kings of England (1740), 1740

What miserable drones and traitors have I nurtured and promoted in my household who let their lord be treated with such shameful contempt by a low-born cleric!

, who was present at Thomas Becket's murder and subsequently wrote the Vita S. Thomae ("Life of St. Thomas") in about 1180. Quoted by Frank Barlow, Thomas Becket (University of California Press, 1986) p. 235. See also:, 1180