Читать книгу Magna Carta: A Commentary on the Great Charter of King John. With an Historical Introduction онлайн

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With the accession of Henry II. (1154) the tide quickly turned, and turned for good.

Of the numerous steps taken by Henry Plantagenet to complete the work of the earlier master-builders of the English monarchy, only a few need here be mentioned. Ascending the throne in early manhood, he brought with him a statesman’s instinct peculiar to himself, together with the unconquerable energy common to his race. He rapidly overhauled every existing institution and every branch of administration. The permanent Curia Regis was not only restored to efficient working order, but was improved in each one of its many aspects—as the King’s household, as a financial bureau, as the administrative centre of the entire kingdom, and as the special vehicle of royal justice. The Exchequer, which was indeed originally merely the Curia in its financial aspect, received the re-organization so urgently needed after the terrible strains to which it had been subjected amid the quarrels of Stephen and Matilda. The Pipe Rolls were revived and various minor reforms in financial matters effected. All local courts (both the old popular courts of hundred and county, and also the feudal jurisdictions) were brought under the more effective control of the central government by various expedients. Chief among these was the restoration of the system of Eyres with their travelling justices (a natural supplement to the restoration of the Exchequer), whose visits were now placed on a more regular and systematic basis. Equally important were the King’s personal care in the selection of fit men for the duties of sheriff, the frequent punishments and removal from office of offenders, and the rigid insistence upon efficient training and uprightness in all who enjoyed places of authority under the Crown. Henry was strong enough to employ more substantial men than the novi homines of his grandfather without suffering them to be less devoted to the interests of their Prince. Yet another expedient for controlling local courts was the calling up of cases to his own central feudal Curia, or before those benches of professional judges, the future King’s Bench and Common Pleas, forming as yet merely committees of the Curia as a whole.