Constitutions of Clarendon (1164)
About the Author
There is no specific named author of the Constitutions of Clarendon. It is possible to assume, however, that the clauses were the result of the collaboration of Henry and his advisers, namely his baronial council and justiciars. The baronial council was made up of barons, important landowners who held their land directly from the king. Justiciars served as head executors of the judicial system and were often responsible for drawing up royal writs and other legal documents.
Henry II was born in 1133 in France. In 1150 he became the ruler of Normandy and Anjou. He married Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1153, shortly before his coronation as king of England in 1154. His son Richard (called the “Lion-Hearted” for his military prowess) would succeed him in 1189, and another son, John, best known for acceding to the demands of the English nobles in the Magna Carta in 1215, would be crowned after Richard's death in 1199. Henry launched several military campaigns to defend...
