4. THE CENTRALIZATION OF NORMAN ^ JUSTICE UNDER HENRY II ^ liiH^'^ ^' By Alice Stopford (Mrs. John Richard) Green ^ THE building up of his mighty empire was not the only task which filled the first years of Henry's reign. Side by side with this went on another work of peaceful internal administration which we can but dimly trace in the dearth of all written records, but which was ultimately to prove of far greater significance than the imperial schemes that in the eyes of his contemporaries took so much larger propor- tions and shone with so much brighter lustre. The restoration of outward order had not been difficult, for the anarchy of Stephen's reign, terrible as it was, had only passed over the surface of the national life and had been vanquished by a single effort. But the new ruler of England had to begin his work of administration not only amid the temporary difficulties of a general disorganization, but amid the more permanent difficulties of a time of tran- sition, when society was seeking to order itself anew in its passage from the mediaeval to the modern world; and his victory over the most obvious and aggressive forms of dis- order was the least part of his task. Through all the time of anarchy powerful forces had been steadily at work with which the king had now to reckon. A new temper and new aspirations had been kindled by the troubles of the last
- These passages are extracted from " Henry II " (Twelve English
Statesmen), 1888, cc. Ill, IV, V, and IX (London: Macmillan & Co.). The authoress writes to the Committee: "I remember that Sir James Stephen spoke to me warmly of the book and said that I had not made a single legal error." 'Other Publications: Town Life in the Fifteenth Century, 1894; Oxford Studies, 1901; The Conquest of England, 1883 (ed.) ; Short History of the English People, 1888 (ed.) ; Historical Studies, 1903 (ed.). Ill
