regularly observed, its documents clear and sharp and to the point, this meant normally that an efficient government stood behind it.
Now, judged by the most exacting standards, the chancery of Henry II had reached a high degree of perfection. It has quite recently been the subject of an elaborate study by the most eminent medievalist of our time, the late Léopold Delisle, who cannot restrain his admiration for its regularity, its accuracy and finish, and the extraordinary range and rapidity of its work. The documents issued in the name of Henry II during his long reign of thirty-five years, says Delisle,[1] "both for his English and his continental possessions, are all drawn up on the same plan in identical formulae and expressed with irreproachable precision in a simple, clear, and correct style, which is also remarkably uniform save for a small number of pieces which show the hand of others than the royal officers." If the judgment of this master required support, I should be glad to confirm it from the personal examination of some hundreds of Henry's charters and writs. Such uniformity, it should be observed, is evidence not only of the extent and technical attainments of the chancery but of substantially similar administrative conditions throughout the various dominions to which these documents are addressed: officers, functions, legal and administrative procedure are everywhere very much alike. Moreover, a study of
- ↑ Recueil des actes de Henri II, Introduction, p. i; cf. p. 151.
