Common Law - Henry II and the Birth of a State

Page 5 of 5

• 1. Law and the State
• 2. Law before Henry II and the Impetus for Reform from 1154
• 3. The Angevin Legal Reforms
• 4. Law, Magna Carta, and the development of the State
• 5. Find out more
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Books

W. L. Warren, Henry II, London, 1973, is the standard work on the king. R. J. Bartlett, England under the Norman and Angevin Kings, 1075-1225, Oxford, 2000, is packed with ideas and unusual information. First published in the 1890s, Sir Frederick Pollock and F. W. Maitland, The History of English Law before the Time of Edward I (2 vols, repr. Cambridge, 1968), is a masterpiece in comparison with which all later efforts pale. J. G. H. Hudson, The Formation of the English Common Law: Law and Society in England from the Norman Conquest to Magna Carta, London, 1996, is a straightforward introduction to the subject. J. C. Holt, Magna Carta (2nd edn, Cambridge, 1992) is both masterful in its treatment of the charter and profound in its analysis of long-term developments.

About the author

Dr John Hudson is Reader in Mediaeval History at the University of St.Andrews. He has undertaken extensive research in Anglo-Norman history, especially in the areas of law, lordship and literature. His main publications include: Land, Law, and Lordship in Anglo-Norman England, Oxford, 1994; (editor - with G S Garnett), Law and Government in Medieval England and Normandy, Cambridge, 1994; The Formation of the English Common Law, London, 1996; and (editor) Pollock and Maitland: Centenary Essays on the History of English Law, Proceedings of the British Academy, 89; 1996.

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Published: 2001-05-01