doth here enclose
The world's most beauteous Rose--
Rose passing sweet erewhile,
Now naught but odor vile."

172. The King's Penance (1173).

The revolt against Henry's power began in Normandy (1173). While he
was engaged in quelling it, he received intelligence that Earl Bigod
of Norfolk[2] and the bishop of Durham, both of whom hated the King's
reforms, since they curtailed their authority, had risen against him.

[2] Hugh Bigod: The Bigods were among the most prominent and also the
most turbulent of the Norman barons.

Believing that this new trouble was a judgment from Heaven for
Becket's murder, Henry resolved to do penance at his tomb. Leaving
the Continent with two prisoners in his charge,--one his son Henry's
queen, the other his own,--he traveled with all speed to Canterbury.
There, kneeling abjectly before the grave of his former chancellor and
friend, the King submitted to be beaten with rods by the priests, in
expiation of his sin.

173. End of the Struggle of the Barons against the Crown.

Henry then moved against the rebels in the north (S171). Convinced of
the hopelessness of holding out against his forces, they submitted.
With their submission the long struggle of the barons against the
Crown came to an end (SS124, 130). It had lasted nearly a hundred
years (1087-1174).

The King's victory in this contest was of the greatest importance. It
settled the question, once for all, that England was not, like the
rest of Europe, to be managed in the interest of a body of great
baronial landholders always at war with each other; but was henceforth
to be governed by one central power, restrained but not overridden by
that of the nobles and the Cuhrch.

174. The King again begins his Reforms (1176).

As soon as order was restored, Henry once more set about completing
his legal and judicial reforms (S165). His great object was to secure
a uniform system of administering justice which should be effective
and impartial.

Henry I had undertaken to divide the kingdom into districts or
circuits, which were assigned to a certain number of judges who
traveled through them at stated times collecting the royal revenue and
administering the law (SS137, 147). Henry II revised and perfected
this plan.[1]

[1] This was accomplished by means of two laws called the Grand Assize
and the Assize of Clarendon (not to be confounded with the
Constitutions of Clare