Henry also took measures to bring the king's justice
directly to the people. He sent members of the royal court on circuit
throughout the kingdom. At least once a year a judge was to hold an assembly in
each county and try such cases as were brought before him. This system of
circuit judges helped to make the law uniform in all parts of England.
TRIAL BY "PETTY JURY"
The king's court owed much of its popularity to the fact
that it employed a better form of trying cases than the old ordeal,
oath-swearing, or judicial duel. Henry introduced a method of jury trial which
had long been in use in Normandy. When a case came before the king's judges on
circuit, they were to select twelve knights, usually neighbors of the parties
engaged in the dispute, to make an investigation and give a "verdict"
[4] as to which side was in the right. These selected men bore the name of
"jurors," [5] because they swore to tell the truth. In Henry's time
this method of securing justice applied only to civil cases, that is, to cases
affecting land and other forms of property, but later it was extended to
persons charged with criminal offenses. Thus arose the "petty jury,"
an institution which nearly all European peoples have borrowed from England.
