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The Assize of Clarendon was an act of Henry II of England in 1166 that began a transformation of English law and led to trial by jury in common law countries worldwide, and that established assize courts.
Prior systems for deciding the winning party in a case, especially felonies, included trial by ordeal, trial by battle, or trial by compurgation (trial by oath), in which evidence, inspection, and inquiry was made under oath by laymen, knights or ordinary freemen. After the Assize of Clarendon trial by jury developed, though some historians say beginnings of the jury system predate this act.[1] The Assize of Clarendon did not lead to this change immediately; recourse to trial by combat was not officially rescinded until 1819, though by then it had fallen out of use.
The assize takes its name from Clarendon Palace, Wiltshire, the royal hunting lodge at which it was promulgated.
- ^ cf. the debate between Stubbes, Powicke, and Maitland, "The Jury of Presentment and the Assize of Clarendon", N. Hurnard (1941), English Historical Review vol. 56, no. 223, pp. 374–410.