Assize of Clarendon

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. It replaced earlier methods for deciding the winning party in a case, especially felonies, such as trial by ordeal, trial by battle and trial by compurgation, in which laymen, knights or ordinary freemen gave evidence and inquiry under oath; trial by jury developed after the Assize, though some historians trace its beginnings earlier, and the change was not immediate, since recourse to trial by combat was not officially abolished until 1819. The assize takes its name from Clarendon Palace in Wiltshire, the royal hunting lodge where it was promulgated.