Constitutions of Clarendon

January 30, 1164

Henry II put down sixteen clauses reaffirming what he claimed were royal customs over the church, chiefly the right to try clerics in lay courts. Becket signed and then immediately repudiated his signature. Their break from personal friendship became open political war. The Constitutions articulated a vision of royal supremacy over ecclesiastical jurisdiction that would echo through English law for centuries, resurfacing in the Reformation and beyond.