Henry II would rule for another 20 years, long enough to see his embryonic legal system grow into a thriving network of courts. Up and down the land, these new courts were to settle not just the usual disputes of blood and mayhem but all manner of painful rows over inheritances, estates and properties. How ironic then that the only family who would not accept the King's justice was his own. Because if there was one person who was likely to think of the King not as judge but as transgressor, it was his wife. It had been 20 years since Henry and Eleanor had been partners, in bed and in government. Since then, Eleanor had had to suffer the humiliation of a string of mistresses. What tormented her was not Becket's shrine, it was the shrine Henry had built to his favourite mistress, Rosamund Clifford.


在亨利二世统治的后续二十年间，他的法律体系已从雏形发展为成熟的法院系统。新兴法院遍布全国各地，不仅解决常规流血争端和伤害罪。还有形形色色而令人头痛的继承，土地和财产纠纷。讽刺的是，唯一不用受到国王审判的就是他自己的家族，因为如果有人能够将国王看作是罪人，不是法官。那这个人只能是他的妻子，亨利和埃莉诺结婚二十年来，既同床共枕，亦共议朝政。一直以来，埃莉诺因亨利，拥有众多情妇而倍感羞辱，令她烦扰的不是贝克特的神庙，而是亨利为他最喜欢的情妇，罗莎蒙德·克利福德修建的宫殿[即今布莱尼姆宫]。