Grand Assize
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
An extraordinary trial by jury, instituted by Henry II., by way of alternative offered to the choice of the tenant or defendant in a writ of right, instead of the barbarous custom of trial by battel. For this purpose, a writ de magna assiza eliganda was directed to the sheriff to return four knights, who were to choose twelve other knights to be joined with themselves; and these sixteen formed the grand assize, or great jury, to try the right between the parties.
3 Bl. Comm. 351.