If you were not a baron or great magnate but also not a peasant, what would you do? Jobs in the church were uber hard to come by…would you enter the merchant class or attach yourself to the royal court as an administrator?

When it came to those that he chose to serve him, Henry II was motivated by a desire for service based upon loyalty and ability rather than on landownership and family names. This threatened some of the aristocracy and the church as well.  Those ecclesiastical bureaucrats who worked for the throne were also under direct supervision of Rome would report to Rome and advocate on behalf of the Church. A man such as Ranulph de Glanville was not beholden to Rome, he could be steadfast in his loyalty to Henry no matter what the circumstances and his fortunes aligned with the throne not the papacy. Secular bureaucrats meant more power for the throne and less for Rome.