Law of Guernsey by the Court of Alderney at a special sitting on Saturday 28 January 2017. King John, who reigned from 1199 to 1216, lost the English-controlled territories in Normandy in France following the 1204 Siege of Château Gaillard, the remaining Norman lands being the Channel Islands. King John promised the islands independence and the right to continue governing themselves after they confirmed their allegiance to the English Crown. Agents of the Crown called bailiffs would enforce the laws and run the courts, one in Jersey and one in Guernsey; the areas under the authority of these bailiffs were called bailiwicks. In
Bailiwick of Guernsey was introduced above the "fiefs" and below the "Eschequier" Court in Rouen and comprised the Bailiff and four Knights; the court heard appeals and tried criminal cases. Otton de Grandson, then the Governor of the Islands, delegated the civil powers to two separate bailiffs for Guernsey and Jersey before he went on the Second Crusade to the Holy Land in 1290. This can be assessed as the date of first creation of the two Bailiwicks. Situated around , Alderney, Guernsey, Herm, Sark, and some other smaller islands together have a total area of and coastlines of about . Elevation varies