Читать книгу Geoffrey de Mandeville: A study of the Anarchy - John Horace Round - Страница 10

Table of Contents

M. Imperatrix regis Henrici filia Archiepiscopis Episcopis Abbatibus (Comitibus Baronibus Justiciariis Vicecomitibus et ministris et omnibus baronibus et fidelibus) suis Francis et Anglis totius Angliæ et Normanniæ salutem. (Sciatis omnes tam præsentes quam futuri quod Ego Matildis regis Henrici filia et Anglor[um] domina) do et concedo Gaufrido de Magnavillâ (pro servitio suo et heredibus suis post eum hereditabiliter ut sit comes de Essex[iâ] et habeat tertium denarium Vicecomitatus de placitis sicut comes habere debet in comitatu suo[281] in omnibus rebus, et præter hoc reddo illi in feodo et hereditate de me et heredibus meis totam terram quam) tenuit[282] (Gaufridus de Magnavilla avus suus et Serlo de Matom in Angliâ et Normanniâ ita libere et[282]) bene et quiete sicut aliquis antecessorum suorum illam unquam melius (et liberius tenuit, vel ipsemet) postea (aliquo in tempore, sibi dico) et heredibus suis (post eum), et concedo illi et heredibus suis Custodiam turris Londonie (cum parvo Castello quod) fuit Ravengeri in feodo et hereditate de me (et heredibus) meis cum terris et liberationibus et omnibus Consuetudinibus quæ ad (eandem terram[283]) pertinerent, et ut inforciet illa secundum voluntatem suam. (Et similiter[284]) do ei et concedo et heredibus suis C libratas terræ de me et de (heredibus) meis in dominio, videlicet Niweport[285] pro tanto quantum reddere solebat die qua rex H[enricus] pater meus fuit vivus et mortuus, et ad rem(ovend') mercatum de Niweport in Castellum suum de Waldena cum omnibus Consuetudinibus que prius mercato illi melius pertinuerunt in (Thelon[eo] et passag[io][286]) et aliis consuetudinibus, (et) ut vie de Niweport quæ sunt juxta littus aquæ[287] dirigantur ex consuetudine ad Waledenam (sup[er] foris) facturam meam et Mercatum de Waldenâ sit ad diem dominicam et ad diem Jovis et ut feria[288] habeatur apud Waledenam et incipiat in (Vigiliâ Pentecost[289]) et duret per totam hebdomadam pentecostes Et Meldonam[290] ad perficiendum predictas C libratas terræ pro tanto quantum inde reddi solebat die quâ (Rex Henricus fuit) vivus et mortuus cum omnibus Appendiciis et rebus que adjacebant in terrâ et mari ad Burgum illud predicto die mortis Regis Henrici, et (Deopedenam[291]) similiter pro tanto quantum inde reddi solebat die quâ rex Henricus fuit vivus et mortuus cum omnibus Appendiciis suis et Boscum de chatelegâ[292] cum (hominibus pro)[293] xx solidis, et terram de Banhunta[294] pro xl solidis, et si quid defuerit ad C libratas perficiendas perficiam ei in loco competenti in Essexa (aut in Hert)fordescirâ aut in Cantebriggscirâ tali tenore quod si (reddi)dero Comiti Theobaldo totam terram quam (tenebat)[295] in An(gliâ dabo Gaufrido Comiti Essex[ie] escambium suum ad valentiam in his prædictis tribus Comitatibus antequam de) predictis terris dissais(iatur; si etiam reddidero totum honorem et totam terram) heredibus Willelmi peur[elli] de Lond[oniâ][296] dabo similiter ei escambium ad valens antequam dissaisiatur de illâ quæ fuit peurelli et illud (escambium erit) de terrâ que remanebit illi hereditabiliter Et preter hoc do et concedo ei et heredibus suis de me et heredibus meis tenendum feodum (et servicium) xx militum et infra servicium istorum xx militum do ei feodum et servicium terre quam Hasculf[us] de tania[297] tenuit in Angliâ die quâ fuit (vivus et) mortuus, quam tenet Graeleng[us][298] et mater sua pro tanto servicii quantum de feodo illo debent et totum superplus istorum xx militum[299] ei perficiam in (prenomina)tis[300] tribus comitatibus. Et servicium istorum xx militum faciet mihi separatim preter aliud servicium alterius feodi sui. Et preterea concedo (illi ut)[300] castella sua que habet stent et ei remaneant (ad) inforcia(nd[um])[300] ad voluntatem suam Et ut ille et omnes homines sui teneant terras (et tenaturas) suas omnes de quocunque teneant sicut tenuerunt die quâ ipse homo meus effectus est salvo servitio dominorum Et ut ipse et homines sui (sint quieti) de omnibus debitis que debuerunt regi Henrico aut regi Stephano et ut ipse et omnes homines sui per totam Angliam sint quieti de Wastis fores(tariis et) assartis que facta sunt in feodo ipsius Gaufredi usque ad (diem quo) homo meus devenit Et ut a die illo in antea omnia illa ess(arta sint amodo excultibilia et arrabilia sine forisfacto et ut habeat mercatum die Jovis apud Bisseiam[301] et feriam similiter ibidem quoque anno; et incipiat vigiliâ Sancti Jacobi et duret tres dies. Et [preterea] do et concedo ei et heredibus suis in feodo et hereditate ad tenendum de me et heredibus meis vicecomitatum Essex[ie] reddendo inde rectam firmam que inde reddi solebat die quâ rex Henricus pater meus fuit vivus et mortuus, ita quod auferat de summâ firmâ vice)comitatus quantum pertinuerit[302] (ad) Meldonam et Niweport que ei (donavi et) quantum (pertinuerit[303] ad tertium) denarium de placitis Vicecomitatus unde eum feci Comitem, et ut teneat omnia excidamenta mea que mihi exciderint (in com)itatu Essexe reddendo inde firmam rectam quamdiu erunt in Dominio meo Et ut sit capitalis Justicia in Essexâ hereditabiliter mea (et hered[um]) meorum de placitis et forisfactis que pertinuerint ad Coronam meam, ita quod non mittam aliam Justiciam super eum in Comitatu illo nisi[304] (ita sit quod ali)quando mittam aliquem de paribus suis qui audiat cum illo quod placita mea juste tractentur Et ut ipse et omnes homines sui sint (quieti versus) me et versus heredes meos de omni forisfacto et omni malivolentiâ preteritâ ante diem quo meus homo devenit Et ei firmiter concedo et (heredibus s suis) quod bene et in pace et libere et sine placito habeat et[305] teneat hereditabiliter, sicut hæc carta confirmat, omnia tenementa sua (que ei concessi, in terris) et tenaturis et in feodis et firmis et Castellis et libertatibus et in omnibus Conventionibus inter nos factis (sicut aliquis Comes) terre[306] mee melius et quietius et liberius tenet ad modum Comitis in omnibus rebus ita quod ipse vel aliquis hominum suorum non (ponantur[307] in ullo modo) in placitum de aliquo forisfacto quod fecissent antequam homo meus factus esset, nec pro aliquo forisfacto quod facturus sit in (antea ponatur in) placit[um] de feodo vel Castello vel terrâ vel tenurâ quam ei concesserim quamdiu se defendere potuerit de scelere sive (traditione) ad corpus meum pertinente per se aut per unum militem si quis coram venerit qui eum appellare inde voluerit.

(T[estibus] H[enrico] Ep[iscop]o Winton[ensi]) et A[lexandro] Ep[iscop]o Lincoln[ensi] et R[oberto] Ep[iscop]o Heref[ordensi] et N[igello] Ep[iscop]o Ely[ensi] (et B[ernardo] Ep[iscop]o de S[ancto] David et W[illelmo] Cancellario et Com[ite] R[oberto] de Glocestr[iâ] et Com[ite] B[aldewino[308]]) et Com[ite] W[illelmo] de Moion et B[riano] fil[io] Com[itis] (et M[ilone] Glocestr[ie] et R[oberto] Arundell[309]] et R[oberto] Malet[310] et Rad[ulfo] Lovell[311] et Rad[ulfo] Painell[312]) et W[alkelino] Maminot[313] et Rob[erto] fil[io] R[egis][314] et Rob[erto] fil[io] Martin[315] (et Rob[ert]o fil[io] Heldebrand[i][316] Apud Westmonaster[ium]).[317]

One cannot but be greatly struck by the names of the witnesses to this charter. The legate and his four brother prelates, who had been with the Empress in Winchester, at her reception on March 3, are here with her again at Westminster. So are her three inseparable companions; but where are the magnates of England? Two west-country earls, one of them of her own making,[318] and a few west-country barons virtually complete the list. I do not say that these were, of necessity, the sole constituents of her court; but there is certainly the strongest possible presumption that had she been joined in person by any number of bishops or nobles, we should not have found so important a charter witnessed merely by the members of the entourage that she had brought up with her from the west. We have, for instance, but to compare this list with that of the witnesses to Stephen's charter six months later.[319] Or, indeed, we may compare it, to some disadvantage, with that of the Empress herself a month later at Oxford.[320] Where were the primate and the Bishop of London? Where was the King of Scots? These questions are difficult to answer. It may, however, be suggested that the general disgust at her intolerable arrogance,[321] and her harshness to the king,[322] kept the magnates from attending her court.[323] Her inability to repel the queen's forces, and her instant flight before the Londoners, are alike suggestive of the fact that her followers were comparatively few.

There are several points of constitutional importance upon which this instructive charter sheds some welcome light.

In the first place we should compare it with Stephen's charter (p. 51), to which, in Mr. Eyton's words, it forms the "counter-patent."[324] In the former the words of creation are: "Sciatis me fecisse comitem de Gaufredo," etc. In the charter of the Empress they run thus: "Sciatis ... quod ... do et concedo Gaufredo de Magnavilla ... ut sit Comes," etc. This contrast is in itself conclusive as to the earldom having been first created by Stephen and then recognized by the Empress. This being so, it is the more strange that Mr. Eyton should have arrived at the contrary conclusion, especially as he noticed the stronger form in the charter creating the earldom of Hereford ("Sciatis me fecisse Milonem de Glocestriâ Comitem"), a form corresponding with that in Stephen's charter to Geoffrey. The earldom of Hereford being created by the Empress, as that of Essex had been by Stephen, we find the same formula duly employed by both. The distinction thus established is one of considerable importance.

The special grant of the "tertius denarius" is a point of such extreme interest in its bearing on earls and earldoms that it requires to be separately discussed in a note devoted to the subject.[325]

But without dwelling at greater length upon the peerage aspect of this charter, let us see how it illustrates the ambitious policy pursued in this struggle by the feudal nobles. Dr. Stubbs writes:—

"It is possible that the frequent tergiversations which mark the struggle may have been caused by the desire of obtaining confirmation of the rank [of earl] from both the competitors for the crown."[326]

But it is my contention that Geoffrey and his fellows were playing a deeper game. We find each successive change of side on the part of this unscrupulous magnate marked by a distinct advance in his demands and in the price he obtained. Broadly speaking, he was master of the situation, and he put himself and his fortress up to auction. Thus he obtained from the impassioned rivals a rapid advance at each bid. Compare, for instance, this charter with that he had obtained from Stephen, or, again, compare it with those which are to follow.

The very length of this charter, as compared with Stephen's, is significant enough in itself. But its details are far more so. Stephen's grant had not explicitly included the tertius denarius; the Empress grants him the tertius denarius "sicut comes habere debet in comitatu suo."[327] But what may be termed the characteristic features are to be found in such clauses as those dealing with the license to fortify, and with the grants of lands.[328] These latter, indeed, teem with information, not only for the local, but for the general historian, as in the case of Theobald's forfeiture. But their special information is rather in the light they throw on the nature of these grants, and on the sources from which the Empress, like her rival, strove to gratify the greed of these insatiable nobles.

Foremost among these were those "extravagant grants of Crown lands" spoken of by Dr. Stubbs and by Gneist.[329] Now, in this charter, and in those which follow, we are enabled to trace the actual working of this fatal policy in practice. The Empress begins, in this charter, by granting Geoffrey, for this is its effect, £100 a year in land ("C libratas terræ"). Stephen, we shall find, a few months later, regains him to his side by increasing the bid to £300 a year ("CCC libratas terræ"). But how is the amount made up? It is charged on the Crown lands in his own county of Essex. But observe, for this is an important point, that it is not charged as a lump sum on the entire corpus comitatus (or, to speak more exactly, on the annual firma of that corpus), but on certain specified estates. Here we have a welcome allusion to the practice of the early Exchequer. The charter authorizes Geoffrey, as sheriff, to deduct from the annual ferm of the county, for which he was responsible at the Exchequer (being that recorded on the Rotulus exactorius), that portion of it represented by the annual rents (redditus) of Maldon and Newport, which, as estates of Crown demesne, had till then been included in the corpus.[330] From the earliest Pipe-Rolls now remaining we know that the estates so alienated were usually entered by the sheriff under the head of "Terræ Datæ," with the amount due from each, for which amounts, of course, he claimed allowance in his account. I think we have here at least a suggestion that even at the height of the anarchy and of the struggle, the Exchequer, with all the details of its practice, was recognized as in full existence. I have never been able to reconcile myself to the accepted view, as set forth by Dr. Stubbs, of the "stoppage of the administrative machinery"[331] under Stephen. He holds that on the arrest of the bishops (June, 1139) "the whole administration of the country ceased to work," and that Stephen was "never able to restore the administrative machinery."[332] Crippled and disorganized though it doubtless was, the Exchequer, I contend, must have preserved its existence, because its existence was an absolute necessity. Without an exchequer, the income of the Crown would, obviously, have instantly disappeared. Moreover, the case of William of Ypres, and others to which reference will be made below, will go far to establish the important fact that the Exchequer system remained in force, and that accounts of some kind must have been kept.

The next point to which I would call attention is the expression "pro tanto quantum inde reddi solebat die quâ Rex Henricus fuit vivus et mortuus," which is applied to Maldon and Newport. The Pipe-Rolls, it should be remembered, only took cognizance of the total ferm of the shire. The constituents of that ferm were a matter for the sheriff. At first sight, therefore, these expressions might seem to cause some difficulty. Their explanation, however, is this. Just as I have shown in Domesday Studies[333] that the ferm of a town, as in the case of Huntingdon, was in truth the aggregate of several distinct and separate ferms, so the ferm of a county must have comprised the separate and distinct ferms of each of the royal estates. That ferm would be a customary, that is, fixed, redditus (or, as the charter expresses it, "quantum inde reddi solebat"). A particularly striking case in point is afforded by Hatfield Regis (alias Hatfield Broadoak). When Stephen increased the alienation of Crown demesne to Geoffrey, he granted him Hatfield inter alia "pro quater xx libris," that is, as representing £80 a year. This same estate, after the fall of Geoffrey, was alienated anew to Richard de Luci, and in the early Pipe-Rolls of HenryII. we read, under "Terræ Datæ" in Essex, "Ricardo de Luci quater xx libræ numero in Hadfeld." That is to say, in his annual account, the sheriff claimed to be allowed £80 off the amount of his ferm, in respect of the alienated estate. Now, the Domesday valuation of this manor is fortunately very precise: "Tunc Manerium valuit xxxvi libras. Modo lx. Sed vicecomes recipit inde lxxx libras et c solidos de gersuma" (ii. 2 b). The Domesday redditus of the manor, therefore, had remained absolutely unchanged. In such cases of alienation of demesne, it was, obviously, the object of the grantee that the manor should be valued as low as possible, while that of the sheriff was precisely the reverse. It was on this account doubtless, to prevent dispute, that these charters carefully named the sum at which the manor was to be valued, either in figures, as in the case of Bonhunt,[334] or, as in that of Maldon and Newport, in the formula "quantum inde reddi solebat" at the death of HenryI., this formula probably implying that the earlier ferm had been forced up in the days of the Lion of Justice.

The conclusion I would draw from the above argument is that the sheriff was not at liberty to exact arbitrary sums from the demesne lands of the Crown. A fixed annual render (redditus) was due to him from each, though this, like the firma of the sheriff himself, was liable to revision from time to time.[335]

But it would be difficult to overestimate the importance of evidence which forms a connecting link between Domesday and the period of the Pipe-Rolls, especially if it throws some fresh light on the vexed question of Domesday values. Moreover, we have here an obvious suggestion as to the purpose of the Conqueror in ascertaining values, at least so far as concerned the demesne lands of the Crown, for he was thus enabled to check the sheriffs, by obtaining a basis for calculating the amount of the firma comitatus. With this point we shall have to deal when we come to Geoffrey's connection with the shrievalty of Essex and Herts.

Attention may also be called to the formula of "excambion" (as the Scottish lawyers term it) here employed, for it would seem to be earlier than any of those quoted in Madox's Formularium. But the suggested exchange is specially interesting in the case of Count Theobald, because it gives us an historical fact not elsewhere mentioned, namely, that the Empress, on obtaining the mastery, forfeited his lands at once. Her doing so, we should observe, is in strict accordance with the chroniclers' assertions as to her wholesale forfeitures and her special hostility to Stephen's house. And we can go further still. We can ascertain not only that Count Theobald was forfeited, as we have seen, by the Empress, but also that the land she forfeited had been given him by Stephen himself. In a document which I have previously referred to, we read that Stephen had given him the "manor" of Maldon,[336] being that manor of Crown demesne which the Empress here bestows upon Geoffrey.

Another important though difficult subject upon which this charter bears is that of knight-service. Indeed, considering its early date—a quarter of a century earlier than the returns contained in the Liber Niger—it may, in conjunction with Stephen's charter of some six months later, be pronounced to be among our most valuable evidences for what Dr. Stubbs describes as "a subject on which the greatest obscurity prevails."[337]

Let us first notice that the Empress grants "feodum et servicium XX militum," while Stephen grants "LX milites feudatos ... scilicet servicium" of so and so "pro [LX] militibus." Thus, then, the "milites feudatos" of Stephen equates the "feodum et servicium ... militum" of the Empress. And, further, it repeats the remarkable expression employed by Florence of Worcester when he tells us that the Conqueror instructed the Domesday Commissioners to ascertain "quot milites feudatos" his tenants-in-chief possessed, that is to say, how many knights they had enfeoffed. But the Empress in her charter complicates her grant by adding the special clause: "Et servicium istorum XX militum faciet mihi separatim preter aliud servicium alterius feodi sui." Had it not been for this clause, one might have inferred that the object of the grant was to transfer, to Earl Geoffrey the "servicium" of these twenty knights' fees due, of right, to the Crown, so that he might enjoy all such profits as the Crown would have derived from that "servicium," and, at the same time, have employed these knights as substitutes for those which he was bound to furnish, from his own fief, to the Crown. But the above clause is fatal to such a view. Again, both in the charters of the Empress and of her rival, these special grants of knights and their "servicium" are kept entirely distinct from those of Crown demesne or escheated land, which, moreover, are expressed in terms of the "librata terræ." On the whole I lean strongly to the belief that, although the working of the arrangement may be obscure, the object of Geoffrey was to add to the number of the knights who followed his standard, and thus to increase his power as a noble and the weight that he could throw into the scale. And the special clause referred to above would imply that the Crown was to have a claim on him for twenty knights more than those whom he was bound to furnish from his own fief.

Lastly, we may note the identity of the formula employed for the grant of lands and for that of knights' service. In each case the grant is made "pro tanto,"[338] and in each case the Empress undertakes to make good ("perficere") the balance to him within the limit of the three counties of Essex, Cambridgeshire, and Herts.[339]

With the subject of castles I propose to deal later on. But there is one point on which the evidence of this charter is perhaps more important than on any other, and that is in the retrospective light which it throws on the system of reform introduced by the first Henry.

Incidentally, we have here witness to that system, of which the Pipe-Roll of 1130 is the solitary but vivid exponent, and under which the very name of "plea" became a terror to all men. Every man was liable, on the slightest pretext, to be brought within the meshes of the law, with the object, as it seemed, and at least with the result, of swelling the royal hoard (cf. pp. 11, 12, n. 1). Even to secure one's simplest rights money had always to be paid. Thus, here, Geoffrey stipulates that he and his men are to hold their possessions "sine placito," and "ita quod ... non ponantur in ullo modo in placito de aliquo forisfacto," etc., etc. So again, in his later charter, we find him insisting that he and they shall hold all their possessions "sine placito et sine pecuniæ donatione," and that "Rectum eis teneatur de eorum calumpniis sine pecuniæ donatione." The exactions he dreaded meet us at every turn on the Pipe-Roll of 1130.

But, on the other hand, the charter, broadly speaking, illustrates, by the retrograde concessions it extorts, the cardinal factor in the long struggle between the feudal nobles and their lord the king, namely, their jealousy of that royal jurisdiction by which the Crown strove, and eventually with success, to break their semi-independent power, and to bring the whole realm into uniform subjection to the law.

After the clauses conferring on Geoffrey the hereditary shrievalty of Essex, a matter which I shall discuss further on, there immediately follows this passage, the most significant, as I deem it, in the whole charter:—

"Et ut sit Capitalis Justicia in Essexiâ hereditabiliter mea et heredum meorum de placitis et forisfactis que pertinuerint ad coronam meam, ita quod non mittam aliam justiciam super eum in comitatu illo nisi ita sit quod aliquando mittam aliquem de paribus suis qui audiat cum illo quod placita mea juste tractentur."

The first point to be dealt with here is the phrase "Capitalis Justicia in Essexiâ." Here we have the term "capitalis" applied to the justicia of a single county. On this I would lay some stress, for it has been generally supposed that this style was reserved for the Great Justiciary, the alter ego of the king himself.[340]

In his learned observations on the "obscurities" of the style "justitia or justitiarius," Dr. Stubbs writes that "the capitalis justitia seems to be the only one of the body to whom a determinate position as the king's representative is assigned in formal documents" (i. 389). It was probably the object of Geoffrey, when he secured this particular style, to obtain for himself all the powers vested in "the king's representative," and so to provide against his supersession by a justiciar claiming in that capacity.

Let us now examine the witness of the charter to the differentiation of the sheriff (vicecomes) and the justice (justitia), for that is the development which its terms involve.

Dr. Stubbs points out that, under the Norman kings, "the authority of the sheriff, when he was relieved from the company of the ealdorman, ... would have no check except the direct control of the king" (i. 272); and Gneist similarly observed that "After the withdrawal of the eorl, the Anglo-Saxon shir-gerefa became the regular governor of the county, who was henceforth no longer dependent upon the eorl, but upon the personal orders of the king, and upon the organs of the Norman central administration" (i. 140). And for a period of transition between the two systems, the Anglo-Saxon and the late Norman, the sheriff not only presided, in his court, as its sole lay head, but also in a dual capacity. Dr. Stubbs, it is true, with his wonted caution, does but suggest it as "probable that whilst the sheriff in his character of sheriff was competent to direct the customary business of the court, it was in that of justitia that he transacted special business under the king's writ."[341] But Gneist treats of him, under a separate heading, in his capacity of "royal justiciary" (i. 142). It is from this dual position that there developed, by specialization of function, two distinct officers, the sheriff (vicecomes) and the justice (justicia). This is the development which, as yet, has been somewhat imperfectly apprehended.

The centralizing policy of HenryI., operating through the Curia Regis, has, I need hardly observe, been admirably explained by Dr. Stubbs. He has shown how two methods were employed to attain the end in view: the one, to call up certain pleas from the local courts to the curia; the other, to send down the officers of the curia to sit in the local courts.[342] In the latter case, the royal officer ("justicia") appeared as the representative of the central power of which the Curia Regis was the exponent. Thus, there were, again, for the county court two lay presidents, but they were now the sheriff, as local authority, and the justice, who represented the central. Such an arrangement was, of course, a step in advance for the Crown, which had thus secured for itself, through its justice, a footing in the local courts.[343] But with this arrangement neither side was able to rest satisfied. Broadly speaking, if I may be allowed the expression, the Crown sought to centralize the sheriff, and to exclude the local element; the feudatories would fain have localized the justice, and so have excluded the central. Thus, before the close of Henry's reign, he had actually employed on a large scale the officers of his curia as sheriffs of counties, and "by these means," as Dr. Stubbs observes, "the king and justiciar kept in their hands the reins of the entire judicial administration" (i. 392).[344] The same policy was faithfully followed by his grandson, a generation later, on the occasion of the inquest of sheriffs (1170), when, says Dr. Stubbs, "the sheriffs removed from their offices were most of them local magnates, whose chances of oppression and whose inclination towards a feudal administration of justice were too great. In their place Henry instituted officers of the Exchequer, less closely connected with the counties by property, and more amenable to royal influence, as well as more skilled administrators—another step towards the concentration of the provincial jurisdiction under the Curia Regis."[345]

This passage enables us to see how essentially contrary to the policy of the Crown were the provisions of Geoffrey's charter. It not only feudalized the local shrievalty by placing it in the hands of a feudal magnate, and, further still, making it hereditary, but it seized upon the centralizing office of justice, and made it as purely local, nay, as feudal as the other.

But let us return to the point from which we started, namely, the witness of Geoffrey's charter to the differentiation of the sheriff and the justice. It proves that the sheriff could no longer discharge the functions of "a royal justiciary," without a separate appointment to that distinct office. When we thus learn how Geoffrey became both sheriff and justice of Essex, we can approach in the light of that appointment the writ addressed "Ricardo de Luci Justic' et Vicecomiti de Essexa," on which Madox relies for Richard's tenure of the post of chief justiciary.[346] It may be that Richard's appointment corresponded with that of Geoffrey. But whatever uncertainty there may be on this point, there can be none on the parallel between Geoffrey's charter and that which HenryI. granted to the citizens of London. Indeed, in all municipal charters of the fullest and best type, we find the functions of the sheriff and the justice dealt with in the same successive order. The striking thought to be drawn from this is that the feudatories and the towns, though their interests were opposed inter se, presented to the Crown the same attitude and sought from it the same exemptions. In proof of this I here adduce three typical charters, arranged in chronological order. The first is an extract from that important charter which London obtained from HenryI., the second is taken from Geoffrey's charter, and the third from that of Richard I. to Colchester, which I quote because it contains the same word "justicia," and also because it is, probably, little, if at all, known.

Charter of HenryI. to London.	Charter of the Empress to Geoffrey.	Charter of Richard I. to Colchester.
"Ipsi cives ponent vicecomitem qualem voluerint de se ipsis, et justitiarium qualem voluerint de se ipsis ad custodiendum placita coronæ meæ et eadem placitanda; et nullus alius erit Justitiarius super ipsos homines Londoniarum."	"Concedo ei et heredibus suis ... vicecomitatum Essexie. Et ut sit Capitalis Justicia ... de placitis et forisfactis que pertinuerint ad coronam meam, ita quod non mittam aliam Justiciam super eum in comitatu illo," etc.	"Ipsi ponant de se ipsis Ballivos quoscunque voluerint et Justiciam ad servanda placita Coronæ nostræ et ad placitanda eadem placita infra Burgum suum et quod nullus alius sit inde Justicia nisi quem elegerint."

Here we have the two offices similarly distinct throughout. We have also the ballivi, representing to the town what the vicecomes represents to the shire, a point which it is necessary to bear in mind. The "bailiff," so far as the town was concerned, stood in the sheriff's shoes. So also did the "coroner" (or "coroners") in those of the justice. Indeed, at Colchester, two "coroners" represented the "justice" of the charter. I cannot find that Dr. Stubbs calls attention to the fact of this twin privilege, the fact that exemption from the sheriff and from the justice went, in these charters, hand in hand.

Lastly, we should observe that though, in these charters, the clause relating to the sheriff precedes that which relates to the justice, yet, conversely, in the enumeration of those to whom a charter is directed, "justices" are invariably, I believe, given the precedence of "sheriffs." This, which would seem to have passed unnoticed, may have an important bearing. Ordericus, in a famous passage (xi. 2) describing Henry's ministers, tells us how the king

"favorabiliter illi obsequentes de ignobili stirpe illustravit, de pulvere, ut ita dicam, extulit, dataque multiplici facultate super consules et illustres oppidanos exaltavit.... Illos ... rex, cum de infimo genere essent, nobilitavit, regali auctoritate de imo erexit, in fastigio potestatum constituit, ipsis etiam spectabilibus regni principibus formidabiles effecit."

Observe how vivid a light such a passage as this throws upon the clause in Geoffrey's charter:—

"Non mittam aliam Justiciam super eum in Comitatu illo, nisi ita sit quod aliquando mittam aliquem de paribus suis qui audiat cum illo quod placita mea juste tractentur."

The whole clause breathes the very spirit of feudalism. It betrays the hatred of Geoffrey and his class for those upstarts, as they deemed them, the royal justices, who, clad in all the authority of the Crown, intruded themselves into their local courts and checked them in the exercise of their power. Henceforth, in the courts of the favoured earl, the representative of the Crown was to make his appearance not regularly, but only now and then ("aliquando"); moreover, when he came, he was to figure in court not as the superior ("super eum"), but as the colleague ("cum illo") of the earl; and, lastly, he was not to belong to the upstart ministerial class: he was to be one of his own class—of his "peers" ("de paribus suis").

As an illustrative parallel to this clause, I am tempted to quote a remarkable charter, unnoticed, it would seem, not only by our historians, but even by Mr. Eyton himself. The Assize of Clarendon, a quarter of a century (1166) after the date of our charter to Geoffrey, contained clauses specially aimed against such exemption as he sought. Referring to these clauses, Dr. Stubbs writes:—

"No franchise is to exclude the justices.... In the article which directs the admission of the justices into every franchise may be detected one sign of the anti-feudal policy which the king had all his life to maintain."[347]

But the clauses in question, though their sweeping character fully justifies this description,[348] contrast strangely with the humble, almost apologetic, charter in which HenryII., immediately afterwards, announces that he is only sending his "justicia" into the patrimony of St. Cuthbert "by permission" of the bishop, and as a quite exceptional measure, not to be taken again. It throws, perhaps, some new light on the character and methods of the king, when we find him thus stooping, in form, to gain his point in fact.

"Henricus Rex Angl' et Dux Normann' et Aquitan' et Comes Andegav', justiciariis Vicecomitibus et omnibus ministris suis de Eborac'sir et de Nordhummerlanda salutem. Sciatis quod consilio Baronum meorum,[349] et Episcopi Dunelmensis licencia, mitto hac vice in terram sancti Cuthberti justiciam meam, quæ[350] videat ut fiat justicia secundum assisam meam de latronibus et murdratoribus et roboratoribus;[351] non quia velim ut trahatur in consuetudinem tempore meo vel heredum meorum, sed ad tempus hoc facio, pro prædicta necessitate; quia volo quod terra beati Cuthberti suas habeat libertates et antiquas consuetudines, sicut unquam melius habuit. T. Gavfrido Archiepiscopo [sic] Cant. Ric. Arch. Pictav. Comite Gaufrido, Ricardo de Luci. Apud Wodestoc."[352]

The first charter of the Empress has now been sufficiently discussed. It was, of course, his possession of the Tower that enabled Geoffrey to extort such terms, the command of that fortress being essential to the Empress, to overawe the disaffected citizens.