his affairs there, returned to England on the 6th of October A.D. 1200,1 and was crowned again at Westminster, along with his wife, by Hubert, the Archbishop, in the presence of the nobles of the kingdom, including Geoffrey of York, who had become reconciled to the King.

Immediately after the coronation ceremony had been gone through in Westminster Abbey, King John made the above statesman his Chancellor, in the place of William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, the hero of Saint Paul's Churchyard, who had been Chancellor for most of the reign of Richard the First, to the great dissatisfaction of the nation.2

1 Itinerary of King John, anno regni 2.

2 Roger de Hoveden.

CHAPTER III.

KING JOHN REALLY GOVERNS-HIS INTENSE APPLICATION—

HIS JOURNEYS.

IMMEDIATELY after his coronation, King John crossed the sea for Normandy, sailing from Shoreham in Sussex, on the 20th of June, and arriving at Roche-Orival on the 29th. He remained in Normandy and his other provinces in France for eight months, arriving at Portsmouth, on his return to England, on the 27th day of February A.D. 1200.

At this time he continued in England two months, or to the 28th day of April, when he again sailed for Normandy.

The alterations in the law courts, and general administration of justice the innovations of Henry II.-threw a great weight of personal attention to the Circuits of Assize upon the reigning sovereign, who frequently presided in the law courts, supported by the judges.

King John, quite aware of the great responsibility involved in his coronation oath, set himself worthily to fulfil the duties involved in that oath. He personally perambulated the country with the judges in their circuits of assize, in a manner which no king of England ever did, before or since his time. He was a very slave to the public service; for during the two months of his sojourn in England, from February 27th A.D. 1200, we find him at Portsmouth for two days, including Romsey; Winchester, one day; Freemantle, one day; Windsor, two days; Westminster, three days; Woodstock, six days, including part of a day at Silverstone; Northampton, three days; Clipstone, one day; Tichhill, three days;

York, three days, and one day between York, Brotherton, and Doncaster; Bolsover, one day; Derby and Burton-upon-Trent, one day; Burton-upon-Trent, one day; Lichfield, three days, including part of a day at Brewood; Kinfare, one day; Worcester, six days; Farringdon, one day; Windsor, two days; Westminster, three days; Fulham, one day; Guildford, two days, with part of one of them at Alton; Porchester and Bishop's Waltham, one day; Bishop's Waltham and Porchester, one day; Porchester and Portsmouth, one day; Porchester and Southwark, one day; and Porchester, one day.

In the year A.D. 1199-1200, the first year of John's reign, besides the sittings in Westminster, we have three iters; which is to say, that besides the ordinary sittings by the Judges of the King's Bench, and Barons of the Exchequer in Westminster, there were three journeys or circuits undertaken by the itinerant Justiciaries.

1st Iter, that of Simon de Pateshull and his companions, Justices of our lord the King, sat at Oxford, Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester; the Abbot of Tewkesbury sat on this one occasion as a Justice on the iter.

2d Iter, the Archdeacon of Ely, with other Justices accompanying him, sat at Leicester and Nottingham.

3d Iter, the Bishop of Winchester and other Justices sat at Winchester.

After another absence of five months in France, John returned to England on the 6th day of October A.D. 1200; for on that day we find him at Freemantle; and during the eight months of his sojourn in England at this time he visited, with his judges, chamberlains, treasurers, secretaries, and even huntsmen and hounds, during the hunting season, Freemantle for one day; Westminster for one day; Guildford and Ashley, two days; Ashley, two days; Clarendon, two days; Marlborough, two days; Cricklade and Chelsworth, one day; Chelsworth, one day; Malmesbury and Bradenstoke, one day; Bradenstoke, one day; Stanley, one day; Melksham, one day; Winterbourne and Berkeley, one day; Glou

cester, two days, including Westbury; Westbury, one day; St Briavells, two days; Hereford, one day; Ledbury, one day; UptonBishop, one day; Feckenham, two days; Bridgenorth, four days; Haywood, one day; Burton-upon-Trent, one day; Melburn, three days, with Nottingham; Clipstone, one day; Lincoln, six days, including Sleaford; Sleaford and Stamford, one day; Geddington, one day; Northampton, three days; Abingdon, two days, with Bedwin; Ludgershall, three days; Clarendon, three days; Canford, four days, with Christchurch; Marlborough, three days; Freemantle, three days; Farnham, three days; Guildford and Reading, two days; Woodstock, six days; Silverstone, three days; Geddington, three days; Bourne, three days; Lincoln and Stow, two days; Stow, one day; Lowth, four days; Beverley, three days, with Driffield; Driffield and Imingham, one day; Pickering, one day; Scarbro', one day; Egton, one day; Guildsborough, one day; Stockton, one day; Durham, two days; Newcastle-uponTyne, two days; Belford, one day; Alnwick, one day; Bamborough, three days; Rothbury and Hexham, one day; Hexham, three days; Irthington, one day; Carlisle, three days; Kirkoswald and Morton, one day; Morton and Ravensworth, one day; Ravensworth, one day; Allerton, one day; York, two days; Brotherton, one day; Conisbrough, one day; Clipstone, one day; Bolsover, one day; Nottingham, three days; Aslacton, one day; Geddington, two days, with Kimbolton; Kimbolton, one day; Bernewell, one day; Bury St Edmund's, one day; Sudbury, one day; Chelmsford, one day; Faversham, two days, with Canterbury; Canterbury, three days; Westminster, three days; Windsor, three days; Freemantle, with Marlborough, one day; Marlborough, three days, with Ludgershall, one day; Ludgershall, two days; Cranborn, one day; Dorchester, two days; Bridport, one day; Exeter, one day; Woodstock and Tewkesbury, one day; Tewkesbury, one day; Cirencester, one day; Marlborough, with Ludgershall, two days; Ludgershall,

1 Itinerary of King John, by Thomas Duffus Hardy.

B

one day; Winchester, two days; Porchester, five days; and Portsmouth, one day. 1

This kind of thing runs through John's whole reign of eighteen years. Excepting when troublous times come on, his sojourn at Dover was usually two or more months instead of two days, and so of Rochester, Rouen, and other places, where danger invited him.

John again left Portsmouth for France on the 13th day of May, A.D. 1201, and remained abroad thirty-one months, or above two and a half years, till the 28th day of November, A.D. 1203. William d'Albini, Earl of Arundel, was with the King in Normandy, and signed the first document after landing in England at Marlborough Castle, the King's favourite residence, on the 6th day of December, A.D. 1203.

Having got the King once more in England, we will follow him in his truly kingly pursuit of visiting his subjects, along with his judges, ministers, chamberlains, &c., for the carrying of justice to the houses of all,-the most wonderful part of the reign.

It is necessary to shew who travelled with the King, or were his associates in these Circuits of Assize. We will take the earlier years of the reign, the first three years only at this time, in order to keep down the numbers within manageable limits for the pages of our Vindication:-1 Roger, Earl Bigot; Geoffrey FitzPeter, Chief-Justiciary, who signed fines for fourteen years at intervals, to the time of his death, A.D. 1214; Simon de Pateshull, a judge who attested the fines from the seventh year of Richard I. to the sixteenth year of John; Richard de Heriard; Richard Barre, Archdeacon of Ely; William de Warren; Geoffrey de Bocland; William Briwere, treasurer, from the seventh of Richard I. to the fourteenth of John; John de Gestling, attested fines for ten years of John's reign; James de Potternie, attested from the ninth of Richard I. to the sixteenth year of John; Stephen de Turnham, Richard of Flanders, Randulph de Welford,

1 Preface to "Fines sive Pedes Finium," by Joseph Hunter, p. lxiii.