CHAPTER IV.

THE OFFICIALS OF JOHN-HIS AUTHORITY REAL.

HAVING King John in the character of Justice-Itinerant, we must now inquire who were his ministers, privy-councillors, and coadjutors in the Government. They may bear comparison with any. Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, Earl of Essex, was at the head, as Chief Justiciary. He entered upon his office at the coronation, when he was girt with the sword of the county of Essex. He held the office until A.D. 1214, when he died. He was succeeded by Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, who held the office at the time of King John's death. Peter de Rupibus had been Treasurer of Pictavia as long as Pictavia had any treasures to need a treasurer.

Hubert Walter, the foster-child and disciple of the great lawyer and crusader Randolph de Glanville, was Archbishop of Canterbury. He was appointed Chancellor at the great national council of the coronation-conclave adjournment, and held his office till the monks of Canterbury induced the Pope-Innocent III.-to remonstrate with him on holding such an office with the archbishopric of Canterbury, when he resigned the chancellorship in the first year of the reign. He was succeeded by Simon, Archdeacon of Wells, who, however, held the office for two or three years only, when he resigned to Hubert Walter, who held it to the day of his death, A.D. 1205. J. de Bromcestre, Archdeacon of Worcester, succeeded him as Chancellor, but only for a few months; for we find Walter Gray held the office in October A.D. 1207. In October

A.D. 1217 Richard de Marisco, Archdeacon of Richmond and Northumberland, surrendered the "Great Seal" at Ospreng.

On the 22d of December, it was given to the Lord Bishop of Winchester, Peter de Rupibus; Randulph de Nevill acting as his deputy. At the time of John's death, Peter de Rupibus was Chancellor.

King John very frequently changed his Chancellor, but rarely any other minister. Could the temper and dignity of position, in Geoffrey Fitz-Peter, Chief Justiciary, have anything to do with the former? Was the Earl of Essex too haughty for his fellow-ministers? Was he too despotic?

The position of Chief Justiciary was a declining one, while the position of Chancellor was a rising one. Was there clashing in point of precedency and dignity?

On this, Madox, in his "History and Antiquities of the Exchequer," observes:-"The chancellorship, from a small beginning, became in process of time an office of great dignity and pre-eminence. When the number of royal charters began to multiply, when the pleas and causes in the King's courts grew numerous, and when the grandeur of the High Justiciary came to decline, the power of the Chancellor waxed (as it seems) greater than it had formerly been; and (if I have observed right) the Chancellor's office received a considerable accession of power and dignity from the greatness of some of the persons who had borne it. In this conjecture, I have been somewhat the more confirmed, because I find Paulus Æmylius makes the like observation concerning the chancellors of France. And it seems the chancellors in other countries acquired by degrees the like addition of greatness and pre-eminence." 1

William of Ely (Briwere) was Treasurer in England for the whole reign.

Hugo de Nevill was Chief Justiciary of the Forests for the

1 Chapter ii., page 62.

greater portion of the reign-the latter part of it, if not the whole.

William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke, was Mareschall of England for the whole reign.

Robert, Earl of Leicester, was Seneschall or Steward of England. On Robert's death, Simon de Montfort, who had married one of his two daughters, took the title with the emoluments of the county of Leicester, and became Seneschall or High Steward of England. This nobleman's son married King John's daughterthe widow of William Marshall the younger.

John Gray, Bishop of Norwich, was Viceroy of Ireland.

Meiller Fitz-Henry was Judiciary of Ireland.

Peter de Stoke was a Baron of the Exchequer.

Hubert de Burgh, Earl of Kent, was a Baron of the Exchequer.

Peter de Maulay was a Baron of the Exchequer.

Robert Fitz-Roger was a Baron of the Exchequer.

Richard Ducket was a Baron of the Exchequer.

William de Saint Michael was a Baron of the Exchequer.

Henry Fitz-Gilbert was High Chamberlain of the Exchequer, or

Master Sergeant of Wapontake.

All the

Peter de Pateshull was a Baron of the Exchequer. Justices and Barons of the Jews' Court of Exchequer were Barons of the King's Court of Exchequer, and acted under, and in concert with, the above Barons of the King's Exchequer.

These ministers of the Jews' Court were appointed by the King, by letters under the "Great Seal." They exercised "jurisdiction in the affairs of Judaism; namely, in the accounts of that revenue, in pleas, upon contracts made with the Jews; in causes or questions touching their lands or chattels, their tallages, fines, forfeitures, and the like." 1

These Justices of the Jews were a reality in the Government, as honourable members thereof; as the following example will

1 Madox's History of the Exchequer, chap. 7, sect. 3, p. 234.

shew, which I take from Madox's History:-" In the reign of King John, Geoffrey Fitz-Peter (Earl of Essex, and Chief Justiciary of England) recovered certain houses in Saint Laurence Jury, in London, before Simon de Pateshull, and his fellows (Justices also) the Justices of the Jews."1 My object here and now is not to go into the Jew question, but merely to shew that the ministers of the Crown were, in the reign of John, a reality, and not a sham.

"The Justices of the Jews recorded in the Great Exchequer, as there was occasion, things within their cognisance relating to the Judaism. They made their record or declaration, before the Barons of the Exchequer, in the case hereunder mentioned and the Barons adjudged thereupon. In fine, the Justices of the Jews were looked upon to be members or officers of the Great Exchequer, and entitled to the privileges belonging to the persons resident there." 2

There were also Custodes Judæorum in Normandy. King John, by writ-patent, commanded the Seneschall of Normandy and the Custodes of the Jews there, to forbear vexing wrongfully Morell the Jew, saving to the King, his rights and duties.3

In the fourth year of the reign of John, Reginald de Cornhull was Sheriff of Kent.

In the tenth year, William Briwerr, the Treasurer, was Sheriff of Wiltshire.

William Marshall was Sheriff of Gloucestershire for the whole reign.

In the fifteenth year of the reign, when Master Richard de Marisco exercised the functions of Chancellor, he only did it as deputy 4 to John Gray of Norwich, who was Chancellor, but absent abroad on a mission to the Court of Rome. On returning from Rome, he

1 Madox, chap. 7, sect. 3, p. 235.

3 Ibid., chap. 7, sect. 3, p. 237.

2 Ibid., chap. 7, sect. 3, p. 236.

4 Description of the Patent Rolls of the Tower of London, by Thomas Duffus Hardy, F.S.A., Introduction, p. 6.

died near Poictiers, November 1, A.D. 1214, and was buried in his own church of Norwich.

In the third year of the reign, William de Stutevill fined in £500 to have the custody of Yorkshire, as Sheriff, for as long a time as he should serve well, and should duly render the ferm and other issues of the county, William de Perci and Walter de Bovinton being admitted under-sheriffs.

The counties of Dorset and Somerset were fined in £100, that William de Wroteham might be forester.1

William de Stutevill fined in £500 to have the custody of the county of Northumberland, as Sheriff, on the terms by which he held Yorkshire.

This same William de Stutevill fined CC marks to have the town of York in his hands, as Sheriff, yielding for it the ancient ferm, and paying no increment, as long as the King pleased to have it so.

In the seventh of John, A.D. 1205,—the time of Hubert Walter death, and the commencement of the great contest with Rome, on his successor,-William, Earl de Warenne, fined in one palfrey and one sore2 hawk, that he might not be Justice of the Cinque Ports. This appointment, most honourable in itself, shews the confidence the King had in the integrity of the man. He was Chief Justiciary of the Jews' Exchequer at the

time.

The men of the county of Lancaster fined in C marks, that Richard de Vernun might be their Sheriff.

Thomas de Muleton gave 500 marks and five palfreys, to have the county of Lincoln for seven years, yielding the ancient ferm, and the increment of CCC marks, added by Simon de Kyme, for the sheriffalty.

Fulk, son of Theobald, gave C and xx marks and iij palfreys, for the counties of Cambridge and Huntingdon as ferm for seven

1 Madox, vol. i. p. 460.

2 That is "soar" or hunting hawk

C