Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/503

 1920 THE EARLY SHERIFFS OF NORFOLK 495 nubat nisi cui voluerit ' } My comment on this demand was that it was ' an exaction which throws a vivid light on those clauses of the Great Charter which vere aimed, this exaction reminds us, at a grievance of long standing '.^ The sum extorted by John, in 1214, from the widow of Robert Fitz Roger was more than twice as large as that which had been claimed (i.e. 1,500 marcs) from the countess in 1185 ; but it purchased more extensive concessions. The words which I have italicized in the charter — ' retento in manu Regis Castro de Norwiz quamdiu Regi placuerit ' — definitely imply that Margaret had an hereditary claim to the custody of Norwich Castle.^ The king, therefore, thus excepted it from his concessions. Stapleton wrote that ' Robert Fitz Roger was sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk in right of the same Margaret ' ,^ but did not vouch any authority for this statement. He stated, however, that John Fitz Robert (her son by her second marriage) ' succeeded to the charge of custos of the castle of Norwich ' before 1 May 1215.^ One has to remember that Roger de Cressy, her son and heir (by her first marriage), was an active supporter of the barons against John, and suffered, in consequence, the wasting of his lands and the penalty of excommunication. He was taken prisoner, however, at the battle of Lincoln^ (1217). The heir of her second marriage, John Fitz Robert, was (jointly with William Marshall) sheriff of East Anglia and governor of Norwich Castle in 17 John, but was one of the baronial party at the time of the Great Charter. When we turn to Lincolnshire, a county adjacent to Norfolk, we find much stronger evidence of the connexion between an hereditary shrievalty and the constableship {custodia) of the chief castle of the county. The admission of a woman's right to hold such an office as this is an obvious recognition of the heredi- tary principle. No more famous instance could be found than that of Nichole de ' Haia ', eldest daughter and coheir of Richard ' de Haia ' and wife of Gerard de Camville,' who brought to him the shrievalty of Lincolnshire with the charge of Lincoln Castle. In the quaint phraseology of Dugdale, she being an eminent woman in her days, and stoutly adhering to King John, . . . obtained a grant" from him . . . and in 18 John [1216-17] had the {Pipe Roll I Rio. I, p. 79). ' Pipe Roll 31 Hen. II, p. xxx. The passage in the Great Charter la there quoted. ' From an early date the Bigods had endeavoured to secure for themselves this important stronghold. Wimer the chaplain, who held the shrievalty from Easter 1170 to Easter 1187, had two colleagues till Michaelmas 1175, but after that held it singly. Mr. Eyton pointed out that, in May 1169, he occurs as a clerk of the earl of Norfolk (Hugh Bigod). * Magn. Rot. Scacc. Norm. u. cxvii. ' See my edition of the Rot. de Dom. (Pipe Roll Soc), pp. 12, 84.
 * Pipe Roll 31 Hen. IT, p. 76. In 1189 she still owed 040 marcs of this amount
 * Ibid. p. cxix. « Ibid. ; Dugdale' s Baronage, i. 708.