Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/178

170 of Oxfordshire. Of the three leading chamberlains who are sheriffs, only one, Aubrey de Vere, belongs to the hereditary class. The Norman, Geoffrey de Clinton, who has Warwickshire, has risen by long service at the curia, and has been treasurer as well as chamberlain, and also itinerant justice in many counties. William of Pont de l'Arche, lately married to the daughter of William Mauduit, is now paying a large sum for his ministerium curiae, and a little later will apparently be treasurer. William d'Aubigny the Breton, a staunch supporter of the king in 1106, now the husband of a daughter of Roger Bigod and sheriff of Rutlandshire, has been the king's justice in Lincolnshire. Bertram de Bulmer as well as Warin appears to have a post at the exchequer, and Osbert Silvanus has apparently sat at the king's pleas. Excluding from consideration the sheriffs of London, who this year number four, and the unknown sheriff of Somerset, a county apparently lost from the Pipe Roll of 1130, there are only seven sheriffs of English counties who seem to hold no position at the curia, and of these two are otherwise known to have had the king's special confidence.

This year shows the highest centralization in local government since the period following Tinchebrai. The situation was now very exceptional, inasmuch as two curials, Aubrey de Vere and Richard Basset, jointly held eleven shires. This famous arrangement is known to have been a sudden creation. It was formed in the main at Michaelmas 1129, when Robert fitz Walter and Maenfinin each surrendered his two shires, and Fulk the three which had been