Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/179

1922 for some twenty years in his family. Probably at Easter it was completed by superseding Hugh of Warelville in the shires of Leicester and Northampton which he had recently obtained for a period of five years, and William of Eynesford in Essex and Hertfordshire under exactly the same circumstances. As Mr. Round has observed, Aubrey and Richard did not farm these counties according to customary usage, but were in the position of the later custodes. The king was thus free to dispose of all the profits arising within a considerable portion of the realm, and the fact affords the one plausible explanation of this very remarkable innovation. Moreover, in still other directions this is a year of innovation in exchequer accounting. It is certain that several of the retiring sheriffs were sadly in arrears and that the two special administrators placed in control of this strong fiscal unit were able to advance a large sum, a superplusagium, over and above their receipts, a part of which went to supply the king's needs in Normandy. Aubrey de Vere, the king's chamberlain, had long been a special agent of the administrative curia and had had much experience as a sheriff as well. The same may be said of Richard's father, Ralph Basset. All three held the highest judicial position and did wide itinerant service. Richard by marriage also was identified with the same circle at court. The placing of two officials of this type over so wide a region and the dismissal of tried and experienced sheriffs are sufficient indications that the step has administrative rather than political significance, and that the matter lay very close to important interests of the king.