Inquest of Sheriffs

The Inquest of Sheriffs was a commission held by King Henry II in 1170.

Details

In early Angevin England, sheriffs played an important part in local government, representing the Crown, keeping the peace, running the operations of the county and royal hundred courts and managing summons and similar legal orders.^[1] They usually managed the royal manors in their shire, collecting the rents and spending money locally on the Crown's behalf.^[2] They were typically members of the local baronage, but were appointed by the king and expected to make a profit from their office.^[3]

In 1170, King Henry II, who ruled over a network of lands across Europe, returned to England after several years of absence.^[4] He promptly established a commission to examine any malpractices in local government, which became known as the Inquest of the Sheriffs.^[5] The inquiry was widespread, extending not just to the King's sheriffs but to the leaders of the clergy, the barons and burgesses in the towns.^[6] By the end of the year, 20 out of the 26 sheriffs in England had been dismissed from office.^[7]

The sweeping changes undermined the links between the local barons and the office of sheriffs. Henry increased the role of travelling royal judges in the court system, and increasingly the role of sheriff became one of a local official whose purpose was to represent the royal bureaucracy and assist the judges when they visited, rather than acting as an independent power in their own right.^[8]

References

Bibliography

• Musson, Anthony (2001). Medieval Law in Context: The Growth of Legal Consciousness from Magna Carta to the Peasants' Revolt. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-719-05494-5. 
• Warren, W. L. (2000). Henry II (Yale ed.). New Haven, U.S.: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-08474-0.