[607] Stubbs, _Gesta Hen._, vol. ii. pref. p. xlvii, note. A large share of responsibility rested with the sheriffs; and the sheriffs were still for the most part, as they had been in his grandfather’s days, the chief landowners in their respective shires, men of great local importance, and only too likely to have at once the will and the power to defeat the ends of the very measures which by their official position they were called upon to administer. Henry therefore on his return to England at Easter 1170 summarily deposed all sheriffs of counties and bailiffs of royal demesnes, pending an inquisition into all the details of their official conduct since his own departure over sea four years ago. The inquiry was intrusted not to any of the usual members of the King’s Court and Exchequer, but to a large body of commissioners specially chosen for the purpose from the higher ranks of both clergy and laity.[608] These were to take pledges of all the sheriffs and bailiffs that they would be ready to appear before the king and make redress on an appointed day; an oath was also to be exacted from all barons, knights and freemen in every shire that they would answer truthfully and without respect of persons to all questions put to them by the commissioners in the king’s name.[609] [608] The list of commissioners for seven of the southern shires is in Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 216. See also Stubbs, _Constit. Hist._, vol. i. p. 473 and note 2. [609] Inquest of sheriffs, Stubbs, _Select Charters_, p. 148. Gerv. Cant. (as above), p. 217.