The key to the enquiry will be found in the fact that the term "tertius denarius" had two distinct denotations; that is to say, was used in two different senses. Dr. Stubbs and Mr. Freeman have both failed to grasp this essential fact. The two varieties of the "tertius denarius" were these:— (1) The "tertius denarius placitorum comitatus." This is the recognized "third penny" of which historians speak. Observe that this was not, as it is sometimes loosely termed, and as, indeed, Gneist describes it, "the customary third of the revenues of the county,"[848] but, as Dr. Stubbs accurately terms it, "the third penny of the pleas."[849] So here the Empress grants to Geoffrey de Mandeville "tertium denarium vicecomitatus _de placitis_" (cf. p. 239). This distinction is all-important, for "the pleas" only represented a small portion of the total "revenues of the county" as compounded for in the sheriff's _firma_. (2) The "tertius denarius redditus burgi." This "third penny," which has been strangely confused with the other, differs from it in these two respects. Firstly, it is that, not of the pleas ("placitorum"), but of the total revenues ("redditus"); secondly, it is that, not of the county ("comitatus"), but of a town alone ("burgi"). This distinction, which is absolutely certain from Domesday and from record evidence, is fortunately shown, with singular clearness, in the charter of the Empress to Miles of Gloucester, creating him Earl of Hereford. In it she grants— "Tertium denarium redditus burgi Hereford quicquid unquam reddat,[850] et tertium denarium placitorum totius comitatus Hereford." Nor is it less clear in the charter (1155), by which Henry II. creates Hugh Bigod Earl of Norfolk "scilicet de tercio denario de Norwic et de Norfolca." Now, let us trace how the "tertius denarius redditus burgi" has been erroneously taken for the "tertius denarius placitorum totius comitatus," the only recognized "third penny." Dr. Stubbs writes: "The third penny of the county which had been a part of the profits of the English earls is occasionally referred to in Domesday."[851] The passage on which this statement is based is found earlier in the volume. Our great historian there writes:— "Each shire was under an ealdorman, who sat with the sheriff and bishop in the folkmoot, and received a third part of the profits of jurisdiction. (The third penny of the county appears from Domesday [i. 1. 26, 203, 246, 252, 280, 298, 336] to have been paid to the earl in the time of Edward the Confessor.—Ellis, _Introduction to Domesday_, i. 167)."[852]