With the accession of Henry II. the problem was, thanks to his energy and genius, more satisfactorily solved, or at least forced once more into the background. That great ruler was strong enough to prevent the growth of the hereditary principle as applied to offices either of the Household or of local magistrates. The sheriffs were frequently changed, not only by the drastic and unique measure known as the Inquest of Sheriffs, but systematically, and as a normal expedient of administration. For the time being, the local government was kept in proper subjection to the Crown; and gradually the problem solved itself. The power of the sheriffs tended in the thirteenth century to decrease, chiefly because they found important rivals not only in the itinerant judges, but also in two new officers first heard of in the reign of Richard I., the forerunners of the modern Coroner and Justice of the Peace respectively. All fear that the sheriffs as administrative heads of districts would assert practical independence of the Crown was thus at an end. Yet each of them still remained a petty tyrant over the inhabitants of his own bailiwick. While the Crown was able and willing to avenge any direct neglect of its own interests, it was not always sufficiently alert to avenge wrongs inflicted upon its humble subjects. The problem of local government, then, was fast losing its pressing importance as regards the Crown, and taking a new form, namely, the necessity of protecting the weak from unjust fines and oppressions inflicted on them by local magistrates. The sheriff’s local power was no longer a source of weakness to the monarch, but had become an effective part of the machinery which enabled the Crown to levy with impunity its always increasing taxation. III. William I. to Henry II.—Problem of Church and State.