of Nottingham castle sent two men “to see him” and report “what they saw and heard.” Till then the Nottingham constables had not believed that their sovereign was really in England. Their messengers “looked at him well, and recognized him. ‘Am I the king? What think you?’ he asked them. They said ‘Yes.’ ‘Then you may go back; go free, as is right; and do the best you can.’”[1131] [Sidenote: _March 28_] On their report the two constables, with twelve followers, went and placed themselves at Richard’s mercy; and on the morrow the castle was surrendered on the same terms by the rest of the garrison,[1132] of whom some were imprisoned and others put to ransom.[1133] Richard spent the next day in visiting two royal Forests [Sidenote: _March 29_] “which he had never seen before,” Clipstone and Sherwood; “and they pleased him well.” At night he returned to Nottingham, where he had summoned a council to meet on [Sidenote: _March 30_] the following day. It was a great assembly, at which the queen-mother, the two archbishops, and a number of prelates and magnates were present.[1134] The king opened the proceedings by disseising two of John’s chief partizans, Gerard de Camville and Hugh Bardolf, of the sheriffdoms and royal castles which they held—Lincoln shire and castle, held by Gerard; Yorkshire and Westmorland by Hugh—all of which he put up for sale and sold to the highest bidder.[1135] On the second day of the council (March 31) he “asked for judgement upon Count John and upon Hugh of Nonant,” the bishop of Coventry, John’s chief ally. “And it was judged that they should be peremptorily cited, and that if they failed to come and stand to right, Count John should be declared to have forfeited all claim to the crown and the bishop be subjected to the judgement of his fellow-prelates as bishop and that of the lay barons as sheriff.” On the third day (April 1), the king ordered that for every carucate of land throughout England a contribution of two shillings should be made to him; and “that every man should render to him the third part of the military service due from his fee, to go with him” (the king) “into Normandy.” He also demanded of the Cistercians all the year’s wool of their flocks: but for this they compromised by a fine. The [Sidenote: _April 2_] fourth day was employed in hearing appeals from Archbishop Geoffrey of York and Gerard de Camville; in neither case did the council arrive at any decision. Lastly, the king “appointed his crowning to take place at Winchester at the close of Easter” (April 17), and ordered that on the day after that event all the prisoners taken in John’s castles should be brought before him.[1136]