The part of these proceedings which chiefly perturbed Richard’s counsellors, it seems, was his reckless alienation of Crown demesne; in his passionate eagerness to pile up treasure for the Crusade he was, they considered, stripping himself of his proper means of living as a king should live at home; it was as if he did not intend, or did not expect, ever to come home again at all; and when some of them ventured on a remonstrance he answered, “I would sell London if I could find a buyer for it.”[405] He was in fact in a mood to, almost literally, sell all that he had and give it to the Crusade. The means which he employed to raise money undoubtedly served their purpose; and they seem to have neither provoked any general discontent nor inflicted any hardship on the people, or even upon more than a very few individuals. The chronicler who speaks of a wholesale “deposition” and “ransoming” of the sheriffs has considerably exaggerated the king’s treatment of those officers. In the first place, all sheriffs were always liable to be “deposed” at any moment, since they were always appointed to hold their office “during the king’s pleasure.” At Richard’s accession there were in England twenty-eight sheriffs; two of these had each three counties under his charge, seven had two counties each. When Richard’s redistribution of offices was completed, six shires were by a special grant to John withdrawn from the royal administration altogether; seven or eight shires remained or were replaced under their former sheriffs; five sheriffs were transferred to shires other than those which they had previously administered; four—perhaps more—went on the Crusade; all the rest seem to have been employed in some other capacity under the Crown. In all likelihood most, if not all, of these men had taken the Cross and their “ransom” was no more than they were justly bound and could well afford to pay. One case does indeed present a different aspect. Ranulf de Glanville, at this time sheriff of Yorkshire and Westmorland, was also, and had been for nine years, Chief Justiciar of England. He had taken the Cross in 1185.[406] One chronicler asserts that Ranulf was now “stripped of his power,” put in ward, and set free only on payment of fifteen thousand pounds to the king.[407] According to other authorities, however, he asked to be relieved of his functions that he might fulfil his vow.[408] He is said to have had also another motive for his resignation: “he was of great age, and saw that the new king, being a novice in government, was wont to do many things without due deliberation and forethought.”[409] Behind these words there may lurk a partial explanation of Richard’s seemingly harsh and extortionate treatment of the Justiciar. It is possible that the king really wished to retain Ranulf’s services as his vicegerent in England, and persuaded or coerced him into commuting his vow for that purpose, but that Ranulf, when he had