With regard to the great officers of state, Mr. Turner’s inference is based (pt. I, p. 271) on (1) the case of Geoffrey de Marsh, Justiciar in Ireland; (2) that of Richard de Marsh, Chancellor of England; (3) the parallel, or analogy, between the position of the great officers of the Crown and that of the lesser ones--“the sheriffs and castellans claimed to hold their bailiwicks throughout the King’s minority, and the greater officers of state must have considered that they were entitled to the same privilege” (pt. I, 272). Of (1) I have given the whole story in my text, pp. 94, 95, 123–125, 174, 175, 217, 259. Of (2) Mr. Turner says: “Richard de Mareis, the Chancellor, seems to have grievously neglected his office, and to have left his duties to be performed by Ralph de Neville, the vice-chancellor. It is scarcely likely that he would have been permitted to enjoy the emoluments of his office while repudiating its burden, if he could have been removed” (pt. I, p. 272). The Chancellor’s office, unlike that of the Justiciar or the sheriffs, was necessarily vacated by the death of the King, inasmuch as he held it (as Mr. Turner points out, pt. I, p. 271) not by letters patent but by virtue of the delivery of the King’s seal into his hands, and every King had a new seal. The Chancellor appointed by John therefore, could not “claim the right to _continue_ in office until the king’s minority had determined”; such continuity was impossible in an office conferred by the delivery of a symbol which changed with a change of sovereigns. He _may_, as a great minister of the Crown, have claimed a right to be re-appointed for the term of the King’s minority. A formal re-appointment would not be possible in his case till the new great seal was made, and this was not till October, 1218; but there may have been an informal agreement by which he was left in possession of the functions and rights appertaining to the chancellorship throughout the two years during which the Marshal’s seal was used instead of the King’s, on the understanding that when this latter arrangement terminated he was to receive the new seal in the usual way. Such an agreement need not, however, imply any right of continuity in office. Richard de Marsh was not the only Chancellor who habitually left his duties to a deputy and yet was suffered to retain his title and his profits. As to (3), it would certainly appear that since justiciars, sheriffs, and castellans were all appointed in the same manner and on the same terms--by letters patent, to hold office during the King’s pleasure--the greater officers must have been irremoveable during the minority, _if the lesser ones were acknowledged to be so_. For the reasons already given, this latter point seems to me not proven.