[361] _Pat. Rolls_, vol. i. pp. 1, 23, 72, 100; _Close Rolls_, vol. i. p. 299 b. [362] The King of Jerusalem seems to have come of age at fifteen, like his subjects. _Assises de Jérusalem_, ed. Beugnot, vol. i, p. 262. [363] _Querimonia Falcasii_, W. Cov., vol. ii. p. 60. [364] “Usque ad etatem nostram,” _Pat. Rolls_, vol. i. p. 123, &c. This formula was used as late as August, 1226; _ib._ vol. ii. p. 57. [365] See Note VI. [366] For the changes of sheriffs in Henry’s first year see Turner, _Minority_, pt. I. pp. 273–4. [367] He was made Seneschal of Touraine in 1202, defended Loches against Philip in 1204, was captured with the castle, and ransomed by John for a thousand marks. See Turner, pt. I. p. 249. [368] Gloucester, Bristol, Hereford, Nottingham, Odiham, Windsor. See Turner, pt. I. pp. 249–251. It was Engelard who defended Windsor so long and so successfully against the French. He had previously made a splendid defence of Odiham; R. Wend., vol. iii. p. 371. [369] There is not a particle of evidence that these men had ever given just cause for resentment to any English party or person. “They cannot be described as royal favourites, for not one of them received a grant of land in perpetuity by royal charter. Nor can they be included among the King’s political advisers; for if they had been such they would certainly have witnessed his charters occasionally. Yet not one of them witnessed a royal charter except Engelard de Cigogné; and he witnessed but one before the issue of the Great Charter at Runnymede, and but two afterwards. They were neither courtiers nor politicians, but soldiers of experience, whom the barons feared with good cause.” Turner, pt. I. pp. 253, 254. [370] A grotesque comment on the whole affair is furnished by the fact that the drafters of the article seem to have neither known nor cared what the names of their intended victims really were; see Turner, pt. I. pp. 248, 252. [371] Bréauté is in Normandy, Maulay in Gascony. Of Falkes we shall have to speak at length later on. Peter de Maulay is (like Falkes) said to have begun life as an usher or doorkeeper: “Chil Pieres de Maulay ot este huissiers le roi, mais puis crut tant ses afaires que il fu chevaliers,” &c. _Hist. Ducs_, p. 180. [372] As Mr. Turner truly says (pt. I. pp. 276, 277):--“The confidence which King John and the advisers of his son Henry reposed in these so-called alien sheriffs rested on experience. Not one of them could boast of illustrious ancestry” (Savaric is not included among those of whom Mr. Turner is here speaking) “or inherited wealth; not one of them can fairly be described as a royal favourite. Men of action, soldiers brought from France to defend their King and his kingdom, they owed their positions to their military talents. These men from the King’s dominions across the sea helped in no small measure to place the heir of the Angevin house safely on the throne of England.”