The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part B.: From Henry III. to Richard III. — David Hume — John Shaqi
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part B.: From Henry III. to Richard III.
David Hume · en
A like alteration gradually took place in the order of earls who were
the highest rank of barons. The dignity of an earl, like that of
a baron, was anciently territorial and official:[*] he exercised
jurisdiction within his county: he levied the third of the fines to his
own profit: he was at once a civil and a military magistrate: and though
his authority, from the time of the Norman conquest, was hereditary in
England, the title was so much connected with the office, that where the
king intended to create a new earl, he had no other expedient than to
erect a certain territory into a county or earldom, and to bestow it
upon the person and his family.[**] But as the sheriffs, who were the
vicegerents of the earls, were named by the king, and removable at
pleasure, he found them more dependent upon him; and endeavored to throw
the whole authority and jurisdiction of the office into their hands.
This magistrate was at the head of the finances, and levied all the
king’s rents within the county: he assessed at pleasure the talliages
of the inhabitants in royal demesne: he had usually committed to him
the management of wards, and often of escheats: he presided in the lower
courts of judicature: and thus, though inferior to the earl in dignity,
he was soon considered, by this union of the judicial and fiscal powers,
and by the confidence reposed in him by the king, as much superior to
him in authority, and undermined his influence within his own
jurisdiction.[***] It became usual, in creating an earl, to give him a
fixed salary, commonly about twenty pounds a year, in lieu of his third
of the fines: the diminution of his power kept pace with the
retrenchment of his profit: and the dignity of earl, instead of being
territorial and official, dwindled into personal and titular. Such were
the mighty alterations which already had fully taken place, or were
gradually advancing, in the house of peers; that is, in the parliament:
for there seems anciently to have been no other house.
* Spel. Gloss, in voce Comes.
** Essays on British Antiquities. This practice, however,
seems to have been more familiar in Scotland and the
kingdoms on the continent, than in England.
*** There are instances of princes of the blood who accepted
of the office of sheriff. Spel. in voce Vicecomes.