Sheriffs and stewards

Something on the corruption of sheriffs in medieval England, and how the government dealt with it. I know very little about the situation in the early Norman period, but by the reigns of Henry III and Edward I the problem could no longer be avoided.

In the first decade of Edward's reign, a serious effort was made to tackle the issue via some radical new legislation. In November 1276 the bulk of the kingdom was reorganised and divided into three blocs under a trio of stewards. Ralph Sandwich was assigned the south, the west and the west midlands. Thomas Normanville was assigned to Kent and seven counties in the north and north midlands. The 14 remaining counties in the east and east midlands went to Richard Holebrok.

These men had interesting backgrounds. Ralph Sandwich had been a prominent Montfortian during the civil wars, but was serving as a royal minister again from 1273. Normanville and Holebrok came from minor knightly families and had not held office before. Each was put on a considerable salary of £50 a year, presumably to stop them from feathering their own nests.

The point of this new system was to abolish the office of escheator in the counties, and to downgrade the role of the sheriff. Escheators were a kind of royal official who served alongside sheriffs, and even more corrupted. Doing away with them reduced the number of local officials – bound to be a popular measure – and gave the crown tighter control of the localities.

The sheriffs were now strictly supervised and accountable at the Exchequer, with very little freedom of action. Real power in England lay with the trio of stewards, who in turn reported to the king and council. Many of the sheriffs came from the upper tiers of the knighthood and baronage: in that respect it is interesting that Edward placed three relatively low-born men over them. The stewards were also made custodians of castles, and empowered to hear complaints against sheriffs and tax collectors.

This radical new policy was driven by the Hundred Rolls, a massive government enquiry into the state of the counties in England. When the results poured into Westminster, the government was faced with an endless list of complaints and petitions against the corruption of local officers. This started at the top with the sheriffs, and spread down to the bailiffs and beadles who worked for them.

Ultimately, the stewardships were no more than an experiment. The new system lasted just seven years, until it was abandoned in 1283 in favour of the old. This may have been due to the stewards being over-burdened by the sheer volume of work. They were superseded by another new arrangement, whereby complaints were heard before royal justices – 'eyre justices' – as they travelled about the kingdom:

“All these experiments emphasised the resourceful and inventive quality of Edwardian government in its approach to a perennial problem.”

- JR Maddicott, Edward I and the Lessons of Baronial Reform