em et vice-comitatum
Londoniae_, as wanting in corroboration, a solution of the difficulty may
be found if we consider (1) that the city received a shire organization
and became in itself to all intents and purposes a county as soon as it
came to be governed by a port-reeve, if not as soon as an alderman had
been set over it by Alfred; (2) that the duties of the shrievalty in
respect of the county of the city of London were at this time performed
either by a port-reeve or by one or more officers, known subsequently as
sheriffs, and (3) that for the right of executing these duties no rent or
ferm was ever demanded or paid.(102)

If this be a correct view of the matter, it would appear that the effect
of Henry's grant of Middlesex to the citizens to farm, and of the
appointment of a sheriff over it of their own choice, was not so much to
render the city independent of the shire, as to make the shire subject to
the city. It must be borne in mind that no sheriff (or sheriffs) has ever
been elected by the citizens for Middlesex alone, the duties appertaining
to the sheriff-wick of Middlesex having always been performed by the
sheriffs of the city for the time being.(103) Hence it is that the
shrievalty of London and Middlesex is often spoken of as the shrievalty of
"London" alone, and the shrievalty of "Middlesex" alone (the same officers
executing the duties of both shrievalties) and the _firma_ of L300 paid
for the shrievalty of Middlesex alone is sometimes described as the
_firma_ of "London," sometimes of "Middlesex," and sometimes of "London
and Middlesex."(104)

(M71)

The right of electing their own justiciar granted to the citizens by Henry
resolves itself into little more than a confirmation of the right to elect
their own sheriffs.(105) Just as sheriffs are known to have held pleas of
the crown in the counties up to the time of the Great Charter (although
their duties were modified by Henry I, and again by Henry II, when he
appointed Justices in eyre) so in the city of London, no one, except the
sheriffs of London could hold pleas of the crown, and an attempt made by
the Barons in 1258 to introduce a justiciar into the Guildhall was
persistently challenged by the citizens.(106)

Even those who stedfastly maintain that in the country the sheriff and
justiciar grew up to be two distinct officers, the one representing local
interest and the other imperial, are willing to allow that in the city of
London such disti