entment (see p. 147) in the hands of
four knights in every shire, who, as is probable, were chosen by the
freeholders in the County Court, instead of being named by the
sheriff. This was a further step in the direction of allowing the
counties to manage their own affairs, and a still greater one was
taken by the frequent employment of juries in the assessment of the
taxes paid within the county, so as to enable them to take a prominent
part in its financial as well as in its judicial business. In =1198=
there was taken a new survey of England for taxable purposes, and
again elected juries were employed to make the returns. In this year
Archbishop Hubert retired from the Justiciarship, and was succeeded by
Geoffrey Fitz-Peter. Archbishop Hubert's administration marks a great
advance in constitutional progress, though it is probable that his
motive was only to raise money more readily. The main constitutional
problem of the Norman and Angevin reigns was how to bring the national
organisation of the king's officials into close and constant
intercourse with the local organisation of the counties. Henry I. and
Henry II. had attacked the problem on one side by sending the judges
round the country to carry the king's wishes and commands to each
separate county. It still remained to devise a scheme by which the
wishes and complaints of the counties could be brought to the king.
Hubert Walter did not contrive that this should be done, but he made
it easy to be done in the next generation, because before he left
office he had increased the powers of the juries in each county and
had accustomed them to deal independently with all the local matters
in which the king and the county were both interested. It only
remained to bring these juries together in one place where they might
join in making the king aware of the wishes and complaints of all
counties alike. When this had been accomplished there would, for the
first time, be a representative assembly in England.

[Illustration: Richard I. From his tomb at Fontevrault.]

[Illustration: Berengaria. From her tomb at Espan.]

7. =Death of Richard. 1199.=--It was not only Richard's love for his
old home which fixed him on the Continent. He knew that the weakest
part of his dominions was there. His lands beyond sea had no natural
unity. Normans did not love Angevins, neither did Angevins love the
men of Poitou or Guienne. Philip was willingly obeyed in his own
dominions, and he had a