Ancient_and_modern_York_a_guide

14 ANCIENT AND
affairs, only metropolis in somewhat the largest share ;
called, in Domesday Book, Eure-wic-scire.
The shires were governed by sheriffs ; from the Saxon
words seyre a shire, and reve* a steward. The sheriffs, it
is worthy of remark, were at
inhabitants of the county, or,
this time elected by the
as Holinshed's chronicle
expresses it, the commons, at a county meeting ;f at
which the whole county business was transacted. " And
herein," observes Judge Blackstone, " appears plainly a
strong trace of the democratical part of our constitution."
The first high sheriff of Yorkshire, whose name appears to
be recorded, is William Mallet, in the reign of William
the Conqueror, a.d. 1069. He is called, in Latin, vicecomes
(now viscount), as being the vice or deputy of the
earl, or comes, to whom the custody of the county was said
to be committed.
After the death of Edward the Confessor, Harold, son
of the haughty Earl Godwin, seized the crown ; but in a
few weeks he was disturbed by the news of an invasion by
Harfager, the king of Norway, who was accompanied by
Harold's brother, Tostig, the expelled earl of Northumber
land, who had entertained a deadly enmity to his brother
from childhood. Harfager and Tostig sailed up the Humber—landed
a large army at Ricall—defeated the English
under Edwin and Morcar, at Fulford, and took York by
storm. Harold immediately collected his troops, and
arrived at the seat of war four or five days after the
surrender of this city. The invaders evacuated York,
and encamped at Stamford Bridge ; long afterwards known
as " the Bridge of Battle." The king endeavoured to
detach his brother Tostig from the Norwegian ; offering
him the earldom of Northumberland, from which he had
been expelled. Tostig replied, by asking the Thane who
• E. G. Borough-reve.
t In the county courts, or shiremotes, all the freeholders were assembled twice
a-year, and received appeals from the inferior courts.—-Hume on the Anglo-
Saxon Government and Manners.