Note 372 — Chapter II · THE REGENCY OF WILLIAM THE MARSHAL 1216–1219
Reading edition
As Mr. Turner truly says (pt. I. pp. 276, 277):—“The confidence which King John and the advisers of his son Henry reposed in these so-called alien sheriffs rested on experience. Not one of them could boast of illustrious ancestry” (Savaric is not included among those of whom Mr. Turner is here speaking) “or inherited wealth; not one of them can fairly be described as a royal favourite. Men of action, soldiers brought from France to defend their King and his kingdom, they owed their positions to their military talents. These men from the King’s dominions across the sea helped in no small measure to place the heir of the Angevin house safely on the throne of England.”