![]() The former should accordingly be translated as the latter unless it manifestly means something else. As noted by the OED, 'vice-comes' was the usual Middle Latin rendering of the English word "sheriff". I am pretty certain this is good old ignorance at work, but since the English word 'viscount' is now rarely used to refer to a sheriff – and Google did not know a single occurrence of the exact phrase 'Robin Hood and the Viscount of Nottingham' when I wrote this – modern readers are left with the impression that there must be something somewhat wrong or deeply right about the Latin chronicle's 'vice-comes': they will likely begin to think that the chronicler misunderstood something or that, on the contrary, he knew something we don't and Robin Hood's enemy was in fact (originally) a viscount in the current sense of a 'member of the fourth order of the British peerage, ranking between an earl and a baron.' The former is not the case, the latter may be, but the chronicler's use of the term 'viscount' is not a sign of it. Occasionally modern literary scholars choose to translate the Middle Latin word 'vice-comes' occurring in chronicle accounts of Robin Hood as 'viscount' (in quotation marks) even when it manifestly refers to Robin Hood's old foe of Nottingham. The obsolete English word 'vice-count', recorded 1461-1673, meant 'viscount', but apparently it did not mean 'viscount' in the specific sense of 'sheriff'. This, of course, is only one of its significations, and nowadays it certainly is not the most common one. 'Viscount', the Modern English reflex of Old French 'visconte', may refer to a person 'acting as the deputy or representative of a count or earl in the administration of a district in English use spec. The Middle Latin term 'vice-comes', the equivalent of Old French 'visconte' (or 'vicomte' as in Modern French), persisted in (Middle) Latin writings produced in Britain but was largely replaced in the English language by the native term, which had reasserted itself within a hundred years or so. However, within ten years after the Conquest, William I had replaced all English sheriffs with Normans for whom he chose "the title of Vicomte, because there were similarities between the vicomte's office in Normandy and that of the sheriff in England". The Old English word 'scīrgerefa', 'shire reeve', developed into the Middle English and Modern English word 'sheriff'. 4 Historical sheriffs of Nottinghamshire. ![]() 3 Records relating to historical sheriffs of Nottinghamshire.2 Suggested originals of the traditional character.In such cases one of the sources is probably mistaken and a likley cause could be misreading of the MS source or a slip in the conversion from regnal to calendar year. There are cases where one source has a given sheriff under one year while another source has him under the following year. However, as one sheriff may have been temporarily replaced by another, it cannot in such cases be assumed without further research that one or more of my sources is in error. The year-by-year arrangement makes it possible to list potentially conflicting items of information separately, which should alert the reader to the presence of possible errors or uncertainty in the sources on which the list is based. ![]() The list is based on both primary and secondary sources, little attempt having been made to verify the information or resolve apparent conflicts. ![]() More sheriffs will be added to the list when found. ![]() From that year and until 1835 there were two sheriffs: one for Nottingham itself and one for the rest of Nottinghamshire. Unless otherwise indicated, sheriffs in office before 1449 can be assumed to have served this larger bailiwick. For most of that period, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire formed one bailiwick. It is hoped that the list of historical sheriffs included below will in time become complete for the medieval period (up to 1500). ![]()
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