Secular power and its rewards in Dorset in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries

Secular administration was in large part the business of the readily identifiable holders of specific offices in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, but alongside these operated individuals who held more informal authority. Its very intangibility has made any assessment of the importance and power of those who wielded such authority difficult. Both categories of functionary, however, operated on behalf of, and were rewarded by, the crown. Through tracing the changing allocation of resource and reward to different officers, this article presents an understanding of the fluctuating relative power of sheriffs and other functionaries over decades when new functions were altering the patterns of secular administration.