The title of
sheriff, or
shire reeve, evolved during the
Anglo-Saxon period of
English history. The reeve was the representative of the
king in a city, town or shire, responsible for collecting
taxes and enforcing the
law. By the time of the
Norman Conquest in 1066, the
City of London had sheriffs, usually two at a time. The sheriffs were the most important city officials and collected London's annual taxes on behalf of the
royal exchequer; they also had
judicial duties in the City's law courts. Until , the sheriffs were directly appointed by the
king. London gained a degree of self-government by a royal charter granted by
Henry I, including the right to choose its own sheriff, a right which was affirmed in an 1141
charter by
King Stephen. By Henry's charter, the sheriffs of London also gained jurisdiction over the neighbouring county of
Middlesex, paying £300
per annum to
the Crown for the privilege. This did not make the county a dependency of the City but rather from that time the City of London and Middlesex were viewed as a single administrative area. In 1189, an annually elected
Mayor was introduced as
chief magistrate for the City of London (along the lines of some European cities at the time such as
Rouen and
Liège); this change was reaffirmed by a charter granted by
King John in 1215. As such, the sheriffs were relegated to a less senior role in the running of the City, and became subordinate to the Mayor. The Mayor (later
Lord Mayor of London) generally served as Sheriff before being elected Mayor, and in 1385 the
Common Council of London stipulated that every future Lord Mayor should "have previously been Sheriff so that he may be tried as to his governance and bounty before he attains to the Estate of Mayoralty"; this tradition continues to this day. ==List of sheriffs of the City of London==