THE BARON'S WAR 1232-1272 [Sidenote: The Aliens] Once master of his realm, Henry the Third was quick to declare his plan of government.

The two great checks on a merely personal rule lay as yet in the authority of the great ministers of State and in the national character of the administrative body which had been built up by Henry the Second.
Both of these checks Henry at once set himself to remove.

He would be his own minister.

The Justiciar ceased to be the Lieutenant-General of the king and dwindled into a presiding judge of the law-courts.

The Chancellor had grown into a great officer of State, and in 1226 this office had been conferred on the Bishop of Chichester by the advice and consent of the Great Council.