For those ( and they are legion , on inner-city council estates as well as in the shires ) who think that society in britain is " broken " , the country is stuck in a mire of crime , fractured families and feral youth .
In his defence , henry did make efforts throughout his reign to overhaul the system of local government , though even then he stepped on too many noble toes , for the nobility had a vested interest in maintaining their own authority over the shires .
They divided the country into shires , which the normans later called counties , with shire courts and shire reeves , or sheriffs , responsible for administering laws as comprehensive as any in the early medieval world .
