In the medieval period, there was little, if any, distinction made between the public and private capacities of the monarch: "The land, the people, the law-courts, the army were as much the King's own personal possessions as were his various
demesne manors or the furniture of his palaces". Thus, under the
Norman kings of England, the
Curia Regis ('King's Court') was engaged in every aspect of the management of State affairs – financial, administrative, legislative, judicial, diplomatic – as well as in providing for the day-to-day needs of the monarch and his entourage. In the twelfth century, the
Curia Regis began to disintegrate. Key departments to separate themselves from the
Curia Regis were the
Exchequer (substantially independent by the end of the twelfth century) and the
Chancery (which gained independence more gradually through the thirteenth and early fourteenth century). The Exchequer and Chancery soon became (respectively) the principal accounting and administrative offices of
The Crown, overseen by two high officials: the
Treasurer and the
Chancellor (respectively). Both these officials predated the establishment of their departments: within the Court, the Chancellor had kept the King's
official seal since before the
Norman conquest; while the office of Treasurer dated from the reign of
William I, when the (previously mobile) Treasury found a more permanent home (together with its attendant chamberlain) in
Winchester Castle. Their offices also had a judicial character, as seen in the parallel (and inseparable) development of the
Court of Exchequer and the
Court of Chancery; other courts of law continued to emerge from the
Curia Regis in the thirteenth century: first the
Common Bench and later the
King's Bench. References to the King's
Household, as a distinctive aspect of Court, served initially to differentiate the body of courtiers that continued to serve the immediate needs of the monarch, and to travel with him, as distinct from those more closely identified with what became
departments of State with a settled existence 'out of Court'.
Anglo-Saxon period (871–1066) The royal household has roots in the that provided military support to early
Anglo-Saxon kings. Household members included noble
thegns, who were expected to commit a portion of their time and resources to royal service as a condition of their social status and in return for certain privileges. In addition to thegns, the household would have included
clergy and a large staff of domestic servants. The daily life of the king's household was focused around the or
hall; the other main spaces were the chapel (staffed by
clerks) and the or chamber: a more private space, where the king slept and where his clothes, jewels and important documents were kept. Another high officer was the (also known, from the tenth century, as the
marshal), who was in charge of the king's horses, the royal stables and household travel. When the country was on a war footing, the royal stables took on a military character and function, and the horse-thegn's role adapted to it accordingly.
Cnut the Great () introduced two new offices to the household:
staller and
housecarl. The stallers were close to the king and very wealthy. There were as many as eight stallers in post at any one time, and there is uncertainty as to their precise duties; they had a supervisory role, and thus 'staller' may have been a generic term for any of chief officials of the king's household. The housecarls were professional soldiers who, among other things, functioned as royal bodyguards (whereas the Saxon kings had been guarded by their thegns). The household included several priests, who also probably had noble backgrounds, and service in the
royal chapel could be a stepping stone towards becoming a
bishop. Priests in the household not only performed religious duties but also acted as royal secretaries: writing letters,
charters, and other official documents. By the reign of
Edward the Confessor (), the chapel's writing office had custody of the
great seal, used to authenticate
writs; during his reign the office of
chancellor first makes an appearance within the English court. Even though it travelled constantly with the king as an
itinerant court, the royal household was the centre of the
Anglo-Saxon government. Initially, household officers performed domestic tasks (such as overseeing food, clothing, royal stables, or travel). As the king's administrative and judicial responsibilities expanded, public duties were delegated to the household officers, making them state officers as well. On the continent of Europe, the
Merovingian and Carolingian royal households had similar offices, and there is evidence that these influenced their English counterpart. However, there was no English equivalent to the powerful office of (Latin for '
mayor of the palace'), and English kings maintained ultimate authority over their households.
Anglo-Norman period (1066–1154) After the
Norman conquest the ducal household of
Normandy (with seneschal, cup-bearer, chamberlain and constable) appears to have been replicated in England and merged into the English court. The
Anglo-Norman French term 'seneschal' came to be translated as 'steward' in English.
Constitutio Domus Regis The , dating from the end of the reign of King
Henry I (), provides the earliest surviving account of the household. The senior figures (according to their remuneration) were: Also listed is the master marshal (). It is known from later references () that the master marshal was responsible for preserving order within the
verge of the king's court (a jurisdiction that became known as the
marshalsea); similarly, at time of war he had charge of military discipline. He also had financial duties: keeping a
tally of certain household expenditures, and in wartime functioning as paymaster of the military. Assisting the master marshal were four other marshals.
Plantagenet period (1154–1485) The formation of the Exchequer marked the beginning of the separation of government functions from the king's Court. As the treasurer had emerged alongside the chamberlain, taking over some of the latter's financial responsibilities, so another official emerged at this time: the
chief justiciar, who took on some of the historic duties of the seneschal or steward. He had his headquarters in the Exchequer, however, and is not generally considered an officer of the household.
Evolution of Great Officers of State and of the Household There had been a tendency in Normandy for the highest Court appointments to become hereditary offices, held under terms of
grand serjeanty, and in the 12th century this began to happen likewise in England. Thus by the end of the reign of
Henry II (), the office of steward (later termed
Lord High Steward) was attached to the
Earls of Leicester, that of chamberlain (
Lord Great Chamberlain) to the
Earls of Oxford, that of butler (
Chief Butler of England) to the family of
William de Albini (later
Earls of Arundel), that of constable (
Lord High Constable) to the
Earls of Hereford and that of marshal (later
Earl Marshal) to the family of
John FitzGilbert (later passing by marriage to the
Earls of Norfolk). As part of this process, the above-mentioned
great officers of state ceased to attend court except on State or special occasions. Their domestic duties therefore had to be undertaken by others. They seem at first to have been shared among several officers bearing the same or similar titles (the 1135
Constitutio lists multiple senior and subsidiary officials with the titles of steward, chamberlain, butler, constable and marshal). In due course, the domestic responsibilities of the steward and chamberlain devolved upon two senior officers 'of the Household': the
Lord Steward of the Household and
Lord Chamberlain of the Household. The Lord High Constable and Earl Marshal retained their military authority until a comparatively late period. As regards the latter's domestic duties, a 'Marshal of the Household' (later known as the
Knight Marshal) maintained discipline within the Verge from the 13th century, while a 'Marshal of the Exchequer' took care of the marshal's erstwhile financial duties.
The Chamber's authority reasserted The demise of the Wardrobe led to the re-emergence of the Chamber (and Chamberlain) as an office (and person) of influence. While the Wardrobe held sway, the Chamber had continued to operate at a domestic level: providing the place (and entourage) for the king to sleep, eat his meals and meet with visitors. The Chamber was scarcely mentioned in the 1311 Ordinances (the Barons not wishing to legislate over the monarch's domestic arrangements), so it now found itself well-placed to take back authority over financial and administrative matters on behalf of the King. Funding was provided out of certain estates forfeited to the Crown (including those of the
Knights Templar). By 1389 a
vice-chamberlain was in place as deputy to the Lord Chamberlain. The Chamber continued to retain its long-established personnel: Yeomen, Valets, Esquires and Knights of the Chamber; the yeomen and valets undertook more menial tasks (making the beds and stoking the fires), while the Esquires fulfilled particular tasks in direct relation to the King (e.g. as his carver or cup-bearer) and some of them were designated
Gentleman Ushers of the Court. Guard duties were performed by the
Serjeants at Arms. Wherever administrative or financial skills were required,
clerks were employed – a word which in this period signified
clergy. At their head, during this period of growth in the mid-fourteenth century, was the
Receiver. The Privy Seal, now removed from the influence of the Wardrobe, was given its own dedicated
Lord Keeper, who initially operated within the structure of the Chamber. Before long, however, moves were again made to limit the Household as a direct agency of kingly power. The Keeper of the Privy Seal, together with his office of clerks, was removed from the sphere of the Court and followed the Exchequer and the Chancery to Westminster, where, like them, it took on the guise of a department of State. In place of the Privy Seal, a new seal (later known as the signet) began to be used by the King, administered by a clerk in his Household who later came to be called the
King's Secretary (precursor of the present-day
Secretaries of State).
Great Hall and Great Chamber Down to the reign of King Edward II, the
Great Hall (the largest room in the palace) had been the centre of courtly life: a place of political meetings, public ceremonies and courtly social gatherings. Under his successor Edward III, however, the focus of activity moved to a more private room behind the
dais of the Hall: the
Great Chamber. Another small adjoining room, the privy
closet, functioned as a small private chapel.
The Stables In the early 1300s the royal
studs, stables and horses were under the office of the marshalsea, overseen at that time by the keeper of the wardrobe (the master marshal, or Earl Marshal as he was now called, having long since ceased to have a direct relationship with the Stables). Overseeing care and management of the horses from day to day were two officials called harbingers: one responsible for the royal
palfreys and
destriers, the other for
pack and
cart horses (which provided transport for the itinerant royal court). The former (also known as 'keeper of the king's great horses') had three serjeant-marshals working under him, the first being responsible for 'the stable of the king', the second for great horses kept (in various places) outside the household, the third for the royal studs (located at a dozen sites around the kingdom). In the 1360s, however, the network of studs and of horses 'outside the household' was disestablished and their associated serjeant-marshal posts were abolished. By the mid-1390s, the responsibilities of the remaining serjeant-marshal had been amalgamated with those of the keeper of the king's great horses under a new title:
Master of the Horse. The was overseen by the
Steward, the by the
Chamberlain. Also within the domain of the Steward was the
Board of Green Cloth, here called the (). This functioned both as the Household's
counting house and as its judgement seat: "for at the green-cloth is always represented the King's power touching matters of this Household". The green cloth itself was a tablecloth, charged with the arms of the Board: on a field of green a key crossed with a rod of silver, "signifying that this office may close, open or punish other offices".
The Tudor period (1485–1603) Under Henry VII the Chamber was equipped once again to serve as a powerful and efficient financial office, to be funded by income from the Crown lands (bypassing the Exchequer). In 1487, Henry revived the office of
Treasurer of the Chamber in order to secure and manage this income. These arrangements were maintained for a time, until the departments of State were reformed under
Thomas Cromwell, beginning in the 1530s.
Growing influence of the Privy Chamber In 1495 King
Henry VII effected an administrative separation between the Chamber (which, under the Chamberlain, continued to retain its public and ceremonial character and functions) and the
Privy Chamber (which, under the
Groom of the Stool, was separated off as a more private and intimate space). By the end of the 1530s it was functioning as a fully autonomous financial and administrative office with its own paid staff. The six Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber were akin to the king's chief ministers: they had oversight of the
Privy Purse and administered the
royal sign-manual. The Chief Gentleman of the Privy Chamber was the Groom of the Stool, who thus became one of the most powerful officials in the household: he acted as a royal
gatekeeper, allowing or denying other officials access to the privy lodgings (and thus to the monarch). In addition to the Gentlemen, the Privy Chamber had its own select staff, who operated under the Groom of the Stool (rather than the Lord Chamberlain): two
Gentlemen Ushers of the Privy Chamber kept the doors, and oversaw the serving of meals and other practical arrangements; they were assisted by four
Grooms of the Privy Chamber. The king's barber and a page were also in attendance daily. On festivals and great days of celebration the king would still be seen in the Great Hall or Chamber, and he granted audiences in the latter (which, for clarity, came to be known as the Presence Chamber); but otherwise, once he was within the palace, the king was seldom to be seen outside the Privy Chamber. Elizabeth did likewise, appointing
Kat Ashley to serve as
Chief Gentlewoman of the Privy Chamber (which became more clearly a personal rather than an administrative space, though it remained a sphere of influence).
The Stuart Household The Bedchamber When King
James VI of Scotland inherited the throne of England as James I, he retained much of the structure (and personnel) of the Elizabethan English court (with the Ladies and Gentlewomen being transferred to
his consort's Household). == Modern day ==