ABSTRACT
The connection between the great departments and the council was close, for the council was the source whence those departments drew a considerable amount of authority. The council, and here bycouncil is meant that manifestation which will hereafter be defined as "administrative," was in fact the executive instrument of the administration. As the king, the source of all executive authority, worked through his clerks, with the office of the privy seal as the mouthpiece of his executive power, and the wardrobe as its financial support, so the council was the source of formal executive power, with the chancery as the mouthpiece of its executive power and with the exchequer as the counterpart of the wardrobe. In a scheme of complete differentiation one might be the executive of the household and the other of the administration, but that time was not yet. The king's executive authority was omnipotent over household and administration. The executive authority of the "administrative" council was derived from and answerable to the king. The " administrative " council had authority because the king had chosen to delegate powers to it. The king asked a number of men to advise him on particular occasions for particular purposes. Thus when Edward I was abroad the business of the realm was done by " Edward the king's son supplying the king's place in England and by the king's council with him1." The composition of the body was not fixed: it had no fixed place of meeting. Apart from the king it had no authority, but it was a slightly more formal executive body than was contained in the household, and in it there were great potentialities for development as an important and intricate part in the machinery of administration. Already by the time of Edward II there were a number of routine matters in administration which came under its cognizance.
