ABSTRACT

The wardrobe as a department was divided into two, the great wardrobe and the wardrobe of the household, both rendering separate accounts to the exchequer1. The business of the great wardrobe was mainly official. The essential of the wardrobe of the household was its personal character and the personal relation in which it stood to the king. It was the "special mouthpiece of the personal will of the king2." The organisation of the wardrobe was complex, and the ways in which it was related to the administration were many and varied. The great seal was regularly deposited there. When the chancellor did not surrender the seal in the king's presence3 it was sent to the wardrobe by him4, and when in 1292 Robert Burnell the chancellor died, the seal was delivered into the wardrobe by one of the late chancellor's clerks who continued after that date to seal writs with it5. The wardrobe influenced the use of the great seal, by restricting its issue by the privy seal and by verbal orders carried by wardrobe officials6.