ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the records of routine government operations. Philip Augustus employed royal agents in the demesne, and outside, to carry on the routine work of government and to enforce the changes which he introduced. Central government was organized under a few major officials: the chancellor, the seneschal, the butler, the chamberlain and the constable. One of the major developments of the reign was the move towards a more permanent home for government in Paris, which had begun before Philip’s reign but made progress under him. The form of some of Philip’s acts suggests that a certain small group of officials was expected to witness them. Increasingly Philip employed men from the lesser nobility of the demesne as his officials, men whose main task in life was not to look after great principalities but to serve the king as administrators.
