Financial Administration Under Henry I

Abstract

For the financial administration under Henry I we have no such detailed information as is given for the reign of his grandson by the Dialogus de Scaccario. When Richard Fitz Neel composed that famous dialogue, which was completed before April, 1179, the head of the financial administration was the Treasurer, who was assisted by two Chamberlains. This arrangement was already in existence before the death of Henry I, although the Treasurer seems to have been a somewhat recent addition to the staff of the Treasury, which had previously been managed by the Chamberlains; whose title was a survival from the earlier period when the royal treasure was kept in the royal bed-chamber, and the king's chamberlain acted as treasurer ex-officio. If we can trust an anonymous poem of the thirteenth century, this primitive arrangement still existed in England under the Confessor, at least so far as the funds for the expenses of the Royal Household were concerned; indeed, Professor Tout is doubtful whether any royal treasury or treasurer, except the Chamber and the Chamberlain, existed in England before the Conquest.

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