stable of the Tower. So late as July and August 1228, drafts were still being made on this king's treasure in the Tower.2 Meanwhile, however, the small writs of liberate were renewed, and from one source or another the wardrobe was credited with more than £4500 at the exchequer for the 12th of Henry III.3 The expenses of the disastrous Kerry campaign against Llywelyn of Wales in 1228 sufficiently explain the rise. Every effort was made to despatch to the "wardrobe at Kerry" and Montgomery, in September and October, all the cash that could be secured in any direction, notably from the western shires.4 In 13 Henry III., when there was no expedition, the exchequer paid over to the wardrobe about £3250.5

During this period gradual changes in the wardrobe staff were being effected. The episcopal ambitions of the chief officials were the chief cause of this. As early as January 26, 1227, Brackley was "released from all trammels of court" and sent to Ireland to prosecute his claim to the bishopric of Meath. This fact accounts for Kirkham being between February and July 1227 the sole acting clerk of the wardrobe receiving moneys at the exchequer.' But on his failure at Meath Brackley rejoined Kirkham in the old task. But Luke the chaplain had been luckier than his colleague, for he became safely established as archbishop of Dublin. Before the end of 1228 he was already removed from court.8 He visited Rome to procure his pallium, and on his return seems to have gone to Ireland. It seems that Luke's place as treasurer had already been filled by Ranulf the Breton, who was already associated as a wardrobe clerk with Kirkham; on February 13, 1229, as a recipient of

1 C. Lib. R., 1226-40, p. 45.

2 Ib. pp. 94-5.

Ib. pp. 57-103. I make the sum of writs of "liberate " and " computate " amount to £4522: 16:14. This includes such writs as that of April 2" by the hands of William Hardel to buy robes for the king at St. Ives' fair"; ib. p. 75. Ib. pp. 98-103.

Ib. pp. 104-152. I make the amount £3262 : 2 : 1.

• P.R., 1225–32, p. 109. Brackley is here called "familiaris clericus noster de camera." Chamber and wardrobe are still nearly equivalent terms.

The writs of liberate from Feb. 10 to June 1 are all on behalf of Kirkham alone. The next joint writ is on July 13, 1227; C. Lib. R. p. 49.

On Dec. 15, 1228, a writ directed the exchequer to deliver him an imprest of 200 m.; ib. p. 114. TIL

"He was at the curia in Jan. 1229 when Henry II. urged the pope to release him, as his presence was needed in Ireland; P.R., 1225–32, pp. 236-7.

exchequer liveries. His position of precedence in the writ over the experienced Kirkham suggests that he may already have become his official superior, though it is equally likely that the order was accidental.2 Ranulf, like Luke the chaplain, was a former chaplain and political ally of Hubert de Burgh, and his appointment as treasurer was a proof of the justiciar's still abiding influence.3

An important stage of wardrobe development resulted from Henry III.'s expedition of 1230 to Brittany and Poitou. Walter Mauclerc, bishop of Carlisle, who had succeeded bishop Fauconberg as treasurer of the exchequer early in 1229,4 seems to have remained in England, busy in raising supplies. The result was that the wardrobe, this time on a larger scale than at Kerry, had the whole administration of the finances of the expedition thrown on its hands. All the clerks went overseas with Henry. Ranulf the Breton received his letters of protection on April 20, 1230,"on going abroad with the king." 5 Though no similar letters were granted to Kirkham and Brackley, it is certain that both took part in the expedition. They worked in close relations with the chief steward of the household, Geoffrey of Crowcombe or Craucumbe," whose association in wardrobe work was natural to the holder of one of the two chief lay posts in the household when the wardrobe was the treasury of an expeditionary force.

A great increase of wardrobe expenditure necessarily resulted. On October 10, 1229, a writ of liberate of the unprecedented sum of 20,000 marks was issued on behalf of Kirkham and Brackley "to be carried with the king beyond the sea." & Besides this there was more than £2000 delivered to the wardrobe from the exchequer between October 1229 and May 1230, when the king

1 C. Lib. R., p. 120.

A few days later their position is reversed in another writ; ib. p. 120. But after this Ranulf is always first; ib. pp. 132, 138.

3 He was a clerk of Hubert in 1225; Rot. Lit. Claus. ii. 35; and in 1228; P.R., 1225-32, pp. 236-7.

♦ He received no protection. He was acting as treasurer by Feb. 26, 1229; ib. p. 241.

P.R., 1225-32, p. 361. Ranulf is called "thesaurarius camere regis" in Wendover, iv. 244, quoted in note 3, p. 200 below. Compare later, p. 228. C.R., 1227-31, pp. 425, 430.

? For instance, ib. p. 430 and C. Lib. R. pp. 150-1.

8 Ib. p. 150.

at last crossed the seas. Most unfortunately a gap in the liberate rolls, between July 1230 and October 1232, prevents us following out in detail the method of the financing of the expedition. Yet the glimpses in other records, notably the close roll drawn up abroad,2 throw some light upon the working of the wardrobe machine. We see sums of money constantly despatched from England to supplement the king's scanty resources, and we find his wardrobe clerks, especially Ranulf the Breton and Kirkham, and occasionally Brackley, busily engaged on the reception and distribution of the royal revenue. With them Godfrey of Crowcombe was often actively associated. Thus on August 26 Kirkham and Crowcombe disbursed in one day £3150:16:8 of the king's treasure to various barons of Poitou and their councillors.3 This large expenditure is a sufficient indication of the magnitude of the wardrobe transactions during the campaign. But within a month, a fresh supply of treasure, amounting to £6000, came from the English regency and was received by Kirkham and Crowcombe in the wardrobe at Nantes. As the king and his army moved southwards from Saint-Malo to Bordeaux, and again on the return journey, we find the wardrobe established at each place of sojourn and its clerks issuing advances and payments after the normal methods of the office.5

6

Ranulf and the two Walters continued to act in the wardrobe after the king's return to England, though on December 14, 1230, we find a third clerk of the wardrobe also employed, whose name, William de Burgh, suggests some kinship with the justiciar. It is interesting in the summer of 1231, when Henry III. was engaged on his second Welsh campaign, to find that, though the king had his wardrobe with him at Painscastle, Kirkham remained in London, whence he delivered treasure to the king's agents to meet the expenses of the abortive fighting in Wales.?

2 C.R., 1225-32, pp. 409-451.

1 C. Lib. R. pp. 158-181. 3 Ib. pp. 430-1. The grants give interesting evidence of the universality of feudal councils. Every petty baron of Poitou had his consilium, which had to be placated by special bribes

P.R., 1225-32, pp. 397-8. This was on Sept. 18, just before the king's voyage home.

5 C.R., 1227-31, p. 452.

• Ib. p. 462.

Ib. p. 542 shows the king receiving moneys "in garderobam regis apud castrum Matildis" on Aug. 6, 1231, and ib. p. 544 shows the king on Aug. 15 directing Kirkham in London to send him treasure to Wales.

Castrum

Great changes were now imminent. Hubert de Burgh's credit had received a blow from which it never recovered in the failure of the expedition to Poitou. The Poitevin gang, which Hubert had banished from court, was now hurrying back to secure the ruin of the justiciar. On February 6, 1230, Peter of Rivaux received licence to come "safely and securely to the land of England, to abide there safely, and to withdraw thence safely when he would."1 By the summer of 1231 Peter des Roches himself returned from his crusade, and attended the king during his movements in Wales. The result of this was seen in a royal mandate, dated September 12, 1231, and issued from Painscastle, wherein the king ordered Ranulf to withdraw at once with all his kinsfolk from England, "as he loves himself and his kinsmen and wishes that they should all be kept from harm." 2 His office of treasurer of the chamber was now, or a little later, conferred on Peter of Rivaux.3 With Hubert's former chaplain the clerks who had worked under him soon disappeared also. In June 1232 Walter of Brackley was honourably got rid of by the king assenting to his election as bishop of Ossory, and releasing him "from accounts, reckonings, and all trammels of court," and solemnly declaring his appreciation of Walter's "good and faithful service."4 Even before this Kirkham had disappeared from the wardrobe, receiving as some compensation the custody of the temporalities of the vacant archbishopric of

Matildis in Elvain seems in all these cases to be Painscastle in the parish of Llanbedr-Painscastle, Co. Radnor.

1 P.R., 1225–32, p. 325.

2 C.R., 1227-31, p. 599.

3 Wendover, iv. 244. "Ranulfum etiam, cognomento Britannum, camere sue thesaurarium, ab officio suo deponens, cepit ab illo mille libras argenti, et loco eius substituit Petrum de Riuallis, genere Pictauensem." We have no formal record of Peter's appointment until the famous charter of June 1232, but I think it very likely that this was preceded by a less complete nomination more on traditional lines. This passage of Wendover establishes the name of Ranulf's office. Stubbs, who never quite grasped the distinction between the household and exchequer treasureships, treats Ranulf as treasurer of the exchequer, and makes bishop Mauclerc of Carlisle his successor; Stubbs, C.H. ii. 45. But Mauclerc's grant of the treasury for life in 1232 was not his first appointment, which, as we have seen, goes back to 1229. Breton was never treasurer of the exchequer.

▲ P.R., 1225–32, p. 481. The release is dated June 15, and the royal assent to the election, June 14, 1232. Brackley duly obtained Ossory, and died its bishop in 1243; Cal. Doc. Ireland, 1171-1251, p. 393.

Canterbury. After enjoying an archdeaconry and the deanery of St. Martin le Grand, already almost the perquisite of the household clerks, he became in 1249 bishop of Durham. But neither his promotion nor his subsequent actions pleased the king and his courtiers. Before he died in 1260, he had time to show his sympathy for the Provisions of Oxford. With the removal from court of this honourable and kindly friend of Hubert, the way was finally cleared for the complete triumph of the Poitevins.

Another apparent consolidation of household machinery during this period may also claim our attention. This is the gradual strengthening of the lay side of the household staff by an increasingly clear differentiation between officers bearing the same name, but now more definitely set apart to work in various branches of the administration. The magnate element recedes before a working element in all such offices as have a large amount of regular routine suitable for lay capacity. In the twelfth century the hereditary offices held by lay barons were, still in name, and to some extent in reality, regarded as offices of the court and household. But we have already seen how, under Henry II., separation had been effected between the chief chamberlains, who were lay magnates, and the working chamberlains, specially affected to the daily service of the exchequer and chamber. It was now the same with the other lay dignity which most nearly concerns us, the officer of king's steward, a name, which in its Latin shape of senescallus was now gradually supplanting the Norman form of dapifer. Here, too, the distrust of an autocratic monarch, the increasing demands and technique of the business transacted, and a great man's natural preoccupation with his own estates and interests had removed the king's hereditary stewards from the daily service of the hostel. Yet so late as the early years of Henry III.'s reign, the offices held by these hereditary magnates were still described as “of the household." There were in Angevin times two hereditary "stewards of the household" in this sense. Their history has been elaborately, if somewhat dogmatically, worked out by the

1 I cannot find Kirkham acting in the wardrobe after Aug. 15, 1231; C.R. 1227-31, p. 542. See note 7, page 199 above. He was keeper of the temporalities of Canterbury before Sept. 25 1231; ib. p. 561, cf. p. 570.