318 The Period of Constitution Making
early in the next century; and some types of revenue
which went regularly to the Exchequer might be quite
capriciously diverted to the Chamber. Also the Chamber,
before the end of the twelfth century, was doing a good
deal of general administrative business and kept a roll
which is to be distinguished from the Chancery rolls;
and the increasing absences of the Chancellor and con-
sequently of the great seal from the royal presence caused
another and more personal royal seal to come into exist-
ence. By the reign of John there were three seals: the
great seal kept by the Chancellor, a duplicate of the great
seal kept in the Exchequer, and a small seal or privy seal
kept by a clerk in the Chamber. But as Chancery went
out of court slowly, there was confusion and overlapping:
Chamber documents sometimes sealed in Chancery and
documents authenticated with the small seal appearing
in the Chancery enrolments. However, after 1208, most
Chamber documents received the small seal and not many
years afterwards no such documents were inserted in the
Chancery rolls. At the same time the feudal element in
the Chamber was being displaced by a clerical, official
element.
No sooner was this Chamber organisation well started
than we begin to hear, already in the reign of John, more
of the Wardrobe and less of the Chamber, and the Ward-
robe continued to figure as the heart of the royal house-
hold for at least a century. We have noticed that there
was an importance attaching to the king's sleeping place
and storage place, his chamber and his wardrobe, in
early times.1 There was a wardrobe servant before the
Conquest. By Henry II.'s time the royal wardrobe was
an important place of safe deposit with a considerable
staff. In John's reign, the term applied both to a place
and the things kept in it. We hear much of the carts
and horses or boats that carried the stuff of the wardrobe
on the king's constant journeys. There were the house-
hold arms and armour, saddles and harness of the horses,
* See above, p. 52.