The wardrobe, along with the chamberlain, made up the personal part of medieval English government known as the king's household. Originally the room where the king's clothes, armour and treasure was stored the term was expanded to describe its contents and then the department of clerks who ran it. The wardrobe treasure of gold and jewels, funded by but not under the control of the treasury (and therefore Parliament) enabled the king to make secret and rapid payments to fund his diplomatic and military operations.
The wardrobe often appropriated large funds from the exchequer, the main financial government office. During the reign of Edward I, Edward II and Edward III, there were several conflicts over the confusion of authority between these two offices. The conflict was largely resolved in the mid-fourteenth century when William Edington, as treasurer under Edward III, brought the wardrobe in under the financial oversight – if not control – of the exchequer. In the sixteenth century the wardrobe lost much of its former importance. This was due both to the growing sophistication and size of government making it less mobile, and to the lower frequency of military campaigns led by the king in person.
There were in fact two main wardrobes for a period - around 1300 the confusingly-named Great Wardrobe, responsible only for expenditure on such things clothing, textiles, furs and spices, had split away from the more senior household wardrobe, which remained responsible for financing the king's personal expenditure and his military operations, but the two departments were later reunited. In addition there were smaller Privy Wardrobes at the Tower and various royal palaces.
The chief officials went under the title of Master or Keeper of the Wardrobe and was a position in the British Royal Household. Under the keepers were lesser officials such as the controller. Several keepers of the great wardrobe, such as future bishop John Buckingham, were promoted to the household wardrobe. Below is a list of known holders until the abolition of the office in 1782