apostolic chamberlain of the Roman
see, the title was borrowed from the usage of the courts of the western
secular princes. A royal chamberlain is now a court official whose
function is in general to attend on the person of the sovereign and to
regulate the etiquette of the palace. He is the representative of the
medieval _camberlanus, cambellanus_, or _cubicularius_, whose office was
modelled on that of the _praefectus sacri cubiculi_ or _cubicularius_ of
the Roman emperors. But at the outset there was another class of
chamberlains, the _camerarii_, i.e. high officials charged with the
administration of the royal treasury (_camera_). The _camerarius_ of the
Carolingian emperors was the equivalent of the _hordere_ or
_thesaurarius_ (treasurer) of the Anglo-Saxon kings; he develops into
the _Erzkammerer_ (_archicamerarius_) of the Holy Roman Empire, an
office held by the margraves of Brandenburg, and the _grand chambrier_
of France, who held his _chamberie_ as a fief. Similarly in England
after the Norman conquest the _hordere_ becomes the chamberlain. This
office was of great importance. Before the Conquest he had been, with
the marshal, the principal officer of the king's court; and under the
Norman sovereigns his functions were manifold. As he had charge of the
administration of the royal household, his office was of financial
importance, for a portion of the royal revenue was paid, not into the
exchequer, but in _camera regis_. In course of time the office became
hereditary and titular, but the complexities of the duties necessitated
a division of the work, and the office was split up into three: the
hereditary and sinecure office of _magister camerarius_ or lord great
chamberlain (see LORD GREAT CHAMBERLAIN), the more important domestic
office of _camerarius regis_, king's chamberlain or lord chamberlain
(see LORD CHAMBERLAIN), and the chamberlains (_camerarii_) of the
exchequer, two in number, who were originally representatives of the
chamberlain at the exchequer, and afterwards in conjunction with the
treasurer presided over that department. In 1826 the last of these
officials died, when by an act passed forty-four years earlier they
disappeared.

In France the office of _grand chambrier_ was early overshadowed by the
_chamberlains (cubicularii, cambellani_, but sometimes also
_camerarii_), officials in close personal attendance on the king, men at
first of low rank, but of great and ever-increasing influence. As