wardrobe

Financial department of the British royal household, originally a secure place for royal robes and other valuable items. As the Exchequer became a formal department of state, monarchs needed to maintain a privy treasury under their personal supervision and the wardrobe was secure enough to hold money. By the time of Henry III's reign, the wardrobe was so important that the barons demanded all income should be officially accounted for in the Exchequer. Under Edward I, it became a war treasury and was used to pay the armies on major expeditions. However, from the time of Edward IV, and more especially the Tudors, it was largely replaced by the Chamber as a form of ‘current account’.