We come now to the Lord Chamberlain, incomparably the most important figure at court in all matters concerned with entertainments. The _camerarii_ and _cubicularii_ are discernible before the Conquest, and the corresponding Anglo-Saxon terms appear to be _burþegn_, _bedþegn_, and _hræglþegn_. Perhaps the _hrægl_ or wardrobe was already becoming separated from the _bur_ or bed-chamber.[92] In the days of William Rufus one Herbert was _regis cubicularius et thesaurarius_.[93] This was before the Exchequer under its Lord High Treasurer had branched off as a separate department of state, but the post of Chamberlain of the Exchequer continued for many centuries to testify to the original location of the treasure chest in the _camera_. About 1135 there was a _magister camerarius_, the equal in salary and allowances of the _cancellarius_, the _dapiferi_, the _magister pincerna_, the _thesaurarius_, and the _constabularii_. There were also other _camerarii_ of lower degrees taking turns of duty, and a special _camerarius candelae_, ranking lower still.[94] Presumably the _magister camerarius_ became the hereditary Lord Great Chamberlain, whose coronation services, which are connected with the charge of the King's bed-chamber, the handing of a basin and towel at the banquet, and the preparation of the royal oblations, afford a sufficient indication of the duties of the court office.[95] And on the retirement of the hereditary officer from court, it seems probable that one of the other _camerarii_ advanced to the position of acting _magister_. At any rate, when the treatise known as _Fleta_ was compiled about 1290, there was a single _camerarius_ with a _sub-minister_ and other officers beneath him. Perhaps he was by this time barely the equal of the _senescallus_, to whom he sat as assessor in the court _de placitis_ _Aulae Regis_, although he had also an independent jurisdiction over his own officers and those of the Wardrobe, who were exempt from the Steward's court.[96] On the other hand he was, as Robert of Westminster calls him, 'custos capitis regis', and the author of _Fleta_ tells us in another connexion that 'in hospitio pro regula habetur, quod quanto propinquior sit quis Regi, tanto dignior'.[97] On the whole it seems probable that, whatever his traditional status may have been, the practical tendency of the extensive political use made by Edward I of the Steward and the clerical officers of the Wardrobe was to throw the Chamberlain into the background.[98] We also learn from _Fleta_ that it was the business of the Chamberlain to look after the King's bed and chamber, and that as fees he had his keep in court, fines from ecclesiastic and lay homagers, the disused plenishings of the _camera_, and a share of all gifts and offerings of food made to the King.[99]