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English Exchequer

Type Object Region Europe Time c. 1110

The English Exchequer was the royal fiscal audit body institutionalized under Henry I, named for the checkered cloth (scaccarium) laid on its table.

Timeline

  1. 1100–1135Winchester · EnglandUnder Chief Justiciar Roger of Salisbury and others, the crown fixed the two annual audits at Easter and Michaelmas. Sheriffs had to bring accounts and cash to the checkered table to answer queries; unpaid sums were recorded as debts. The Exchequer thus became a specialized body rather than an ad hoc court settlement.
  2. 1135–1154English royal court · EnglandDuring the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, central auditing was hard to maintain and the continuous rolls show gaps. After Henry II restored royal authority he rebuilt the Exchequer, and Richard FitzNeal recounted Henry I's old system in the Dialogus de Scaccario, showing institutional memory modeled on Henry I's reign.
  3. c. 1177Westminster · EnglandThe Dialogus de Scaccario turned the checkered table, tally sticks, sheriff's accounts, and the upper/lower Exchequer division into a teachable manual. Thereafter the Exchequer operated long-term at Westminster and underwent several early modern reforms, but the prototype of the 12th-century fiscal state was already fixed.

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