The Master of the Household is the operational head (see
Chief operating officer) of the "below stairs" elements of the
Royal Households of the United Kingdom. The role has charge of the domestic staff, from the Royal Kitchens, the pages and footmen, to the housekeeper and their staff. The appointment has its origin in the household reforms of 1539-40; it is under the (now purely nominal) supervision of the
Lord Steward.[1]
Historically, the Master of the Household was a member of the Lord Steward's Department, and sat on the
Board of Green Cloth.[2] Among other duties, he presided at the daily dinners of the suite in waiting on the sovereign.[citation needed] The office is not named in the Black Book of
Edward IV or in the Statutes of
Henry VIII but is entered as Master of the Household and one of the clerks of the Green Cloth in the Household Book of Queen Elizabeth.[citation needed]
Initially there were four Masters of the Household, and they were working officers; but by the late 17th century there was a single Master and the post had become a
sinecure. In 1782, when a number of household sinecures were abolished, the Master of the Household was given renewed responsibility for the management of the Lord Steward's Department; and under further reforms overseen by
Prince Albert he was given charge of the entire domestic establishment.[1]
In the 1920s, as part of a reconfiguration of the King's Household, the Lord Steward's Department was renamed the Master of the Household's Department. The Master of the Household chaired the Board of Green Cloth up until the time of its abolition in the early 21st century.[1]