Groom of the Stool

The Groom of the Stool (formally styled: "Groom of the King's Close Stool") was the most intimate of an English monarch's courtiers, responsible for assisting the king in the performance of the bodily functions of excretion and ablution.

The physical intimacy of the role naturally led to him becoming a man in whom much confidence was placed by his royal master and with whom many royal secrets were shared as a matter of course. This secret information—while it would never have been revealed, to the discredit of his honour—in turn led to him becoming feared and respected and therefore powerful within the royal court in his own right. The office developed gradually over decades and centuries into one of administration of the royal finances, and under Henry VII, the Groom of the Stool became a powerful official involved in setting national fiscal policy, under the "chamber system".

The Groom of the Stool was, in the earliest times, a male servant in the household of an English monarch who was responsible for assisting the king in the performance of the bodily functions of excretion and ablution, whilst maintaining an aura of royal decorum over the proceedings. The appellation "Groom of the Close Stool" derived from "stool", the item of furniture now called a commode used in the performance of the function (Stul being Norse and Early English for chair) and "close" because it was used in a closed and private room. It also appears as "Grom of the Stole" as the word "Groom" comes from the Old Low Franconian word "Grom".

By the Tudor age, the Groom of the Stool was a substantial figure like Hugh Denys (d.1511) who was a member of the Gloucestershire gentry, married to an aristocratic wife, and who died possessing at least four manors. The function had been transformed into that of a virtual minister of the royal treasury, being then an essential figure in the king's management of fiscal policy.

In the early years of Henry VIII's reign, the title was awarded to court companions of the king who spent time with him in the privy chamber. These were generally the sons of noblemen or important members of the gentry. In time they came to act as virtual personal secretaries to the king, carrying out a variety of administrative tasks within his private rooms. The position was an especially prized one, as it allowed one unobstructed access to the king.David Starkey writes: "The Groom of the Stool had (to our eyes) the most menial tasks; his standing, though, was the highest ... Clearly then, the royal body service must have been seen as entirely honourable, without a trace of the demeaning or the humiliating." Further, "the mere word of the Gentleman of the Privy Chamber was sufficient evidence in itself of the king's will", and the Groom of the Stool bore "the indefinable charisma of the monarchy".

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