Roger of Salisbury

In the week of the Budget it is fitting to consider the man who began the systems that still underpin our current financial structures. Not that I seek to blame him for the failures of Rachel Reeves; I doubt he would have had socialist sympathies, even if socialism had existed in the 12th century.

But he founded, if anyone did, the Exchequer, and was the central figure in the development of a governmental system of accounting and administration that was central to the development of the Norman and Plantagenet state, with consequences for England and the United Kingdom that flow down the centuries.

He is also perhaps the most forgotten of all the people I have covered so far in this series of essays, even I had never heard of him or realised his importance until my eldest son, Peter, who is studying an history A-level, told me about him.

Roger was not born into an aristocratic family, his origins were humble, which suited Henry I, who was nervous of powerful magnates and wanted men of administrative ability, who would help him consolidate power in his realm, to which his claim was imperfect.

Apparently, Roger came to royal notice when the future Henry I happened to pass by his chapel in Caen, and stopped for mass. Roger, in a lesson to all clerics, said the service with such speed that Henry realised he was just the man to be a chaplain to his forces. So Roger’s career in public service began.