The lord chancellor is a member of the Cabinet and is, by law, the minister of the Crown responsible for the efficient functioning and independence of the courts.

Other sources suggest that the first to appoint a chancellor was Edward the Confessor, who is said to have adopted the practice of sealing documents instead of personally signing them.

The lord chancellor performed multiple functions—he was the Keeper of the Great Seal, the chief royal chaplain, and adviser in both spiritual and temporal matters.

Appeals from the law courts for justice in cases where the law would produce an unjust result (pleas for the exercise of equitable jurisdiction, in present parlance) were normally addressed to the king (in Parliament, after Magna Carta in 1215),[9] but this very quickly bogged down because (1) Parliament was, at the time, a discontinuous affair with no fixed seat that met only for a few days a year and only when the king called it together wherever he happened to be holding court at the time and (2) the growing wealth of the kingdom ensured that an increasing number of people had the means to bring such petitions to what was, at the time, a traveling curia.

Cases that were particularly vexatious or of special importance were to be brought to the king's attention directly by the minister under whose purview they lay, but with the understanding that this would be an unusual phenomenon.

By the reign of Edward III, this judicial function developed into a separate tribunal for the Lord Chancellor as the case load continued to grow.

Authority was first delegated to the Master of the Rolls, who remains the second-highest-ranking official in the English judiciary, and eventually to other members of his staff.

In 1529, after Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who was Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of York, was dismissed for failing to procure the annulment of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, laymen tended to be more favoured for appointment to the office.

By law, the lord chancellor is the minister of the Crown responsible for the administration of the courts and tribunals, legal aid, and matters of public guardianship and mental incapacity in England and Wales.

[16][17][18][19] In their capacity as secretary of state for justice, the lord chancellor also administers the prison system and probation services in England and Wales.

In this role the lord chancellor wears parliamentary robes—a full-length scarlet wool gown decorated with miniver fur.

[35] Moreover, the lord chancellor appoints clergy in such of the ecclesiastical livings under the patronage of the Crown as are officially listed as being worth less than £20 per annum.

The words "as he is now by Law enabled", however, caused considerable doubt, as it was unclear if Catholics were disqualified from holding the office in the first place.

For the removal of all doubt, Parliament passed the Lord Chancellor (Tenure of Office and Discharge of Ecclesiastical Functions) Act 1974 (c. 25), declaring that there was never any impediment to the appointment of a Catholic.

If any three or more of these individuals, based on evidence that, as required by statute, shall include evidence provided by physicians, determine and declare by an instrument in writing, lodged with the Privy Council, that the sovereign suffers from a mental or physical infirmity that prevents him or her from personally discharging the duties of head of state, the royal functions are transferred to a regent, who discharges them in the name and on behalf of the monarch.

As such, the lord chancellor was once also the chief judge of the Court of Chancery in London, dispensing equity to soften the harshness of the common law.

The growing workload of the Court of Chancery over ensuing centuries led the lord chancellor to become the recognised head of the English and Welsh judiciary.

Immediately prior to the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, the lord chancellor performed several different roles as head of the English and Welsh courts.

However, concerns were already being expressed, including by the judiciary, at the propriety of a cabinet minister sitting as a professional judge, and his successor, Lord Falconer, never performed such a role, even before his right to do so was abolished.

The judicial functions of the lord chancellor (as opposed to his role in the administration of the court system) were removed by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.

The lord chancellor acted as the visitor of many universities, colleges, schools, hospitals and other charitable organisations throughout the United Kingdom.

A lord high treasurer would be entitled to the same protection—but the office is now held in commission—as would a judge whilst actually in court, determining a case.

Although lord chancellor "of Great Britain", they maintain a position in the order of precedence in Northern Ireland; there, they outrank all non-royal individuals with the exception of the Anglican and Roman Catholic archbishops of Armagh, the Anglican and Roman Catholic archbishops of Dublin and the moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

The lord chancellor, on formal state occasions such as the State Opening of Parliament, wears legal court dress consisting of a black silk velvet cutaway tailcoat with cloth covered buttons, waistcoat and breeches worn with white shirt, lace stock and cuffs, black silk stockings and cut-steel buckled patent court shoes.

A table being covered with a green carpet, a state cushion on it, and the Purse and Mace lying thereon, enter Sir Thomas More".

In the early 21st century, the Labour government viewed it as untenable that all three political functions (executive, legislative and judicial) should be continued in the historical office of Lord Chancellor.

However the lord chancellor and secretary of state for constitutional affairs remained a member of the Prime Minister's Cabinet, retaining most of the office's original statutory functions.

A fictional depiction of a lord chancellor occurs in Iolanthe, the frequently-revived comic opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.

William Rehnquist, late Chief Justice of the United States, was inspired to add four golden stripes to the sleeves of his judicial robes after seeing the costume of the lord chancellor in a production of Iolanthe.

In David Gurr's thriller A Woman Called Scylla, set in 1977, the main villain is an utterly ruthless and unscrupulous lord chancellor, who grossly abuses his many functions and powers in order to cover up his treason during the Second World War and as a stepping stone towards becoming prime minister.