Definition
Lardarius regis is a Latin term from medieval English royal administration meaning "the king's larderer" or "clerk of the kitchen." The office referred to the royal household official responsible for overseeing the larder — the stores of provisions, salted meats, and foodstuffs maintained for the king's household. The lardarius was a domestic officer of the Crown, not a legal officer in the modern sense, but the position carried administrative significance within the hierarchy of royal household governance.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in historical legal dictionaries as a passing reference to a now-defunct royal household office. Researchers are most likely to encounter lardarius regis in one of three contexts: medieval Latin records of the royal household, antiquarian legal dictionaries that preserved obsolete offices, or broader historical surveys of Crown prerogative and household administration.
The term has no active doctrinal life in modern law. Its presence in Black's Law Dictionary — in both the first and second editions — reflects the nineteenth-century lexicographic practice of importing obsolete offices from earlier English sources, particularly Cowell's Interpreter, without necessarily signaling that the term had any contemporary legal utility even at the time of publication.
Researchers working in primary sources will find references to the lardarius (or larderer) in medieval household rolls, wardrobe accounts, and exchequer records. The office predates the formalization of the Lord Steward's department and the modern royal household structure. In those sources the term may appear in variant Latin forms, and the role was closely associated with similar provisioning offices such as the pantler, butler, and almoner.
A critical navigational note: Black's first edition entry contains a textual artifact — the phrase "lawful heirs; that is, in some cases, the lord" — that appears to be a printing corruption or typesetting error, likely from a misbound or misset page in the source material. The second edition corrects the surrounding text. Researchers relying on the first edition should treat that passage with caution and cross-reference the second edition.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's Law Dictionary define lardarius regis identically in substance: "the king's larderer, or clerk of the kitchen," with attribution to Cowell. The entry is thin by design — Cowell's Interpreter (1607) is the proximate source, and Black's appears to have reproduced Cowell's gloss without elaboration.
The first edition contains a notable textual corruption, interpolating language about "lawful heirs" and "the lord" that plainly belongs to an adjacent entry. The second edition's presentation is cleaner, though equally brief.
Neither edition provides the office any procedural or doctrinal context. Neither attempts to connect it to broader frameworks of royal prerogative, household law, or the legal significance of Crown domestic officers. This reflects the limits of the nineteenth-century dictionary tradition when handling obsolete medieval offices: the entry preserves the term without illuminating its legal significance or historical context.
Cowell's original entry, the cited authority, itself treated the term descriptively rather than analytically. Researchers wanting fuller treatment should consult primary sources in medieval household administration rather than expecting these dictionary entries to carry independent analytical weight.
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Jurisdictional Note
This term is specific to the English Crown and its medieval household structure. It has no equivalent or parallel development in American law, Scottish law, or continental legal systems. Jurisdictional variation is not a meaningful research concern for this entry.
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