At the heart of the government of England and, after 1106, of Normandy too, was the king and his accompanying retinue. The size of that retinue waxed and waned as the king moved about his dominions, as the great men came and went, and the officers of the household served their terms on duty. Essentially the range of functions performed by the king's entourage remained the same wherever he was: Le Patourel pointed out that the king did not have separate household establishments for England and Normandy. This statement should not conceal the fact, however, that the composition of the court and household was often rather different in England from Normandy, party because of the attendance of the different local magnates, and partly because some of the household officials may only have served on one side of the Channel.

The king's retinue was both a public and a private body, much more so than the queen's household, the functions of which were more narrowly domestic. Its varying functions were reflected in the different terms used for it by contemporaries. At its most formal it was the king's court or curia, where he took counsel and dispensed justice to his subjects. From time to time the court was augmented by the presence of many lay and acclesiastical magnates for the holding of a council, or concilium. In time of war the king's entourage formed the nucleus of his armed forces, and the knights of the household came into their own.