Short answers, pulled from the story.
The office of lord chancellor dates back at least to the Norman Conquest in 1066, with some sources citing Angmendus as the first chancellor in 605. Edward the Confessor adopted the practice of sealing documents rather than signing them personally, and his clerk Regenbald was named chancellor in surviving records from that era.
The Constitutional Reform Act 2005 fundamentally reshaped the lord chancellor's role by separating judicial, legislative, and executive functions that had been combined for nearly a thousand years. Parliament passed the Constitutional Reform Bill on the 24th of March 2005, transferring distinct responsibilities to new offices like the lord speaker and the lord chief justice while completing major transfers of functions by mid-2006.
Jack Straw MP became the first commoner appointed since Christopher Hatton in 1587 when he received the position in June 2007. This appointment broke centuries of tradition requiring holders to be peers and established a pattern where subsequent holders included barristers and eventually non-lawyers.
Annual emoluments reach £227,736 with pensions totaling £106,868, making the salary higher than any other public official including the prime minister. Recent officeholders sometimes voluntarily accept reduced compensation matching secretary of state levels despite these statutory figures.
Formal state occasions demand specific ceremonial attire beginning with black silk velvet cutaway tailcoats featuring cloth-covered buttons paired with waistcoats and breeches worn over white shirts, lace stocks, cuffs, stockings, and patent court shoes with cut-steel buckles. A black silk damask robe of state with long train trimmed by gold lace and frogging completes the ensemble, accompanied by a black silk wig bag attached to the flap collar at the back.