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19th-century drawing of the Star Chamber

The Court of Star Chamber

"I will make a Star-Chamber matter of it!"
          —Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor. I.i., 414.

STAR CHAMBER, the name given in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries to an English court of justice. The name is probably derived from the stars with which the roof of the chamber was painted; it was the camera stellata.

The origin and early history of the court are somewhat obscure. The curia regis of the 12th century, combining judicial, deliberative and administrative functions, had thrown off several offshoots in the Court of King's Bench and other courts, but the Crown never parted with its supreme jurisdiction. When in the 13th century the King's Council became a regular and permanent body, practically distinct from parliament, this supreme jurisdiction continued to be exercised by the King in council. As the ordinary courts of law became more important and more systematic, the indefinite character of the council's jurisdiction gave rise to frequent complaints, and efforts, for the most part fruitless, were made by the parliaments of the 14th century to check it. The equitable jurisdiction of the Chancellor, which grew up during the reign of Edward III like the courts of law under Henry II, was derived from this supreme judicial power, which was yet unexhausted.

It is in the reign of Edward III, after an Act of 1341, that we first hear of the Chancellor, Treasurer, Justices and other members of the King's Council exercising jurisdiction in the old chamber, or chambre de estoiles, at Westminster. In Henry VI's reign one Danvers was acquitted of a certain charge by the council in the camera stellata. Hitherto such acts of parliament as had recognized this jurisdiction had done so only by way of limitation or prohibition, but in 1453, about the time when the distinction between the ordinary and the Privy Council first became apparent, an act was passed empowering the Chancellor to enforce the attendance of all persons summoned by the Privy Seal before the King and his Council in all cases not determinable by Common Law. At this time, then, the jurisdiction of the Council was recognized as supplementary to that of the ordinary courts of law. But the anarchy of the Wars of the Roses and the decay of local justice, owing to the influence of the great barons and the turbulence of all classes, obliged parliament to entrust wider powers to the Council. This was the object of the famous Act of 1487, which was incorrectly quoted by the lawyers of the Long Parliament as creating the Court of Star Chamber, which was in reality of earlier origin.

The Act of 1487 (3 Hen. VII.) created a court composed of seven persons, the Chancellor, the Treasurer, the Keeper of the Privy Seal, or any two of them, with a bishop, a temporal lord and the two chief justices, or in their absence two other justices. It was to deal with cases of "unlawful maintainance, giving of licences, signs and tokens, great riots, unlawful assemblies"; in short with all offences against the law which were too serious to be dealt with by the ordinary courts. The jurisdiction thus entrusted to this committee of the council was not supplementary, therefore, like that granted in 1453, but it superseded the ordinary courts of law in cases where these were too weak to act. The act simply supplied machinery for the exercise, under special circumstances, of that extraordinary penal jurisdiction which the council had never ceased to possess. By an act of 1529 an eighth member, the President of the Council, was added to the Star Chamber, the jurisdiction of which was at the same time confirmed. At this time the court performed a very necessary and valuable work in punishing powerful offenders who could not be reached by the ordinary courts of law. It was found very useful by Cardinal Wolsey, and a little later Sir Thomas Smith says its object was "to bridle such stout noblemen or gentlemen who would offer wrong by force to any manner of men, and cannot be content to demand or defend the right by order of the law."

Drawing of the Old Star Chamber building

It is popularly supposed that the star chamber, after an existence of about fifty years, disappeared towards the end of the reign of Henry VIII, the powers obtained by the Act of 1487 being not lost, but reverting to the Council as a whole. This may have been so, but it is more probable that the Star Chamber continued to exist side by side with the Council, and the two bodies were certainly separate during the latter part of Elizabeth's reign. The Act of 1540, which gave the King's proclamation the force of law, enacted that offenders against them were to be punished by the usual officers of the council, together with some bishops and judges "in the Star Chamber or elsewhere." It is difficult, if not impossible, to draw a clear distinction between the duties of the Privy Council and the duties of the Star Chamber at this time, although before the abolition of the latter there was a distinction "as to their composition and as to the matters dealt with by the two courts." During the reign of Elizabeth, Sir Thomas Smith remarks that juries misbehaving "were many times commanded to appear in the Star Chamber, or before the Privy Council for the matter." The uncertain composition of the court is well shown by Sir Edward Coke, who says that the Star Chamber is or may be compounded of three several councils: (i) the Lords and others of the Privy Council; (2) the judges of either bench and the barons of the Exchequer; (3) the Lords of Parliament, who are not, however, standing judges of the court. William Hudson (d. 1635), on the other hand, considers that all peers had the right of sitting in the court, but if so they had certainly given up the privilege in the 17th century.

The jurisdiction of the Star Chamber was as vague as its constitution. Hudson says it is impossible to define it without offending the supporters of the prerogative by a limitation of its powers, or the lawyers by attributing to it an excessive latitude. In practice its jurisdiction was almost unlimited. It took notice of riots, murder, forgery, felony, perjury, fraud, libel and slander, duels and acts tending to treason, as well as of some civil matters, such as disputes about land between great men and corporations, disputes between English and foreign merchants, and testamentary cases; in fact, as Hudson says, "all offences may be here examined and punished if the King will." Its procedure was not according to the Common Law. It dispensed with the encumbrance of a jury; it could proceed on rumour alone; it could apply torture; it could inflict any penalty but death. It was thus admirably calculated to be the support of order against anarchy, or of despotism against individual and national liberty.

During the Tudor period it appeared in the former light, under the Stuarts in the latter. Under the Tudors, as S. R. Gardiner says, it was "a tribunal constantly resorted to as a resource against the ignorance or prejudices of a country jury," and adds that "in such investigations it showed itself intelligent and impartial." Under James I and Charles I all this was changed; the Star Chamber became the great engine of the royal tyranny. Hateful and excessive punishments were inflicted on those brought before the court, notable among whom were Prynne, Bastwick and Burton, and the odium which it gathered around it was one of the causes which led to the popular discontent against Charles I. As it became more unpopular its jurisdiction was occasionally questioned. An example of this kind occurred in 1629, but the barons of the Exchequer who heard the case declared that the Star Chamber was created many years before the statute of Henry VII and that it was "one of the most high and honourable courts of justice."

It was abolished by an act of parliament of July 1641. In 1661 a committee of the House of Lords reported "that it was fit for the good of the nation that there be a court of like nature to the Star Chamber"; but nothing further was done in the matter.




      Excerpted from:

      Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Ed. Vol XXV.
      Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910. 796.




Books for further study:

Guy, John A. Court of Star Chamber and Its Records of the Reign of Elizabeth.
            Unipub, 1984.

Hargrave, William. A Treatise on the Court of Star Chamber.
            Legal Classics Library, 1986.

Rawson, Samuel. Reports of Cases in the Courts of Star Chamber and High Commission.
            London: Camden Society, 1886.




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Owen Glendower
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Catherine of Valois
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Charles VII, King of France
Joan of Arc
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The Battle of Castillon, 1453



The Wars of the Roses 1455-1485
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The First Battle of St. Albans, 1455
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The Battle of Edgecote, 1469
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The Battle of Barnet, 1471
The Battle of Tewkesbury, 1471
The Treaty of Pecquigny, 1475
The Battle of Bosworth Field, 1485
The Battle of Stoke Field, 1487

Henry VI
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Elizabeth Woodville
Richard Woodville, 1. Earl Rivers
Anthony Woodville, 2. Earl Rivers
Jane Shore
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Ralph Neville, 2. Earl of Westmorland
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Sir Andrew Trollop
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Ralph, 4th Lord Cromwell
Jack Cade's Rebellion, 1450


Tudor Period

King Henry VII
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Lambert Simnel
Perkin Warbeck
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King Ferdinand II of Aragon
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Mary Tudor, Queen of France
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The Battle of the Spurs, 1513
Field of the Cloth of Gold, 1520
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
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The Siege of Boulogne, 1544

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey
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Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex
Thomas, Lord Audley
Thomas Wriothesley, E. Southampton
Sir Richard Rich

Edward Stafford, D. of Buckingham
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Thomas Grey, 2. Marquis of Dorset
Henry Grey, D. of Suffolk
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George Talbot, 4. E. Shrewsbury
Francis Talbot, 5. E. Shrewsbury
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William Paulet, Marquis of Winchester
Sir Francis Bryan
Sir Nicholas Carew
John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford
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Thomas Seymour, Lord Admiral
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Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury
Henry Pole, Lord Montague
Sir Geoffrey Pole
Thomas Manners, Earl of Rutland
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Henry Bourchier, 2. Earl of Essex
Robert Radcliffe, 1. Earl of Sussex
Henry Radcliffe, 2. Earl of Sussex
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Henry Courtenay, Marquis of Exeter
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Sir Anthony Browne
Sir Thomas Wriothesley
Sir William Kingston
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Sir Richard Southwell
Thomas Fiennes, 9th Lord Dacre
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Henry Norris
Lady Jane Grey
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Sir William Petre
Sir John Cheke
Walter Haddon, L.L.D
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John Taylor
Sir Thomas Wyatt, the Younger

Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio
Cardinal Reginald Pole
Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester
Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London
Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London
John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester
John Aylmer, Bishop of London
Thomas Linacre
William Grocyn
Archbishop William Warham
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Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester
Edward Fox, Bishop of Hereford

Pope Julius II
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Pico della Mirandola
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Martin Bucer
Richard Pace
Christopher Saint-German
Thomas Tallis
Elizabeth Barton, the Nun of Kent
Hans Holbein, the Younger
The Sweating Sickness

Dissolution of the Monasteries
Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536
Robert Aske
Anne Askew
Lord Thomas Darcy
Sir Robert Constable

Oath of Supremacy
The Act of Supremacy, 1534
The First Act of Succession, 1534
The Third Act of Succession, 1544
The Ten Articles, 1536
The Six Articles, 1539
The Second Statute of Repeal, 1555
The Act of Supremacy, 1559
Articles Touching Preachers, 1583

Queen Elizabeth I
William Cecil, Lord Burghley
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury
Sir Francis Walsingham
Sir Nicholas Bacon
Sir Thomas Bromley

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester
Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick
Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdon
Sir Thomas Egerton, Viscount Brackley
Sir Francis Knollys
Katherine "Kat" Ashley
Lettice Knollys, Countess of Leicester
George Talbot, 6. E. of Shrewsbury
Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury
Gilbert Talbot, 7. E. of Shrewsbury
Sir Henry Sidney
Sir Robert Sidney
Archbishop Matthew Parker
Walter Devereux, 1st Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich
Sir Christopher Hatton
Edward Courtenay, E. Devonshire
Edward Manners, 3rd Earl of Rutland
Thomas Radcliffe, 3. Earl of Sussex
Henry Radcliffe, 4. Earl of Sussex
Robert Radcliffe, 5. Earl of Sussex
William Parr, Marquis of Northampton
Henry Wriothesley, 2. Southampton
Henry Wriothesley, 3. Southampton
Charles Neville, 6. E. Westmorland
Thomas Percy, 7. E. Northumberland
Henry Percy, 8. E. Northumberland
Henry Percy, 9. E. Nothumberland
William Herbert, 1. Earl of Pembroke
Charles, Lord Howard of Effingham
Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk
Henry Howard, 1. Earl of Northampton
Thomas Howard, 1. Earl of Suffolk
Henry Hastings, 3. E. of Huntingdon
Edward Manners, 3rd Earl of Rutland
Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland
Francis Manners, 6th Earl of Rutland
Henry FitzAlan, 12. Earl of Arundel
Thomas, Earl Arundell of Wardour
Edward Somerset, E. of Worcester
William Davison
Sir Walter Mildmay
Sir Ralph Sadler
Sir Amyas Paulet
Gilbert Gifford
Anthony Browne, Viscount Montague
François, Duke of Alençon & Anjou

Mary, Queen of Scots
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley
James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell
Anthony Babington and the Babington Plot
John Knox

Philip II of Spain
The Spanish Armada, 1588
Sir Francis Drake
Sir John Hawkins

William Camden
Archbishop Whitgift
Martin Marprelate Controversy
John Penry (Martin Marprelate)
Richard Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury
John Dee, Alchemist

Philip Henslowe
Edward Alleyn
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The Isle of Dogs, 1597

Common Law
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Assize
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Livery and Maintenance
Oyer and terminer
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The Stuarts

King James I of England
Anne of Denmark
Henry, Prince of Wales
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George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset
Arabella Stuart, Lady Lennox

William Alabaster
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John Selden
Lucy Harington, Countess of Bedford
Henry Lawes

King Charles I
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Kentish Petition, 1642

Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford
John Digby, Earl of Bristol
George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax
Robert Devereux, 3rd E. of Essex
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Algernon Percy, E. of Northumberland
Henry Montagu, Earl of Manchester
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The Restoration

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The Cinque Ports
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"Sanctuary"


Images:

Chart of the English Succession from William I through Henry VII

Medieval English Drama

London c1480, MS Royal 16
London, 1510, the earliest view in print
Map of England from Saxton's Descriptio Angliae, 1579
London in late 16th century
Location Map of Elizabethan London
Plan of the Bankside, Southwark, in Shakespeare's time
Detail of Norden's Map of the Bankside, 1593
Bull and Bear Baiting Rings from the Agas Map (1569-1590, pub. 1631)
Sketch of the Swan Theatre, c. 1596
Westminster in the Seventeenth Century, by Hollar
Visscher's View of London, 1616
Larger Visscher's View in Sections
c. 1690. View of London Churches, after the Great Fire
The Yard of the Tabard Inn from Thornbury, Old and New London




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