Editing Star Chamber (section)

== History ==
{{More citations needed section|date=April 2021}}

===Plantagenets and Tudors{{anchor|Star Chamber Act 1487}}===
[[File:Royal_Charity_Performance.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|A document of 1504 showing [[Henry VII of England|King Henry VII]] sitting in the Star Chamber and receiving [[William Warham]], Archbishop of Canterbury, [[Richard Foxe]], Bishop of Winchester, and clerics associated with [[Westminster Abbey]] and [[Old St Paul's Cathedral|St Paul's Cathedral]], as well as the Mayor of London]]
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Star Chamber Act 1487
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of England
| long_title            = An Acte geving the Court of Starchamber Authority to punnyshe dyvers Mydemeanors.
| year                  = 1487
| citation              = [[3 Hen. 7]]. c. 1
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 10 August 1872
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = [[Statute Law Revision (Ireland) Act 1872]]
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = Repealed
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = 
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = 
}}

The Court evolved from meetings of the [[King's Council]], with its roots going back to the medieval period. The so-called "Star Chamber Act" of King [[Henry VII of England|Henry VII]]'s second Parliament (1487) did not actually empower the Star Chamber, but rather created a separate tribunal distinct from the King's general Council.<ref>S.B. Chrimes, Henry VII, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972: p. 99.</ref>

Initially well-regarded because of its speed and flexibility, the Star Chamber was regarded as one of the most just and efficient courts of the Tudor era. [[Sir Edward Coke]] described the Star Chamber as "The most honourable court (Our Parliament excepted) that is in the Christian world. Both in respect of the judges in the court and its honourable proceeding."<ref>Edward P. Cheyney. The Court of Star Chamber. ''The American Historical Review'', Vol. 18, No. 4 (Jul., 1913), p. 745</ref>

The Star Chamber was made up of [[Privy Council of England|Privy Counsellors]], as well as [[Common law|common-law]] judges, and it supplemented the activities of the common-law and [[Court of Equity|equity courts]] in both [[Civil law (common law)|civil]] and [[Criminal justice|criminal]] matters. In a sense, the court was a court of appeal, a supervisory body, overseeing the operation of the lower courts, although it could hear cases by [[Appellate court|direct appeal]] as well. The court was set up to ensure the fair enforcement of laws against the English [[upper class]], those so powerful that ordinary courts could never convict them of their crimes. Despite its subsequent reputation, it followed elaborate procedures and innovated in allowing defendants the right to counsel and to call witnesses.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Barnes |first1=Thomas G. |title=Star Chamber Mythology |journal=The American Journal of Legal History |date=1961 |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=1–11 |doi=10.2307/844462 |jstor=844462 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/844462 |issn=0002-9319}}</ref>{{rp|9}}

Another function of the Court of Star Chamber was to act like a court of [[Equity (law)|equity]], which could impose punishment for actions that were deemed to be morally reprehensible, but were not in violation of the [[letter of the law]]. This gave the Star Chamber great flexibility, as it could punish defendants for any action that the court felt should be unlawful, even though it was technically lawful.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}}

However, this meant that the justice meted out by the Star Chamber could be very [[Arbitrariness|arbitrary]] and subjective, and it enabled the court to be used later on in its history as an instrument of [[oppression]] rather than for the purpose of [[justice]] for which it was intended.{{Citation needed|date=February 2025}} Many crimes that are now commonly prosecuted, such as [[attempt]], [[Criminal conspiracy|conspiracy]], [[criminal libel]], and [[perjury]], were originally developed by the Court of Star Chamber,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Harno|first=Albert|date=March 1941|title=Intent in Criminal Conspiracy|url=https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=9137&context=penn_law_review|journal=University of Pennsylvania Law Review|volume=89|issue=5|pages=624–47|doi=10.2307/3309198|jstor=3309198|s2cid=152286544 |via=Penn Law Legal Scholarship Repository}}</ref> along with its more common role of dealing with misdemeanours,<ref name=pollard />{{rp|527}} and, later, [[riot]]s and [[sedition]]. Capital felonies and capital treason were not in its jurisdiction,<ref name=pollard />{{rp|519}} it was not authorized to torture,<ref name=barnes />{{rp|8}} and it could not impose the death sentence.<ref name=maitland>{{cite book|last=Maitland|first=Frederic William|title=The Constitutional History of England: A Course of Lectures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=211LvgAACAAJ|year=1911|publisher=University Press|location=Cambridge}}</ref>{{rp|262–263}} <ref> {{cite web |last1=Snell |first1=Melissa |title=English Court of Star Chamber: A Brief History. |url = https://www.thoughtco.com/court-of-star-chamber-1789073 |website=[[ThoughtCo]] |access-date=16 October 2023}}</ref>

The cases decided in those sessions enabled both the very powerful and those without power to seek redress. Thus, King Henry VII used the power of the Star Chamber to break the power of the landed gentry, which had been such a cause of problems in the [[Wars of the Roses]]. Yet, when local courts were often clogged or mismanaged, the Court of Star Chamber also became a means of appeal for the common people against the excesses of the [[nobility]].

In the time of Henry VII, the privy counsellors not attending the King at the time might sit in the star chamber.<ref name=pollard />{{rp|531}} 

In the reign of [[Henry VIII of England|King Henry VIII]], the court was under the successive leaderships of [[Thomas Wolsey|Cardinal Wolsey]] (the [[Archbishop of York]] and [[Lord Chancellor]]), perhaps the King himself<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pollard |first1=A. F. |title=Council, Star Chamber, and Privy Council under the Tudors: I. The Council |journal=The English Historical Review |date=1922 |volume=37 |issue=147 |pages=337–360 |doi=10.1093/ehr/XXXVII.CXLVII.337 |jstor=551704 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/551704 |issn=0013-8266}}</ref> and [[Thomas Cranmer]] (the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]). From this time forward, the Court of Star Chamber became a political weapon for bringing actions against those who opposed the policies of King Henry VIII, his ministers and his parliament.

Although it was initially a [[Appellate jurisdiction|court of appeal]], King Henry, Wolsey and Cranmer encouraged [[plaintiff]]s to bring their cases directly to the Star Chamber, bypassing the lower courts entirely.

The Court was used extensively to control [[Wales]], after the [[Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542|Laws in Wales Acts]] (sometimes referred to as the "Acts of Union"). The Tudor-era gentry in Wales turned to the Chamber to evict Welsh landowners, to protect themselves, and in general, to protect the advantages given to them by the Laws in Wales Acts.

One of the weapons of the Star Chamber was the [[Ex officio oath|''ex officio'' oath]] where, because of their positions, individuals were forced to swear to answer truthfully all questions that might be asked. Faced with hostile questioning, this then gave them the "cruel trilemma" of having to [[Self-incrimination|incriminate themselves]], face charges of [[perjury]] if they gave unsatisfactory answers to their accusers, or be held in [[contempt of court]] if they gave no answer.

===Stuarts===
{{anchor|Under the Stuarts}}

The power of the Court of Star Chamber grew considerably under the [[House of Stuart]], and by the time of [[Charles I of England|King Charles I]], it had become synonymous with misuse and abuse of power by the King and his circle. {{cn span|[[James I of England|King James I]]|reason=Article does not discuss him further|date=March 2023}} and his son Charles used the court to examine cases of sedition, which meant that the court could be used to suppress opposition to royal policies. It came to be used to try nobles too powerful to be brought to trial in the lower courts.

King Charles I used the Court of Star Chamber as a Parliamentary substitute during the eleven years of [[Personal Rule]], when he ruled without a Parliament. King Charles made extensive use of the Court of Star Chamber to prosecute dissenters, including the [[Puritan]]s who fled to [[New England]]. This was one of the causes of the [[English Civil War]].

On 17 October 1632, the Court of Star Chamber banned all "news books" because of complaints from Spanish and Austrian diplomats that coverage of the [[Thirty Years' War]] in England was unfair.<ref>Trevor-Roper, Hugh ''Archbishop Laud'' Phoenix Press reissue 2000 pp.254–257</ref> As a result, newsbooks pertaining to this matter were often printed in [[Amsterdam]] and then smuggled into the country, until control of the press collapsed with the developing ideological conflict of 1640–41.<ref>Raymond, Joad ''Pamphlets and Pamphleteering in Early Modern Britain'' Cambridge University Press, 2003</ref>

The Star Chamber became notorious for judgments favourable to the king, for example when [[Archbishop Laud]] had [[William Prynne]] branded on both cheeks through its agency in 1637 for [[seditious libel]].<ref>Trevor-Roper, Hugh ''Archbishop Laud'' Phoenix Press reissue 2000 pp. 317–324</ref>

In 1571, [[Elizabeth I]] set up an equivalent Court in Ireland, the [[Court of Castle Chamber]], to deal with cases of riot and offences against public order. Although it was initially popular with private litigants, under the Stuarts it developed the same reputation for harsh and arbitrary proceedings as its parent court, and during the political confusion of the 1640s, it disappeared.<ref>Crawford, Jon G. ''A Star Chamber Court in Ireland – the Court of Castle Chamber 1571–1641'' Four Courts Press Dublin 2005</ref>

In the early 1900s, [[Edgar Lee Masters]] commented:<ref name="Masters1904">{{cite book|author=Edgar Lee Masters|title=''The new star chamber: and other essays''|url=https://archive.org/details/newstarchambera00mastgoog|year=1904|publisher=The Hammersmark Publishing Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/newstarchambera00mastgoog/page/n16 12]}}</ref>

{{blockquote|In the Star Chamber the council could inflict any punishment short of death, and frequently sentenced objects of its wrath to the [[pillory]], to [[Flagellation|whipping]] and to the [[mutilation|cutting off of ears]]. ... With each embarrassment to arbitrary power the Star Chamber became emboldened to undertake further usurpation. ... The Star Chamber finally summoned [[jury|juries]] before it for verdicts disagreeable to the government, and fined and imprisoned them. It spread [[fear|terrorism]] among those who were called to do constitutional acts. It imposed ruinous fines. It became the chief defence of Charles against assaults upon those usurpations which cost him his life.}}

===Abolition and aftermath===
In 1641, the [[Long Parliament]], led by [[John Pym]] and inflamed by the severe treatment of [[John Lilburne]], as well as that of other religious dissenters such as [[William Prynne]], [[Alexander Leighton]], [[John Bastwick]] and [[Henry Burton (Puritan)|Henry Burton]], abolished the Star Chamber with the [[Habeas Corpus Act 1640]].

The gruesome punishments that the Star Chamber had imposed were not forgotten, and were revived by [[James II of England|King James II]],<ref>Ashley, 206–209; Harris, 329–348</ref> prompting an article in the [[Bill of Rights 1689|Bill of Rights of 1688]] "That excessive Baile ought not to be required nor excessive Fines imposed nor cruell and unusuall Punishments inflicted".<ref>[https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/WillandMarSess2/1/2/data.pdf The Bill of Rights] on legislation.gov.uk</ref>

[[File:Old and new London - a narrative of its history, its people, and its places (1873) (14598096217).jpg|thumb|300px|Engraving of the Star Chamber, published in "Old and new London" in 1873, taken from a drawing made in 1836]]
The Chamber itself stood until its demolition in 1806 (or 1834 or early in 1836), when its materials were salvaged.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Besant |first=Sir Walter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D68uAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA71 |title=Westminster |date=1895 |publisher=Frederick A. Stokes Company |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Rodwell |first1=Warwick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0C_gDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT330 |title=Westminster Part II: The Art, Architecture and Archaeology of the Royal Palace |last2=Tatton-Brown |first2=Tim |date=2020-04-27 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-24800-2 |language=en}}</ref> The door was reused in the nearby [[Westminster School]] until it was destroyed in [[the Blitz]], and the historic Star Chamber ceiling, with its bright gold stars, was brought to [[Leasowe Castle]] on the [[Wirral Peninsula]] in [[Cheshire]] from the Court of Westminster, along with four tapestries depicting the four seasons.