Star Chamber

This article deals with the English court; other meanings are Star Chamber (computer game) and the original title of A Judge Sees Red .

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

The Court of Star Chamber (lat. Camera stellata , dt. Star Chamber ) is an English court established by King Edward II (the first mention is found in 1398 as Sterred chambre ) and existed until 1641. The court was named after a room in which the Curia Regis met and the ceiling of which was probably decorated with gilded stars. The judgments of the Court of Star Chamber were final and the negotiations were secret.

Emergence

Members of the Star Chamber were royal councilors (members of the Privy Council ) and judges. The Court of Star Chamber was not bound by common law as it drew its powers directly from the absolute power of the king. The court fulfilled the function of a supreme court , for example when a prominent defendant had so much power that lower courts would not pronounce guilty verdicts. In addition, the court heard cases that were not covered by common law ( equity ), i.e. that did not constitute a violation of law in the strict sense of the word. However, this also gave the Star Chamber the ability to arbitrarily decide what, for example, Henry VII used as a means of controlling the nobility after the Wars of the Roses .

abuse

Under Henry VIII the court increasingly became an instrument of politics. So the submission of Wales after the union with England (1538-43) was promoted by expropriations of Welsh landowners in favor of English lords. Especially under Chancellor Thomas Wolsey (1515-1529) the number of cases that were heard in the Star Chamber grew. Wolsey even urged them to go direct to the Star Chamber without prior trial in lower courts.

Charles I used the Star Chamber instead of the parliament that he had dissolved between 1629 and 1640 to persecute his opponents, often Puritans .

In 1641 the Long Parliament abolished the Court of Star Chamber. The excesses of the court under Karl also played a role in the debate over his execution.

Remarks

1. ↑ Star-chamber, starred chamber. In: The Oxford English Dictionary. Volume 16: Soot - Styx. Second edition. Oxford University Press, 1989, ISBN 0-19-861228-1 .