Overview

An extraordinary court with late medieval roots in the activities of the king’s council, Star Chamber came into its own over the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, before being abolished in 1641 by members of parliament for what they deemed egregious abuses of royal power. Before its demise, the court heard a wide range of disputes in cases framed as fraud, libel, riot, and more. In so doing, it produced records of a sort that make its archive invaluable to many researchers today for insights into both the ordinary and extraordinary. The chapters gathered here explore what we can learn about the history of an age through both the practices of its courts and the disputes of the people who came before them. With Star Chamber, we view a court that came of age in an era of social, legal, religious, and political transformation, and one that left an exceptional wealth of documentation that will repay further study.

Full Product Details

Author:   K. J. Kesselring ,  Natalie Mears
Publisher:   University of London
Imprint:   University of London Press
ISBN:  

9781912702893

ISBN 10:   1912702894
Pages:   232
Publication Date:   08 October 2021
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Star Chamber matters K. J. Kesselring with Natalie Mears 2. The records of the court of Star Chamber at the National Archives and elsewhere Daniel Gosling 3. Reading ravishment: gender and ‘will’ power in early Tudor Star Chamber, 1500–50 Deborah Youngs 4. Sir Edward Coke and the Star Chamber: the prosecution of rapes at Snargate, 1598–1602 Louis A. Knafla 5. ‘By reason of her sex and widowhood’: an early modern Welsh gentlewoman in the court of Star Chamber Sadie Jarrett 6. Consent and coercion, force and fraud: marriages in Star Chamber K. J. Kesselring 7. Labourers, legal aid and the limits of popular legalism in Star Chamber Hillary Taylor 8. Jacobean Star Chamber records and the performance of provincial libel Clare Egan 9. A marine insurance fraud in the Star Chamber Emily Kadens 10. Star Chamber and the bullion trade, 1618–20 Simon Healy 11. Contemporary knowledge of the Star Chamber and the court’s abolition Ian Williams

Reviews

Star Chamber Matters will surely serve as an introductory text for the increasing number of graduate students working on petitioning and justice in early modern England and beyond … For those more well versed in law courts and their records, the contributions are thought-provoking too: on the machinations behind litigation, popular knowledge of the law and its processes, and how historians approach truth and fiction in the archives -- Laura Flannigan * Journal of British Studies *

Author Information

Natalie Mears is associate professor in early modern British history at Durham University. Krista Kesselring is a professor of early modern British history, gender, and the law at Dalhousie University, Canada.

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