Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/527

 1922 STAR CHAMBER UNDER THE TUDORS 519 that place that it may be well to illustrate some of the other functions there discharged. It was in the star chamber that on the day after the end of each term a full .assembly of councillors, judges, justices of the peace, and others was held and addressed by the lord chancellor, sometimes by the sovereign. 1 The usual topic was an exhortation about the administration of justice and maintenance of law ; but any other might be introduced, sometimes in Elizabeth's reign ' such things as herself, if tym had permitted, meant to have uttered in parliament ', 2 the state of Ireland, Essex' rebellion, 3 ' the peace of her Church ', and the assessment of taxation ; 4 and Wolsey and James I were as assiduous and as versatile but not so happy as Elizabeth in these star chamber addresses. 5 In the star chamber, too, was taken every half-year the assay of the mint or trial of the pyx, after its removal from the Tower. 6 The cases of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard were considered in the star chamber, although they were necessarily tried elsewhere. 7 The Scottish prisoners taken at Solway Moss were brought before the star chamber ; 8 musters were returned thither ; 9 measures of wine were tested there, 10 and orders issued to regulate municipal government. 11 The star chamber was in fact the room in which most decrees and orders in council were adopted, and it is mistaking the accident for the essence to describe Mary's and Elizabeth's measures regu- lating the printing press as star chamber decrees instead of orders in council. In the star chamber, too, Henry VIII discussed Tyndale and Joy's translation of the bible on 25 May 1530 : there in 1538 English bibles were ordered for use ; 12 and a special court was set up under the statute of Proclamations, with Cranmer at its head instead of the lord chancellor, to deal in the star chamber with 1 Henry VIII preferred to address parliament, James I and Charles I the star chamber. 2 Wilbraham, Journal (Camden Soc. Miscell., 3rd ser., vol. x), p. 12. 3 Ibid. pp. 30-2. 4 Hawarde, ed. Baildon, pp. 101-2. 5 Hall, Chron., pp. 644, 742 ; James I, Political Works, ed. Mcllwain, pp. 326-45 ; Scofield, pp. 57-9. 6 It was held in 1526 at the Tower (Letters and Papers, iv. 2338), but in 1527 and afterwards in the star chamber (ibid. iv. 3590, 6395 ; vn. 1332 ; xi. 45 ; xn. i. 1150 ; Egerton Papers (Camden Soc.), pp. 186-8 ; Hawarde, p. 38). 7 Letters and Papers, x. 792, xvi. 133. The jurisdiction of the star chamber did not extend to treason or felony, unless the Crown was content to treat the case as a ' trespass ' and not a capital charge (Hudson, ii. 63) ; ' trespass ' was still used where we should say ' misdemeanour ' (cf. Maitland, Lectures, p. 230). In 1533, however, a parliamentary bill was drafted, but went no further, to give the star chamber jurisdiction over murders in Wales and its marches (Letters and Papers, vi. 1381 [3]). 8 Letters and Papers, xvii. 1223 ; Wriothesley, Chron. i. 152-3. 8 Letters and Papers, iii. 3683 [7]. ia Ibid. ii. 3972. 11 e. g. Beverley in 1535 (Letters and Papers, ix. 902). 18 Hall, Chron. p. 771 ; Wriothesley, Chron. i. 74.