Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/542

 534 STAR CHAMBER UNDER THE TUDORS October shadowed by her statesmen. So, too, the politicians were gradually drafted into a privy council, from which the two chief justices were as a rule excluded, while they remained an integral part of the council in the star chamber. The major part of the history of the council under the Tudors is bound up with the growing specialization of functions between the executive and the judi- cature. We have already traced that specialization so far as it is reflected in the elaboration of distinct clerkships for the council in the star chamber and the privy council ; l and the subsequent history of the clerkship of the council in the star chamber can be briefly indicated in a list of names. 2 But it is necessary to say something about the position and personnel of the old council in the star chamber after its political importance had departed to the privy council. Traditionally and technically the clerk of the star chamber remained the senior clerk of the council, and the council in the star chamber was the superior council. Burghley is even quoted by Mill 3 as saying openly in the star chamber that ' the same court was the councell of state of this Realme and the clerke thereof the onely clerke of the Councell of State and that there was noe other clerke of the Queenes Councell of State. . . and that the others were clerkes of the Privy Councell attendant upon her Ma ties Royall person '. Hawarde also quotes Burghley as saying that the star chamber was ' a court of state ', 4 and Hudson slightingly contrasts this public court with the private board of the privy council. 5 He speaks of Above, pp. 345-51. The precedence of the clerk of the star chamber as ' the first clerk of the council in place ' was, according to Hudson (Collectanea luridica, ii. 37) definitely established by the heralds in 1588. 2 T. Marsh succeeded T. Eden in 9 Elizabeth and was succeeded by W. Mill in 1572-3. Mill died on 16 July 1608, when F. Bacon succeeded but exercised his func- tions by a deputy, Edward Jones (Hawarde, Reports, p. 369). A part reversion had already been granted on 26 November 1607 and confirmed on 17 July 1609 to (Sir) Humphrey May (Col. of State Papers, Dom., 1603-10, pp. 384, 530) ; and Hudson (p. 39) says that ' now [1621 ?] May and Mr. Morley hold it jointly and execute the same by deputy'. Possibly this was Isaac Cotton, who dedicates his excellent account of the star chamber to Sir Humphrey May and his brother Thomas, probably the father of the poet and historian of the long parliament. Cotton's treatise is extant in two Brit. Mus. manuscripts, Stowe 418 and Lansdowne 639. The former is the better and dates from 1618 ; the latter dates from 1622, and is used by Bruce in Archaeologia, xxv. 379. Other subordinate clerks whose names are mentioned are George Christopher, Thomas Mynat, Henry Parker, and Hudson himself (Scofield, pp. iv n., xiv, xviii, 14, 63 n., 67 n., 82 ; Egerton Papers (Camden Soc.), pp. 427-8 ; Bridgewater MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), p. 165; Lambarde, Archeion, pp. 192-3; Hudson, pp. 2, 39; Hawarde's Reports, pp. 1, 2, 38, 63, 94). 8 Scofield, p. 62. The distinction between ' our Privie Councell ' and ' our counsell of estate ' was as old as Edward VI's reign (Lit. Remains of Edward VI, p. 499 ; Egerton Papers, p. 24). Elizabeth also styles Mill ' clerk of our counceill ' and ' our chief clarke ' (Egerton Papers, pp. 316-17). 4 Ed. Baildon, p. 15 ; cf. Nicolas, iv. 63 ; Hudson, pp. 4-5, 10, 50.
 * Collectanea luridica, ii. 62.