Star Chamber Matters: An Early Modern Court and Its Records

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.