STAR CHAMBER. A celebrated English tri bunal, which met in the council-chamber of the old palace of Westminster. The origin of the name is unknown. According to Sir Thomas Smith it was derived from a decoration of gilded stars on the ceiling. This theory is unsupported by evidence, but it is now well established that since the middle of Edward M.'s reign the star chamber (Camera Stellata) was the usual meet ing place of the King's Council, or Privy Council, as it was afterwards known. The history of the Star Chamber Court is particularly associated with the act of 3 Henry VII., c. I. By this statute the "chancellor and treasurer of England for the time being and keeper of the King's privy seal, or two of them, calling to them a bishop and a temporal lord of the King's most honorable Council and the two chief jus tices of the King's Bench and Common Pleas for the time being, or other two justices in their absence," are given jurisdiction in seven offenses: Unlawful maintenance; giving of liveries, signs, or tokens; retainers by indentures, oaths, writ ings, or otherwise; embracerics of the King's sub jects; untrue demeanings of sheriffs in the mak ing of panels, and other untrue returns; taking of money by juries; and great riots and unlawful assemblies. Since the days of Elizabeth it has been very commonly held that the historical Star Chamber was created by this act ; and that its proper jurisdiction was restricted to the offenses just enumerated. Recent research has shown that such was not the case. The Star Chamber pos sessed the entire jurisdiction of the King's Coun cil. During the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. neither the membership nor the jurisdic tion of the court conformed to the statute of 3 Henry VII., c. I, as usually interpreted. More over, the King's Council is seen performing the same functions as the court, whether sitting in the Camera Stellata or elsewhere; and, converse ly. the powers of the Star Chamber appear to be
equivalent, even in State matters, to those of the Council itself. The Star Chamber, in fact, claimed its vast jurisdiction on the ground that it was the King's Council. As a criminal court, it could inflict any punishment short of death, and had cognizance of all eases that might be brought under the head of contempt of the royal authority. Jurors were there punished for ver diets against the Crown. Offenders against the royal proclamations or the religious laws were there condemned. The form of proceeding was by written information and interrogatories, ex cept when the accused person confessed, in which case the information and proceedings were oral; and out of this exception grew one of the most flagrant abuses of this tribunal in the later period of its history. Regardless of the existing rule, that the confession' must be free and um-on strained, pressure of every kind, including tor ture, was used to procure acknowledgments of guilt ; admissions of the most immaterial facts were construed into confessions; and tine, impris onment, and mutilation were inflicted on a mere oral proceeding, without hearing the accused, by a court consisting of the immediate representa tives of prerogative. The proceedings of the Star Chamber had always been viewed with distrust by the commons; hut during the reign of Charles I. its excesses reached a height that made it ab solutely odious to the country at large; and in the last Parliament of that sovereign a bill was carried in both Houses (HI Car. I., e. JO) which decreed its abolition. See especially Burn, The Star Chamber (London, 1870).