ABSTRACT

The ubiquity of the law required an elaborate regime of courts and procedures to support it. The king’s courts included the Star Chamber, founded upon the royal prerogative and endowed with sweeping powers; Chancery, whose task it was to apply the rules of equity, modifying the rigour of the common law as it was administered in King’s (or Queen’s) Bench and the Court of Common Pleas. The Court of Exchequer dealt with matters involving the king’s revenue. Most of their business was civil, and revolved around the perennial bones of contention: land, inheritance, and contract. Criminal matters also came before the central courts, but most of the case-load involving serious crimes came before the justices when they rode circuit to the Assizes, held regularly throughout the provinces.