ABSTRACT
House of Lords judicature came of age in the early 1640s. The accomplishments of the 1620s, however important and impressive, had been largely developmental. The High Court of Parliament had been successfully revived, but the evolution had proceeded in piecemeal fashion, from Parliament to Parliament, from session to session and, indeed, from case to case, as the Lords responded, essentially on an ad hoc basis, to the multifarious demands of their clientele. By the close of the decade their jurisdiction had been firmly established and the procedural mechanisms were in place to ensure the provision of effective remedy. What was missing was a clearer sense of direction and purpose.
