PREROGATIVE COURT

in English law, court through which the discretionary powers, privileges, and legal immunities reserved to the sovereign were exercised; such courts were originally formed during the period when the power of the sovereign was greater than that of Parliament. The royal prerogative is essentially the legitimate exercise of the sovereign's authority. Various powers have been considered part of it. The coining of money, the creation of peers, the calling and dissolution of Parliament, and the governing of the Church of England are all prerogatives still attached in form, though not in substance, to the monarch, but the power to legislate, tax, and deal with emergency situations has long belonged to Parliament. By the time of the Reformation, the prerogative powers of the crown had become considerable. Certain courts had developed out of the king's council to give, in effect, the king's relief in those cases in which the common-law courts had failed to provide adequate remedy or in those areas in which they did not deal. Those courts became permanent specialized institutions, such as Star Chamber (q.v.), which dealt with offenses against public order; High Commission (q.v.), which was set up to enforce the Reformation settlement; Requests (q.v.), a poor-man's court that handled small claims; and Chancery (q.v.), which was essentially a court of equity. All of these courts played an important role in carrying out royal authority. By the early 17th century, the prerogative courts had provoked considerable opposition from the common-law courts, which had lost a good deal of business to them and saw any further extension of their jurisdiction as a threat to the survival of common law. This opposition reached full height at the time when the parliamentary forces were enraged at Charles I's determination to govern without Parliament and at his use of the prerogative courts, particularly Star Chamber and High Commission, to enforce his religious and social policies. Consequently, all the prerogative courts, with the exception of Chancery, which had developed important procedures in the areas of trusts with which the common-law courts refused to deal, were either abolished by the Long Parliament or ceased to exist with the Restoration.