The Star Chamber became a tool of Charles I employed against his enemies, and was abolished (Habeas Corpus Act 1640) by parliament.
The term also applied to one of the English provincial courts of Canterbury and York having jurisdiction over the estates of deceased persons.
They had jurisdiction to grant probate or administration where the diocesan courts could not entertain the case owing to the deceased having died possessed of goods above a set value in each of two or more dioceses.
While wills might also be proven at York, Canterbury's jurisdiction covered Southern England (including London) and Wales.
The same term was used to describe the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Armagh, latterly established at Henrietta Street, in Dublin, which proved the wills of testators dying with assets of value greater than £5 ("bona notabilia") in at least two Irish dioceses.