Star Chamber had increasingly excited the animosity and jealousy of the common law lawyers, particularly Edward Coke, its erstwhile defender, who now questioned the very legality of its jurisdiction. Chancery, and other equitable courts, were coming to be viewed as creating a separate system of justice rivalling the common law. Coke and others invoked and developed remedies to frustrate what they considered to be an abuse of the prerogative.

First among these remedies was habeas corpus, a judicial writ originating in the king's prerogative and having all the authority accorded a royal command. Its original purpose was to secure the presence in court of individuals in custody. This was transformed into a strong defence against authoritarianism. Already in the fifteenth century the writ of Corpus cum Causa, a species of habeas corpus originally pioneered by Chancery to secure review of inferior jurisdictions, had been used to challenge detention by ‘special command of the king’ or by the lord of the manor. Under the Tudors the King's Bench developed the writ so that any free person was entitled, if detained other than after criminal conviction or for civil debt, to demand from the court a writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum directed to the keeper of the prison, hospital or place of private detention, commanding the keeper to bring up the body [corpus] of the detained person along with the cause of his incarceration. The judge would determine if the detention was justified. If it was, the court would remand the prisoner back to detention, but, if it was not, grant bail or release.

The writ came into general use to question detention, even if authorised by such powers in the land as Cardinal Wolsey or the king's council. In 1588 Howell's Case came before the King's Bench. Howell had been arrested on a warrant signed by the Secretary of State, Francis Walsingham.