The wish expressed by the Whigs, that a member of the electoral family should be invited to England, had already aroused the queen's indignation in 1708; and now, in 1714, a writ of summons for the electoral prince as duke of Cambridge having been obtained, Anne forbade the Hanoverian envoy, Baron Schutz, her presence, and declared all who supported the project her enemies; while to a memorial on the same subject from the electress Sophia and her grandson in May, Anne replied in an angry letter, which is said to have caused the death of the electress on the 8th of June, requesting them not to trouble the peace of her realm or diminish her authority.
It is a legal writ, a legal form.
The court of king's bench has also issued the writ to the king's foreign dominions beyond seas, e.g.
In Australasia and Canada and in most if not all the British possessions whose law is based on the common law, the power to issue and enforce the writ is possessed and is freely exercised by colonial courts, under the charters or statutes creating and regulating the courts.
The writ is freely resorted to in Canada, and in 1905, 1906, two appeals came to the privy council from the dominion, one with reference to an extradition case, the other with respect to the right to expel aliens.