The precise origins of the Court of Requests are unknown. Spence traces it back to the reign of Richard II, Leadam, refuting Spence, claims there is no official record of the court's existence before 1493, Pollard writes (based on documents discovered after Leadam's work) that it was in existence from at least 1465, while Alexander writes that it first appeared during the reign of the House of York, and Kleineke states that it was created in 1485 by Richard III. Whatever its origin, the court was created as part of the Privy Council, following an order by the Lord Privy Seal that complaints and cases brought to the council by the poor should be expedited. This was as part of the Privy Council; it first became an independent tribunal with some Privy Council elements under Henry VII, with jurisdiction mainly over matters of equity. The court became increasingly popular due to the lack of cost in bringing a case to it and the speed at which it processed them, in contrast with the slow and expensive common law courts, arousing the ire of common law lawyers and judges.