Writ

In common law, a writ is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction, in modern usage generally a court; warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas and certiorari are common types of writs, though many other forms exist and have existed. In its earliest form a writ was simply a written order made by the English monarch to a specified person to undertake a specified action, such as, in the feudal era, a military summons by the king to one of his tenants-in-chief to appear dressed for battle with retinue at a specific place and time. An early usage survives in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and some other Commonwealth countries in a writ of election, a written order issued on behalf of the monarch to local officials to hold a general election, and medieval English kings also used writs to summon influential people to Parliament, who were thereby deemed to have been created barons by writ. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/