305 



COKAINE, SIR ASTON. 



COKE, EDWARD. 



803 



the colours have been mixed there is no apparent difference, and, 

 as already stated, that they are by Wilhelm von Coin is a mere 

 conjecture. 



There is no other record of STEPHAN VON COLX, the Dom-bild 

 Meister, than a note in the journal 'Tagebuch' of Albrecht Diirer, 

 which attributes this celebrated picture to him. It was painted in 

 1410, and is the most valuable picture of the old school of Cologne. 

 It consists of a centre and two revolving wings, painted on both sides. 

 The outside of the wings represents the Annunciation ; the centre 

 represents the Adoration of the Three Kings ; and on the interior of 

 the wings are patrons of Cologne, St. Gereon and St. Ursula, with 

 their companions in martyrdom. There are three other works of this 

 school, which from their similarity of style are attributed to this 

 master : the altarpiece formerly in the Benedictine Abbey of Heister- 

 bach, near Bonn, now existing only in parts; the altarpiece formerly 

 in the church of St. Lawrence, at Cologne, likewise divided into parts 

 and scattered ; and a picture of the Madonna and Child, with Angels, 

 in a private collection at Cologne. 



(Fiorillo, Geichichte der Zeichnenden Jf unite in Deutschland, &c. ; 

 Passavant, Altkolnische Malerschule, in his ' Kunstreise durch 

 England und Belgien ; ' Dillis, VerzeicJinits der Gemalde in der Konig- 

 lichen Pinalcothek zu. Aliinchm.) 



COKAINE, or COKAYN, SIR ASTON, was born in 1608, at the 

 country-seat of his father, a Derbyshire esquire of old lineage and con- 

 siderable property. After having been educated at both universities', 

 he was entered for form's sake in the inns of court, and travelled on 

 the Continent. He was a Roman Catholic and royaliat ; and both of 

 these characters exposed him to much suffering iu the civil war. In 

 the latter part of his life he was obliged to part with his estates, 

 reserving a email annuity for his support. He died at Derby in 1684. 

 He published four plays, which, with other poems, were collected, in 

 1669, in two volumes, small octavo, now very rare. The plays and 

 the poems are equally worthless ; but Sir Aston' s name deserves some 

 notice for his close intimacy with the dramatic poets of his time, and 

 for the information furnished, in regard to the history of the drama, 

 by those commendatory verses which make up a large proportion of 

 his compositions. It has been jn-tly regretted that he did not set 

 down in distinct prose the facts of which he was in possession, instead 

 of hiiitiog at them briefly and obscurely in snatches of wretched 

 doggrel. 



COKE, EDWARD, was born at Mileham, in the county of Norfolk, 

 on the 1st of February, 1551-52. He was the only son of Robert 

 Coke of Hileham, and Winifred, daughter and one of the heirs of 

 William Knightley, of Morgrave-Knightley, in the same county. His 

 father, who wag a bencher of Lincoln's Inn, died in the year 1561, 

 when Edward Coke was ten years old. Before that event he had been 

 sent to the free grammar-school at Norwich, whence in September 

 1567 he removed to Cambridge, and was admitted as a fellow commoner 

 at Trinity College. After having spent three years at the university, 

 he went to London to commence his legal education. According to 

 the practice of that time, he took the first step of his legal course by 

 becoming a member of Clifford's Inn, a house of Chancery, or inferior 

 inn, dependent upon the Inner Temple, and was admitted into the 

 latt<-r society April 24, 1572. On the 20th of April 1578 he was 

 called to the bar. During the continuance of his studies in the Inner 

 Temple he is said to have greatly distinguished himself in the exercises 

 called Mootings and Readings, which constituted a necessary part of 

 the education of an advocate in former times, and which excited a 

 great degree of interest and emulation among the members of the 

 societies called Inns of Court and Chancery. 



In the course of the year after his call to the bar, the society of the 

 Inner Temple appointed him reader at Lyon's Inn ; and the intelli- 

 gence and learning displayed by him in the conduct of the exercises at 

 which he presided in this capacity raised for him a high reputation 

 aa a lawyer, and opened the way to that extensive practice at the bar 

 which he acquired with a degree of rapidity almost without a paralUl 

 in the history of the profession. Lloyd, in his ' SUte Worthies,' says 

 that " his learned lecture so spread forth his fame that crowds of 

 clients sued to him for his counsel" In the next term after he was 

 called to the bar he argued a case of much nicety and importance, 

 known to lawyers by the name of Lord Cromwell's Case, which he says, 

 in his own report of it (4 Rep. 146), " was the first cause that he moved 

 in the King's Bench." About three years afterwards he was associated 

 with Popham, the solicitor-general, in arguing before the chancellor 

 and the twelve judges in the case of Edward Shelley, where the 

 important rule in the law of real property, which has since become 

 celebrated as the ' Rule in Shelley's Case,' was laid down so distinctly 

 that it has taken its name from this case, though the rule itself is of 

 much higher antiquity. From that period until he became solicitor- 

 general hU practice was enormous : it appears from the reports of 

 that time that there was scarcely a single motion or argument before 

 the court of King's Bench in which he was not engaged. Professional 

 honours were the consequence of this large business in the courts : in 

 he was chosen recorder of Norwich, and for years afterwards 

 was called to the bench of the Inner Temple. In January 1591-92 the 

 corporation of London having with much difficulty and at the expense 

 of an annuity of 100?. procured the resignation of Serjeant Fleetwood, 

 unanimously elected Coke their recorder ; but he resigned that office 



in June 1592, on being appointed solicitor-general. In the same 

 summer he became reader of the Inner Temple, and had delivered 

 several readings on the Statute of Uses to a large audience, consisting 

 of not less than 160 members of the society, when the appearance of 

 the plague compelled him to leave London abruptly for his house at 

 Huntingfield in Suffolk. Such was the honour and respect in which 

 he was held by the profession, that on this occasion, as he records in 

 his ' Notes,' he was accompanied on his journey aa far as Romford by 

 a procession composed of nine benchers and forty other members of 

 the Inner Temple. In March 1591 he was appointed attorney-general, 

 and as the office of solicitor-general continued vacant until the close of 

 the following year, the duties and labours of both offices during that 

 interval devolved upon him. 



At this period originated the animosity between Coke and Bacou 

 which prevailed with little intermission during the life of the latter. 

 As soon as the office of attorney-general became vacant, upon the 

 removal of Sir Thomas Egerton to the seals, the Earl of Essex used 

 his most strenuous efforts to induce the queen to bestow that place 

 upon Bacon, instead of promoting Sir Edward Coke from the inferior 

 office of solicitor-general. The letters of Bacon to Essex and others, 

 with relation to this intrigue, abound with sarcastic and contemptuous 

 expressions respecting Coke, whose high reputation and great experience 

 seemed to point him out as a fitter man for the office than his rival, 

 whose practice at the bar was never extensive, and who was then 

 scarcely known in the courts. The state services imposed upon the attor- 

 ney-general at the end of Elizabeth's reign were extremely laborious. 

 The severity of the laws recently introduced against Roman Cattiolics 

 had occasioned a succession of plots by foreign adventurers against 

 the person of the queen, the investigation of which was necessarily 

 committed to the attorney-general The treasons of Lopez, of Patrick 

 Cullen, of Williams and Yorke, and numerous others of inferior 

 moment, occurred about this period; and the business of constant 

 examination at the Tower, added to his Star-Chamber duties and his 

 undiminished practice in the common-law courts, must have imposed 

 a weight of labour and responsibility upon Coke which no mind of 

 common activity and energy could have undergone. Whole volumes 

 of examinations iu these cases, taken by himself and written with his 

 own hand, which are still preserved at the State Paper Office, sufficiently 

 attest his zeal and assiduity in the service. In February 1593 Coke, 

 bring at that time solicitor-general, was elected without solicitation 

 on Ms part, and without opposition, a member of parliament for his 

 native county of Norfolk. At the meeting of this parliament he was 

 chosen Speaker of the House of Commons. 



In the year 1582 Coke married the daughter and heiress of John 

 Paston, Esq., of Huntingfield in Suffolk, through whom he became 

 connected with several families of great opulence and importance, and 

 with whom he received a fortune of 30,000^. By this lady he had ten 

 children. She died in June 1598. In the mouth of November in the 

 same year Coke contracted a second marriage with the widow of Sir 

 William Hatton, daughter of Thomas Lord Burleigh, and grand-daughter 

 of the lord high treasurer, which, though an advantageous alliance iu 

 point of connection and property, was by no means a source of domestic 

 happiness. The marriage itself involved all the parties concerned in 

 it in considerable embarrassment; for having taken place without 

 licence or banns, Coke and his lady, together with tho clergyman, 

 Lord Burleigh, and all who were present at the ceremony, were cited 

 to appear in the Archbishop's Court ; and it was only in consequence 

 of their making a full submission, and pleading their ignorance of the 

 law (a singular excuse in Coke's mouth), that they escaped the sentence 

 and penalties of excommunication. 



Sir Edward Coke held the office of attorney-general until the death 

 of Queen Elizabeth ; and having always been favourable to the title 

 of James I., co-operated cordially with Cecil and the other members 

 of the late queen's council in making the necessary arrangements for 

 the peaceable accession of the king of Scotland to the crown. James 

 upon his arrival in London received him into his full confidence and 

 favour, and continued him in his office of attorney-general. 



Coke's sound judgment and extensive legal knowledge, united with 

 his fervent attachment to Protestantism, rendered him a serviceable 

 officer of the crown in the various proceedings against the Roman 

 Catholics at the close of Elizabeth's reign and the beginning of that of 

 James I. In the examinations respecting the several assassination- 

 treasons, which have been already mentioned, as well as that of Squire 

 in 1598, of the Raleigh conspiracy in 1603, of the Gunpowder Plot in 

 1605, and of numerous other treasonable and seditious movements 

 imputed to the Catholics during the period that he filled the office of 

 attorney-general, he engaged with a zeal and ardour far beyond mere 

 professional excitement; and the temper displayed iu his speeches 

 and general conduct on the several trials is much more that of a 

 religious patisan than of a legal advocate. It is common with Roman 

 Catholic writers to attribute to him the utmost barbarity in the use of 

 the rack and the general treatment of prisoners under examination. 

 That he, who in his writings forcibly condemns the use of torture, 

 was nevertheless iu his official character the cou.-tant instrument of 

 the crown for applying this odious process, is beyond all question ; 

 but it must be remembered that what he wrote on this subject was 

 written long after the period of which we are now speaking, in the 

 dawn of a better order of things ; and that the use of the rack f<tr 



