COKE, EDWAUI). 



COKE, EDWAUD. 



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1*U wo* common throughout Kuro| iu hu timi>, 

 oomtnon practice la England for centurie* before he 

 WM ban. Thre i* no satisfactory proof that he wa* coarse and 

 onwl in hi* conduct toward* prisoners under examination, and on the 

 contrary. Father Cornelia*, the Je-uit, who was rep. atedly examined 

 by Cdkr, said he found him "omnium huminuin humanissiraua;" and 

 Garnet, In hi* intercepted correspondence, and alo on hi* trial, admit* 

 that he wa> constantly treated by him with courtesy and kindneu. 

 At the tamo time, there i* no doubt that as the advocate of tho crown 

 on trial* for atate off. now, be displayed a degree of intemperance and 

 a*p*rity not only (hocking to the feeling* of reader* familiar only with 

 the more civilised character of criminal proceedings at the present day, 

 but strongly offensive even to contemporaries. 



With UM trials of the eonipirators in the Gunpowder Plot in 1 606, 

 Uw career of Sir Edward Coke a* an advocate closed. In the month 

 of June in that year he received hi* appointments as Chief Justico of 

 UM Common Pleas. He retained the situation upwards of seven yean, 

 and in the discharge of the common judicial duties at this period, hi* 

 profound learning and unwearied industry procured him the highest 

 reputation. At thi* time too, though hu has sometimes been reproached 

 for a haughty and nnconcilUting deportment on the bench, the bitter- 

 ness of temper which be displayed at the bar appear* to have been 

 upproned or softened ; and in several constitutional questions of the 

 highest importance which occurred while he was chief justice of the 

 Common Plea*, and in which he resolutely opposed the view* of the 

 king, especially in the conflicts between the ecclesiastical jurisdictions 

 and the court* of common law, and in his resistance to the encroach- 

 ment of prerogative on the subject of royal proclamations, he dis- 

 played great integrity and independence. With a view to subdue his 

 uncompromising disposition, he was promoted to tho chief-justiceship 

 of the King* Bench, in October 1613, and a few days afterwards, in 

 consequence of a special order from the king, took his seat at the 

 board a* a privy councillor. In the following year he was elected 

 high (toward of the University of Cambridge. But the project of 

 making the chief justice "turn obsequious" by his advancement, 

 which wa* no doubt entertained by the court, and was expressly 

 avowed by Bacon, altogether failed. In the case of Peacham, who 

 wa* prosecuted for treason iu the year 1615, for having in his pos- 

 session a sermon supposed to contain sedition, written by him, but 

 never preached or published, Coke, after long hesitation to deliver 

 what he quaintly called an "auricular opinion," seems at last to 

 have declsred that the offence was not treason. His exertions in the 

 prosecution of the murderers of Sir Thomas Overbury in the same 

 year, though praised by Bacon in conducting the case as attorni-y- 

 general, gave displeasure to the king ; and his independent conduct in 

 the case of Commendams, which occurred in 1618, finally determined 

 the court to remove him from hi* office. The transaction was this : 

 a serjeant-at-law, in the discharge of his duty as an advocate in the 

 Court of Common Pleat, was supposed to have used matter iu his 

 argument which tended to question the royal prerogative ; upon this, 

 the king required the judges to proceed no further iu the case with- 

 out hi* warrant. The twelve judges conferred upon this message, and 

 molved that in a common dispute between party and party it was 

 their duty to proceed notwithstanding the king's mandate. Upon this 

 they were summoned to the council-table, and personally reprimanded 

 by the king; and all of them, excepting the lord chief justice, acknow- 

 ledged their error, and craved pardon for their offence upon their 

 knee*. Sir Kdward Coke, on the contrary, after craving pardon for 

 any formal errors which be might have committed, boldly justified 

 his opinion upon the substantial point, contending that the king's 

 command for staying the proceedings was a delay of justice, and con- 

 sequently (gainst the law, and contrary to the judges' oath. After 

 much discusMon, the lords of the council proposed the following ques- 

 tion to the judges : " Whether in a case where the king believed his 

 prerogative or interest concerned, and required the judge* to attend 

 him for advice, they ought not to stay proceedings till hi* Majesty 

 had consulted them f " All the judges at once answered in the 

 affirmative, except Lord Coke, who only said " that, when the case 

 happened, be would do that which should become an honest and just 



The court now despaired of bending the stubborn integrity of the 

 ehief justice, and determined at all event* to displace him. Accord- 

 ingly, on the 26th of June 1616, a* a preliminary to hi* removal, he 

 wa* ummoned before the council, and charged with several frivolous 

 accusations, some of them founded upon alleged malversations while 

 be wa* attorney general, to all of which be returned distinct answers. 

 Pour days afterward* he was (gum (ummoned to appear before the 

 council, upon which occarion he wa* reprimanded, sequestered from 

 the council-table during the kint-'" pleasure, enjoined not to ride the 

 rammer circuit a* judge of awise, and ordered to employ hi* leisure 

 in rviiog many "extravsg.nt and exorbitant opinion*" set down in 

 hi* Book of Reports.' In the course of the vacation ho was again 

 snmmonrd before the council to an.wor a list of twenty-eight objections 

 to doctrines contained in bis ' Report*,' which, a contemporary writer 

 observes, " were either so weak in themselvn, or so well answered, 

 that they were readily reduced to five." (' Chamberlain's Utter to 

 Sir D. CarUton.' 20th of October, 1018.) In November 1616 he 

 received hi* writ of discharge from the office of chief justice, and 



was succeeded by Sir Henry Montague, who was expressly warned by 

 the lord-chancellor Kgcrton " to svoid the faults of his predecessor, 

 who had been removed for hi* excessive popularity." 



From causes not very distinctly explained in the letters and histories 

 of the day, which probably were connected with an intrigue for the 

 marriage of his daughter to Sir John Villiers, afterwards Viscount 

 Purbeck, Sir Edward Coke, though he never afterwards filled a j . 

 situation, was at no loug interval restored to a certain degree of royal 

 favour. In September 1617 he was reinstated as a member of the 

 privy council, and iu July 1618 he wa* appointed a ' commissioner for 

 tho exercising the office of lord high treasurer of England,' jointly 

 with Archbishop Abbott, Lord Chancellor Bacon, and several others. 

 (See Devon's ' 1'ell. Records,' temp. Jac. I.) In the course of tho next 

 three years he was employed in several other commissions of a public 

 nature, and until the year 1620 he was constant iu hi attendauco at 

 the board. In the parliament which assembled in that year he was 

 returned as a member for the borough of Liskeard in Cornwall In 

 thU parliament he distinguished himself as one of the most able and 

 zealous advocates of the liberal measure* which were proposed. He 

 became a strenuous opponent of the pernicious monopolies by which 

 at that period the freedom of trade was fetterad, and took an animated 

 part iu that struggle between the prerogative pretensions of James 

 and the freedom of debate, which ended in the celebrated resolution 

 of the Commons, " that the liberties, franchises, privileges, and juris- 

 dictions of parliament are the antient and undoubted birthright an 1 

 inheritance of the subjects of England.'' During the year 10'Jl ho 

 attended only three times at the privy council ; and on one of those 

 occasions, namely, on the 5th of October 1621, he seems to bavo 

 appeared only to inform the board that he had induced one Johnstone 

 to give up a grant which he had obtained from the king, " both a 

 grievance to the subject, and a disservice to the state ; " which informa- 

 tion he desired might be recorded in tho council register. (' Council 

 Books.') His adherence to the popular or country party gave great 

 offence to the court, and ho was accused of various offences and mal- 

 practices. The king at this period was so incensed against him that 

 before he would grant bin warrant for a general pardon at the end of 

 1621, be expressly commanded the privy council to consult upon the 

 means of excepting Sir Edward Coko from the benefit of it; and on 

 the 27th of December of that year Coke was arrested and committed 

 to the Tower, where he remained a close prisoner until the 6th of 

 August 1622. While he was in the Tower proceedings were instituted 

 against him both in the star-chamber and the court of wards, the 

 precise nature and issue of which cannot now be ascertained. Upon 

 his enlargement from the Tower, he was ordered to confine himself to 

 hii house at Stoke Pogis, and not to repair to the court without express 

 licence from the king. After his disgrace on this occasion, he was 

 never again restored to the council-bonrd. At the end of 1623 he was 

 appointed a commissioner, together with Sir William Jones, one of tha 

 judges of the Common Pleas, and two other persons, to inquii 

 the church establishment in Ireland. That he was on the point of 

 going on this mission appears from the fact that a passport dated 

 January 16th, 1623-24, was actually granted by the council. Some 

 accident however prevented his departure. 



In the first parliament of Charles I., called in April 1625, Sir K. 

 Coke was again returned as one of the knights of the shire for the 

 county of Norfolk, as he says in his Note, " sine aliqua motione aut 

 petitione inde a me pnebitis." At the commencement of this p.u li.i- 

 ineut he adopted a moderate tone. He dissuaded the house from 

 insisting upon grievances, and urged conciliatory measures ; saying, 

 that "as it was the very beginning of the new king's reign, there could 

 be no grievances as yet" But this disposition to peace was overcome 

 by the determined tendency of the crown to arbitrary measures ; and 

 the king being unable to obtain any answer to his demand of a subsidy, 

 but repeated remonstrances against grievances, abruptly dissolved the 

 parliament Compelled however by his pecuniary wants, to assemble 

 a new parliament in the course of the same year, he previously 

 appointed Sir Edward Coke and three other popular leaders sh> ritti 

 of counties, in order to prevent their serving as members. Coke, 

 having been in this manner named Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, was 

 again returned as knight of the shire for Norfolk; and though iu 

 consequence of hi* shrievalty, he did not take his seat in that parlia- 

 ment, no new writ was issued to supply his place, and it ws con- 

 sidered that he was de facia a member of the house. He mentions 

 this circumstance in his 'Fourth Institute,' p. 48, though he does not 

 state it to have been his own case; and says, that "having a subpoena 

 out of chancery served upon him, he had his privilege of parliament 

 allowed unto him by the judgment of the whole House of Commons." 

 On occasion of the third parliament summoned by Charles I. in March 

 1628, Sir Edward Coke was returned for two counties, Buckingham 

 and Suffolk ; but he tells us that " he chose the former, because he 

 resided there, and because bis election for that county took place first" 

 In this parliament, though now in his seventy-ninth year, this extra- 

 ordinary man asserted and defended the constitutional right* of tho 

 people of England with all the energy of youth, and all the sagacity 

 of age. liy his advice, and with his active co-operation and assist- 

 ance, which his extensive and varied experience rendered particularly 

 valuable, the celebrated Bill of Hights was framed; and by his perse- 

 verance and reasoning the lords were, after many conferences, induced 



