c o 
ances. Sir Edward Coke was a member, and his age, 
experience, and dignity, gave him great weight; but it 
loon appeared, that he refblved to a£V a different part from 
what the court, and more efpecially the great favourite 
Buckingham, expe&ed. He fpoke very warmly ; and alfo 
took occafion to ftiew, that proclamations againft the te¬ 
nor of afts of parliament were void : for which he is highly 
commended by Camden. The houfes being adjourned 
by the king’s command in June, met again in November; 
and fell into great ferments about the commitment of fir 
Edwin Sands, foon after their adjournment, which had 
fuch unfortunate confequences, that the commons pro- 
tefted, December 18, againft the invalion of their privi¬ 
leges. The king prorogued the parliament upon the 21ft; 
and, on the 27th, fir Edward Coke was committed to the 
Tower, his chambers in the Temple broke open, and his 
papers delivered to fir Robert Cotton and Mr. Will'on to 
examine. January 6, 1622, the parliament was difiolved ; 
and the fame day fir Edward was charged before the coun¬ 
cil with having concealed lome true examinations in the 
great caufe of the earl of Somerfet, and obtruding falfe 
ones; neverthelels he was foon after releafed, but not 
without receiving high marks of the king’s refentment; 
for he was a fecond time turned out of the privy-council, 
the king giving him this charafter, that “ he was the fit¬ 
ted: inftrument fora tyrant that ever was in England.” 
And yet, fays Wilfon, in the houfe he called the king’s 
prerogative an overgrown monfter. Towards the dole 
of 1623 lie was nominated, with feveral others, to whom 
large powers were given, to go over to Ireland; which 
nomination, though accompanied with high expreflions 
of kindnefs and confidence, was made with no other view 
but to get him out of the way; but he would not go. He 
remained firm in his opinions, nor does it appear that he 
ever fought to be reconciled to the court; fo that he was 
abfolutely out of favour at the death of king James. 
In the beginning of the next' reign, when it was found 
necelfary to call a fecond parliament, he was pricked for 
fiieriff of Bucks in 1625, to prevent his being chofen. He 
laboured to avoid it, but in vain; fo that he was obliged 
to ferve the office, and to attend the judges at the affizes, 
where he had often prefided as lord chief juftice. This, 
however, did not prevent his being elefted knight of the 
ffiire for Bucks in the parliament of 1628, in which he 
diffinguiflied himfelf more than, any man in the houfe of 
commons, fpoke warmly for the redrefs of grievances, 
argued boldly in defence of the liberty of the fubjetft, 
and ftrenuoully fupported the privilege of the houfe. It 
was he that propoled' and framed the petition of rights; 
and, June 1628, he made a fpeech, in which he named 
the duke of Buckingham as the caufe of all our miferies, 
though, lord Clarendon tells us, he had before blalphe- 
moully ftyled him the faviour of the nation ; but this was 
perfectly confiftent with the chara&er of the mail, who 
could flatter or abufe juft as intereft or paffion directed. 
Nor is there finy reafon to conclude, that all this oppofi- 
tion to the arbitrary mealures of the court flowed from 
any principles of patriotifin, for he was too great a ty¬ 
rant in his nature to be capable of any fuch, but from a 
dilpofition to oppofe greatnefs, and a defire to diftrefs 
thofe who had done fo much to humble him. After the 
diffolution of this parliament, which happened the March 
following, he retired to his houfe at Stoke Pogeys in 
Buckinghamftiire, where he fpent the remainder of his 
days; and there, September 3, 1634, breathed his laft in 
his eighiy-fixth year, expiring with thefe words, as his 
monument informs us, “ Thy kingdom come ! thy will 
be done!” While he lay upon his death-bed, fir Francis 
Windebank, by an order of council, came to fearch for 
feditious and dangerous papers; by virtue whereof he 
'took his Commentary upon Littleton, and the Hiftory of 
liis Lite before it, written with his own hand ; his Com¬ 
mentary upon Magna Ctiarta, &c. the Pleas of the Crown 
and the Jurildiftion of Courts, his eleventh and twelfth 
Reports in manulcript, and fifty-one other manuferipts, 
with the laft will of fir Edward, wherein he had been 
making provifion for his younger grand-children. The 
books and papers were kept till ieven years after, when 
one of his fons, in 1641, moved the houfe of commons, 
that the books and papers taken by fir Francis Winde¬ 
bank might be delivered to fir Robert Coke, heir of fir 
Edward; which the king was pleafed to grant. Such of 
them as could be found were accordingly delivered up; 
but the will was never heard of more. 
Sir Edward Coke was in his perfon well proportioned, 
and his features regular. He was neat, but not nice, in 
his drefs; and is reported to have faid, “ that the clean- 
nefs of a man’s clothes ought to put him in mind of keep • 
ing all clean within.” He poflefl’ed great quicknefs of 
parts, deep penetration, a faithful memory, and a Col id 
judgment. He was wont to fay, that “ matter lay in a 
little room ;” and in his pleadings he was concife, tliough 
in let fpeeches and in his writings too diffufe. He was 
certainly a great malter of his profeffion, as even his ene¬ 
mies allow; had ftudied it regularly, and was perredly 
acquainted with the deepeft parts of it. Hence lie gained 
fo high an efteem in Weftminfter-hall, and came to enjoy 
fo large a ffiare in the favour of the great lord Burleigh. 
He valued himfelf, and, indeed, not without reafon, upon 
this, that he obtained all his preferments without em¬ 
ploying either prayers or pence ; and that he became 
queen Elizabeth’s Iblicitor, fpeaker of the houfe of com¬ 
mons, attorney-general, chief juftice of both benches, 
liigh-fteward of Cambridge, and a member of the privy- 
council, without either begging or bribing. As lie de¬ 
rived his fortune, his credit, and his greatnefs, from the 
law, fo he loved it to a degree of enthufiafm. He com¬ 
mitted every thing to writing with an induftry beyond 
example, and publiftied a great deal. He met with many 
changes of fortune; fometimes in power, fometimes in 
difgrace. He was, however, fo excellent at making the 
belt of a bad market, that king James ufed to compare 
him to a cat, who always fell upon her legs. He was, 
upon occafion, a friend to the church and clergy; and 
thus, when he had loft his public employments, and a 
great peer was inclined to queftion the rights of the 
church of Norwich, he prevented it by telling him, that, 
“ if he proceeded, he would put on his cap and gown 
again, and follow the caul'e through Weftminfter-hall.” 
He had many benefices in his own patronage, which he 
is faid to have given freely to men of merit; declaring, 
in liis law language, that he would have law livings pafs 
by livery and feifin, and not by bargain and fale. 
The charafter left us by Fuller, of this eminent lawyer, 
is as follows: “ Five forts of perl'ons this great man ufed 
to foredefign to milery and poverty; chemifts, monopo¬ 
lizers, concealers, and rythming poets. For three things 
he faid he would give God folenm thanks : that he never 
gave his body to phyfic, nor his hearrto cruelty, nor his 
hand to corruption. In three things he much applauded 
liis own fuccefs : in his fair fortune with his wife, in his 
liappy ftudy of the law, and in his free coming by all 
his preferment, nec prece, nec pret'10 ; neither begging nor 
bribing for preferment. He conftantly had prayers laid 
in his own houfe, and charitably relieved the poor with 
liis conftant alms. The foundation of Sutton’s hofpital, 
(the Charter-houfe, when indeed but a foundation,) had 
been ruined before it was railed, and cruftied by fome 
courtiers in the hatching thereof, had not his great care 
prelerved the fame.” 
“ His learned and laborious works on the law (fays a 
great author) will be admired by judicious pofterity, while 
fame has a trumpet left her, or any breath to blow there¬ 
in.” This is indifputably a juft character of his writings 
in general; the particulars ol which are as follow : About 
the year 1600 were publiftied, in folio, the firft part of the 
“ Reports of fir Edward Coke, knight, her majefty’s attor¬ 
ney-general, of divers reloiutions and judgments given 
with great deliberation by the reverend judges and lages 
of the law, of cafes and matters in law, which were never 
4 refolved 
