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Coke, «kuk», Sir Edward (1552-1634), was a brilliant English courtroom lawyer. He rose to prominence as speaker of Parliament in 1593. In 1594, he was selected over Sir Francis Bacon as Queen Elizabeth's attorney general, and in 1606 he became chief justice under King James I. As chief justice, Coke insisted that even the king was subject to the law. His famous Institutes and Reports (1600-1615) include many principles of modern law. Coke was born in Mileham, England, on Feb. 1, 1552.
"Coke, Sir Edward." World Book Online Reference Center. 2004. World Book, Inc. 5 June 2004. <http://www.aolsvc.worldbook.aol.com/wb/Article?id=ar722880>.
Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634)
1552 Born Feb 1st 1552 at Mileham, Norfolk.
Educated at Norwich Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge.
1578-94 Called to the bar in 1578, Coke became member of Parliament for Aldeburgh in 1589, and solicitor general and recorder of London in 1592. He was elected speaker of the House of Commons in 1593, and then beat Francis Bacon to the post of Attorney General in 1594.
1600-05 As Attorney General he conducted several trials of treason, prosecuting the earls of Essex and Southampton (1600-01), Sir Walter Raleigh in 1603 and the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot in 1605.
1606 Coke was made chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas. He was a champion of Common Law and held the belief that it was the supreme law and far more powerful than the King...which upset James I !
1610 He upset King James I again when he stated that 'the King cannot change any part of the common law nor create any offence by proclamation which was not an offence before'
1613-15 Cunning plan by James I - appoint Coke to be chief justice of the Court of King's Bench, and he would be bound to look after the King's interests...but he continued to maintain the supremacy of the common law...and continued to upset the King!
1616 The Privy Council, supported by Bacon, brought several charges against Coke and on Nov 14th 1616 he was dismissed. In order to regain influence, he offered his daughter in marriage to Sir John Villiers, the brother of the Duke of Buckingham. His wife, supported by Bacon, hid the 14-year-old girl, but Coke abducted her and had her forcibly married to Villiers.
1617 By 1617 Coke was back in the Privy Council and in the Star Chamber.
1620 He re-entered Parliament, opposed Prince Charles' proposed marriage to a Spanish princess and took part in drawing up bribery charges against Bacon.
1621 Coke continued to speak energetically for the liberties of parliament and this resulted in 9 months in prison...no charges could be made to stick!
1628 Instigator of the Petition of Right presented to champion the rights of man and limit the powers of the King. He retired at the end of that parliamentary session.
1634 Died Sept 3rd 1634 at Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire...all his papers were instantly seized including his will.
http://www.thevickerage.worldonline.co.uk/ecivil/sir_edward_coke.htm
The new Liberty Fund edition of The Selected Writings of Sir Edward Coke includes selections from the four volumes of the Institutes and cases from the Reports, and several of Coke’s speeches in Parliament. Taken together, these writings delineate the origin and nature of the modern common law and indicate the profound interrelationship in the English tradition of custom, common law, authority (of both Crown and Commons), and individual liberty. Coke’s great law books and speeches are well represented on Magna Carta, citizenship, habeas corpus, freedom from wrongful search and arrest, the origins of law, judicial review, administrative law, judging, criminal law, the moral obligations of officials, the powers of King, Parliament, church, and the law, property and rights, and the profession and study of law. The Selected Writings of Sir Edward Coke is the first anthology of his works ever published.
http://www.libertyfund.org/details.asp?displayID=1853
Sir Edward Coke (pronounced "cook") (1 February 1552 - 3 September 1634) was an early English colonial entrepreneur and jurist whose writings on the English common law were the definitive legal texts for some 300 years. He is credited with having established the legal basis for slavery in the English colonies.
Between becoming a Member of Parliament in 1589 and again in 1620, he served as England's Attorney General (1593-1606) under Elizabeth I of England and as its Lord Chief Justice (1613-1616) and a Privy Councilor (1614-1616, 1617-1620) under James I of England. His speeches, in the House of Commons, against governmental abuses of the people's rights so angered King James that he held Sir Edward prisoner in the Tower of London for nine months in 1622.
In 1606, Coke helped write the charter of the Virginia Company, a private venture granted a royal charter to found settlements in North America. He became directory of the London Company, one of the two branches of the Virginia Company. As director, he proposed a means by which slavery could be legalised in the new Virginia Colony. Fearing opposition if the issue was publicly debated, Coke was responsible for Calvin's Case in 1608, which ruled that "all infidels are in law perpetual ennemies". Here he was borrowing from a legal tradition rooted in canonical law and apologetics for the crusades. In this way Coke played a significant part in the development of New World slavery. On January 2, 2003, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom refused to make a public apology for the long history of slavery under the British Empire on the basis that it was legal at the time. Writing via assistant private secretary Kay Brock, she said "Under the statute of the International criminal Court, acts of enslavement committed today . . . constitute a crime against humanity. But the historic slave trade was not a crime against humanity or contrary to international law at the time when the UK government condoned it."
Copies of Coke's writings arrived in North America on the Mayflower in 1620, and both John Adams and Patrick Henry cited Coke's treatises to support their revolutionary positions against the Mother Country in the 1770s. Under Lord Coke's leadership, in 1628 the House of Commons forced Charles I of England to accept Coke's Petition of Rights by withholding the revenues the king wanted until he capitulated.
Quotes
The quote is believed to have led to the "castle exception" of self-defense:
"A man's house is his castle - for where shall a man be safe if it be not in his own house?"
His famous quote about the common law:
"Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason. . . . The law which is perfection of reason." (First Institute)
Resources
The Lion and the Throne, a biography (ISBN 0-316-10393-4) of Coke by Catherine Drinker Bowen, won the National Book Award.
Sir Ferdinando George
House of Commons Journal Volume 1 14 November 1621 American Fishing Mr. Granvyle moveth, to speed the Bill of Fishing upon [the] Coasts of America; the rather, because Sir Fer. Gorge hath executed a Patent sithence the Recess.-Hath by Letters from the Lords of the Council, stayed the Ships ready to go forth. Mr. Neale, accordant.-That Ferd. hath be sides threatened to send out ships, to beat them off from their free fishing, take considerations hereof. Sir W. Neale;-That this true; but my Lord Treasurer hath given Order, that the Ships shall go forth presently, without Stay. Sdw. Coke:-That the Patent may be brought in. And Sir Tho. Wentworth:-That the Party may be sent for.
(Two days later)(The Bona Nova departed Virginia May [16], 1621.2) Sources: (1) "Hotten's Lists", Virginia Musters (2) Letter, dated May [16], 1621, from Jabez Whittaker, in Virginia, sent to Sir Edwin Sandys, London, on the departing Bona Nova. (S.M. Kingsbury, "Records of the Virginia Company", 1933, v.III, page 297)
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~virginiahuddlestons/captain_john_huddleston_of_the_b.htm
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