THE LIFE

OF

SIR EDWARD COKE.

CHAPTER I.

1550-1578.

The period in which Coke lived

His general character -His birth in 1550-His parents-His family-Childhood Enters Trinity College Cambridge Archbishop Whitgift-Coke's studies-His power of intense application -Nature of his readings-Biography of Whitgift-Coke becomes a Templar-Is called to the Bar-The course of legal study followed in his days-Mootings-Anecdotes of the law students-Coke pleads his first cause-Gets into practice-Accumulates considerable property-Rapidly acquires estates-Notices of his landed property in Norfolk, Essex, Bucks and Dorsetshire.

THE long series of eighty-four years which intervened between the birth and death of Edward Coke, comprehends one of the most eventful periods of English History. Its commencement

VOL I.

B

in the mild reign of Edward VI, was distinguished by the arduous and energetic struggles of an enlightened band of patriots, to throw off the last chains of the Church of Rome; a reformation which they endeavoured to effect by conciliatory measures, and to perpetuate by wise statutes, remarkable even at the present day for their moderation of tone, as well as for the force and elegance of their very preambles.

Coke's days of childhood likewise included the short yet sanguinary reign of Queen Mary, marked by the temporary restoration of popery, the fierceness of its professors, and the misguided zeal of its clergy; a zeal which Pope Paul the fourth himself foresaw would for ever ruin the papal religion in England. The sagacity of this ; hierarch enabled him correctly to conclude, that persecution is, of all others, the best mode of promoting sectarianism; and that no doctrine was ever yet promulgated, so absurd, as not to be elevated into importance by oppression and cruelty. Of a still more certain consequence, therefore, the rational doctrines of the reformers would be more widely diffused when the sufferings of its professors had given them the fervour of martyrs, and had gained to them the compassionate interest of their countrymen.

Coke was only eight years of age when

Elizabeth commenced her prosperous reign. He witnessed, in its lengthened duration, numerous great and important events, and in many of them he appeared as no inconsiderable actor. The final establishment of the Protestant Church of England, the astonishing increase of this island in commerce, in riches, in knowledge, and in power, were a few of the works of this great and glorious reign, in which Coke assisted.

He was fifty three years of age, at the accession of her cowardly successor James I, and shone forth among those leaders of the land, who endeavoured to rescue it from the degradation into which it was sinking in his reign of plots, favourites and pedantry. This was a period remarkable in the Constitutional History of England for the first successful efforts of the Commons to acquire that due weight in the national legislature, which they did not dare to attempt in the reign of his arbitrary and talented predecessor; and justly may it be considered as fortunate for the cause of liberty, that the Commons of England had, in their earliest struggles, to contend with so cowardly and so contemptible a monarch as James I.

In all the plots, debates and contentions of this reign, Coke never forgot his duty to his country, even when fulfilling the duties of the

highest judicial offices in the gift of the crownoffices, which were then held at the mere abitrary will of the King, to meet whose wishes too many of Coke's predecessors had not refused to falsify the decisions of justice.

In the early part of the reign of Charles I, Coke died, still acting with the liberal party of that day; for, they then spoke with dignity, and acted with a manly moderation worthy of English Commoners. Unfortunately for Charles I, as his difficulties increased, and his dangers thickened, his most talented friends fell from him.

Death,

disgust for his insincerity, exile, and the sword, had reduced his supporters to a brief array. At the period of the king's trial, Coke had been fifteen years in his grave, otherwise he would not have been a silent spectator of his sovereign's murder. Although a member of the moderate party, his moderation would not have degenerated into cowardice, and indolence. He would not only have disapproved, but have opposed, the violence of the popular torrent, when he saw it overpowering all bounds, and sweeping away the landmarks of constitutional liberty. The great Selden might plead his love of ease, his natural inactivity; others their want of weight in the state, a third party might content themselves with a cold negative to the proposed murder,

or silently withdraw from the tragic judgment— but such pusillanimity would not have enervated Coke: he would rather, in all the towering strength of the profound old lawyer, have stood undismayed between his king, and those who went through the mockery of his trial; he would have dared them to proceed to judgment; he would have scouted their pretended authority as too transparently ridiculous for vindication; as completely contrary to all law, as it was unjustifiable. in equity.

In following Coke through this long and eventful period, it will be necessary to trace at some length many of the scenes in which he was an actor, and, in so doing, we shall find that he managed to preserve at the same time his loyalty and his patriotism, his ardent love of liberty with an uncompromising allegiance to his sovereign. We shall have the conclusion naturally forced upon our attention, that he fulfilled high and important duties with a success which, in many succeeding periods, lawyers and statesmen have found infinite difficulty in attaining. Coke, we shall find, was able to accomplish these things, not because they solely occupied his attention, but amidst all the irksome employments of a laborious profession. Besides the imperative duties that devolved on him he voluntarily