Coke, Sir Edward (redirected from Sir Edward Coke)

Coke, Sir Edward (kk), 1552–1634, English jurist, one of the most eminent in the history of English law. He entered Parliament in 1589 and rose rapidly, becoming solicitor general and speaker of the House of Commons. In 1593 he was made attorney general. His rival for that office was Sir Francis Bacon, thereafter one of Coke's bitterest enemies. He earned a reputation as a severe prosecutor, notably at the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, and held a favorable position at the court of King James I. In 1606 he became chief justice of the common pleas. In this position, and (after 1613) as chief justice of the king's bench, Coke became the champion of common law against the encroachments of the royal prerogative and declared null and void royal proclamations that were contrary to law. Although his historical arguments were frequently based on false interpretations of early documents, as in the case of the Magna Carta, his reasoning was brilliant and his conclusions impressive. His constant collisions with the king and the numerous enmities he developed—especially that with Thomas Egerton, Baron Ellesmere, the chancellor—brought about his fall. Bacon was one of the foremost figures in engineering his dismissal in 1616. By personal and political influence, Coke got himself back on the privy council and was elected (1620) to Parliament, where he became a leader of the popular faction in opposition to James I and Charles I. He was prominent in the drafting of the Petition of Right (1628). His most important writings are the Reports, a series of detailed commentaries on cases in common law, and the Institutes, which includes his commentary on Littleton's Tenures.

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Coke, Sir Edward

(born Feb. 1, 1552, Mileham, Norfolk, Eng.—died Sept. 3, 1634, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire) British jurist and politician. He became a lawyer in 1578 and was made solicitor general in 1592. His advance to the position of attorney general (1594) frustrated his great rival, Francis Bacon. As attorney general, he conducted several famous treason trials, prosecuting Robert Devereux, 2nd earl of Essex, and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd earl of Southampton (1600–01); Sir Walter Raleigh (1603); and the Gunpowder Plot conspirators (1605). Named chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1606, Coke earned the ire of James I by declaring that the king's proclamation could not change the law (1610). He upset church leaders by limiting the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts. Appointed chief justice of the King's Bench by James I (1613), he remained unswayed; he hinted at scandal in high places and defied a royal injunction in a case involving ecclesiastical privileges. He was dismissed in 1616, partly through Bacon's efforts. In 1620 he reentered Parliament (he had served in 1589), where he denounced interference with Parliament's liberties (1621) until he was imprisoned. In 1628 he helped frame the Petition of Right, a charter of liberties; this defense of the supremacy of the common law over royal prerogative had a profound influence on the English law and constitution. On his death his papers were seized by Charles I. His Reports (1600–15), taken together, are a monumental compendium of English common law, and his Institutes of the Lawes of England (4 vol., 1628–44) is an important treatise.