The Life of Sir Edward Coke

This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. https://books.google.com | ſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſſ ſiſili THE LIFE OF SIR EDWARD COKE, LORD CHIEF JUSTICE OF ENGLAND IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I. WITH MEMOIRS OF HIS CONTEMPORARIES BY CUTHBERT WILLIAM JOHNSON, Esq. OF GRAY'S INN, BARRISTER-AT-LAW. SECOND EDITION. VOL.11. 'V.:.\ ': " LONDON : HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. M.DCCCXLV. 1^ TO NEW YC?,K PUBLIC LIBRARY ASTOR, LENOX ANB TILDKN FOUNDATIONS CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. CHAPTER I. 1616—1617. Coke anxious to be restored to the favour of the court — The quarrel between Secretary Winwood and the Chancellor Bacon — Proposes a marriage between his daughter Frances and Sir John Villiers. Buckingham's brother — Lady Hatton opposes the match — Carries her daughter off — Coke discovers her retreat, and recovers possession of her — Both Coke and his wife complain to the Privy Council — Memorial written for Lady Hatton — Lady Hatton a court beauty — Her conduct to Sir Edward Coke after his disgrace — Notices of them in the gossiping letters of that period — Letter of Lady Hatton to the Privy Council — Is out of favour at court — Petition to the King — Letters of Lady CONTENTS. Hatton to Buckingham — To the King — Again restored to favour at court — Ben Jonson's " Masque of Beauty" — Coke addresses a letter to Buckingham — — States the portion he intends to give his daughter and what Lady Hatton will give —Lady Hatton's letter to Buckingham. - . I CHAPTER II. 1617. The foolish position of Coke in the negociation — Bacon's opposition to it — His letter to Buckingham — His letter to the King and to Buckingham — Receives a letter from the King, and changes his opinion of the match — Bacon's letter to the King — The King's letter to Bacon — Buckingham's to Bacon — Bacon becomes a warm friend to the match— His letter to Buckingham — Sir Henry Yelverton's letter to Bacon — The mar riage settlements — Lady Hatton's letter to the King — Her memorial to the King with regard to Coke's treat ment of her — The marriage celebrated — The history of this union — Sir John Villiers made Viscount Purbeck — Lady Purbeck's letter to her mother — Purbeck de serts his wife — Lady Purbeck's letter to Buckingham — Gossiping letters of that period — Death of Lady Purbeck — History of Sir Robert Wright. .31 CHAPTER III. 1617—1623. Commencement of Coke's second parliamentary career — The first Parliament of James I — The King's procla- CONTENTS. V Pane matioa — His address to the House of Commons on the first day of the sessions — The Speaker's prosy reply — The close of the session — The King's parting speech to them — Brief sketch of the first Parliament of James — Speech of Sir Edward Coke — Carries up a message from the Commons to the House of Lords— His address to the Lords on this occasion — His speech in the Commons on the impeachment of Bacon — The Parlia ment several times prorogued and dismissed — Dispute between the Commons and the King — The King's letter to the Speaker — The Parliament dissolved — Another summoned — Coke elected for Coventry — His papers seized by the government — Memoir of Pym — Another Parliament summoned — King James opposed to any warlike assistance for his son-in-law — Parliament is opposed to the marriage of his son Charles with the Infanta of Spain — Conference with the Lords on the occasion — Coke's address to them. .90 CHAPTER IV. 1624. Coke manages a conference on behalf of the Com mons — Impeachment of the Earl of Middlesex — Coke's speech on the occasion — Prefers his charges — The trial — the King defends his Lord Treasurer — He is condemned — His character —Death of James I — The character of the first Stuart and his Par liaments — Review of his treatment of them — The first Parliament of Charles I — The subsidies granted by Parliaments in that reign — Amount of a subsidy CONTENTS. — A tenth or a sixteenth — How paid — Royal expenses — Salaries of the officers of the Crown and other King's servants — Royal grants — Review of the King's treatment of Coke — Domestic life of Coke during this period. 131 CHAPTER V. 1625—1027. The first Parliament of Charles I — Coke a member — The Parliament adjourned to Oxford — The meeting in St/Mary's Hall — Coke's speech on the question of granting the King a supply — The King's message to the House, noticing an unguarded speech of one of Coke's sons — Coke's speech on the debate on the King's message — Moves for a Committee in the case of Fleming — The King dissolves the Parliament — Coke made Sheriff of Buckinghamshire — Returned for Norfolk— The King sends a message noticing the circumstance, and claiming that he should not be allowed to fit — Coke's objections to take the oath required of Sheriffs — The House appoints a committee to investigate the case — Coke prevented sitting — The Parliament again dissolved — After two years the Par liament again assembled — Coke speaks on the question of grievances, and on the court sending obnoxious members abroad — Coke himself once commissioned for Ireland — His speech on the committal to the Tower of some of the members of Parliament — Memoir of Selden — Nov — Prynne — Dudley Digge CONTBNTS. Vli Page — Edward Littleton — Sir John Banks — Sir Robert Heath. 163 CHAPTER VI. 1627— 1628. The King urges the parliament by a message to be expe ditious with the public business — Coke's speech on the occasion — Coke's speech in the conference between the deputies of the two Houses on the subject of the impri soned members — His speech on the King's message — Proposes a petition of right — His speech on the Lord's amendment of the petition — Sent with a message from the Commons to the Lords — The petition deli vered to the King — The King addresses the parliament from the throne — Coke's last reported speech in parlia ment — Charles prorogued the parliament — the last parliamentary notice of Coke — Cromwell's first speech — Notice of Cromwell — The King dissolves the parliament — Publishes a long address to the nation — Notice of Coke's parliamentary associates — Hampden, Elliott, Holles, Strode — Character of Charles I. — The progress of the law during Coke's parliamentary career. 2S2 CHAPTER VII. 1628— 1633. Coke employed as Privy Councillor in several commissions — Bacon more civil towards him — Coke supported in Parliament the charges against Bacon for bribery — Presides in the Court of Star Chamber on the trial of Lord Suffolk — Speaks in support of the charges against Yelverton — Coke retires to Stoke Pogis — Is libelled by viii CONTENTS. Jeffes — Coke's opinion of medicine — Meets with an ac cident — Coke's last days — His death — His last hours — His papers seized by Windebank — Memoir of Winde- bank — List of his papers seized — Memoir of Laud — Coke's friends and associates. .311 CHAPTER VIII. The grave of Coke — Tittleshall church in Norfolk — His monument — His epitaph — Nicholas Stowe — The church — The author's visit to it — Bacon's letter to Coke — Comparison of Bacon and Coke — The opinion expressed of Coke by contemporary authors — Coke's descendants ennobled — Lady Hatton survives Coke — Her letter during the civiljwar to Prince Rupert — Stoke Pogis Coke's seat — The subject of Gray's long story — Coke's religious feelings — His hatred of witches, conjurors and heretics — Coke's children — His descendants. 348 CHAPTER X. Coke's works — His reports— Notice of the early reporters — Their dryness — Poetical reports — Coke's literarv contemporaries — Shakspcare — Camden — Beaumont and Fletcher — Ben Jonson — Harvey — Notice of Harvey and his grave— Coke's first Institutes — The Parliament res tore his papers— Notice of Strafford— Coke's second, third, and fourth Institutes — His minor works — Manu scripts of Sir Edward Coke — Engraved heads of Coke. — Portraits of Sir Edward Coke. 404 THE LIFE OF SIR EDWARD COKE. CHAPTER I. 1616—1617. Coke anxious to be restored to the favour of the court — The quarrel between Secretary Winwood and the Chancellor Bacon — Proposes a marriage between his daughter Frances and Sir John Villiers, Buckingham's brother — Lady Hatton opposes the match — Carries her daughter off — Coke discovers her retreat, and recovers possession of her — Both Coke and his wife complain to the Privy Council — Memorial written for Lady Hatton — Lady Hatton a court beauty — Her con duct to Sir Edward Coke after his disgrace — Notices of them in the gossiping letters of that period — Letter of Lady Hatton to the Privy Council — Is out of favour at court — Petition to the King — Letters of Lady Hatton to Buckingham — To the King — Again restored to favour at court — Ben Jonson's " Masque of Beauty" — Coke addresses a letter to Buckingham, — states the portion he intends to give his daughter, and what Lady Hatton will give —Lady Hatton's letter to Buckingham. We now arrive at that part of Sir Edward Coke's career which is, in every point of view, unsatis- VOL. II. b 2 THE LIFE OF factory to his biographer. He was now in his sixty seventh year, — a period when the mind usually begins to fall away from the high tone which characterises the middle age of life ; — a period when the slights of the world, or the frowns of a patron, are felt with all the acuteness and despondency of childhood. That Coke felt very sensibly his removal from office, is certain ; he had evidently not sufficient consolation in the reflection, that his dismissal was undeserved, and his discharge an outrage upon the justice of the land ; consequently, he was alive to every ex pedient which would again procure him the smiles of the court, and it was with much satis faction that he heard of the quarrel between Se cretary Winwood and the Chancellor Bacon, which occurred in 1616.

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