Page:Select Essays in Anglo-American Legal History, Volume 1.djvu/711

 19. ZANE: THE FIVE AGES 697 a book like Coke upon Littleton. Next thej became rivals for the hand of the widow of Sir William Hatton, a beautiful woman, only twenty years old, with an immense fortune and great pretensions to fashion. The old and wrinkled Coke, a six months' widower, prevailed. But while the lady was willing to marry Coke, she refused to espouse such an elderly scarecrow at a church wedding. So Coke married her in a private house, and thereby violated the law. His plea when prosecuted was ignorance of the statute. Perhaps this is the real reason for Coke's oft quoted statement as to statute law. But Bacon made a fortunate escape, and had the satisfaction of enjoying Coke's domestic infelicities. Lady Hatton refused, after several quarrels, to live with Coke; she further refused to take his name, which she insisted on spelling " Cook." She refused even to let Coke see the daughter she had borne him, and turned him away from her door. Then Essex's trial came on. Coke surpassed even himself in brutality, while Bacon deserted his benefactor. The two men soon had a public altercation in the Exchequer Court. To curry favor with the new king, James, Coke prosecuted Raleigh so savagely that even the judges sickened. The remorseless Popham protested, and such a sycophant as Lord Salisbury rebuked Coke. Thereupon Coke sat down in a chafe and sulked, until the judges urged him to go on. Lord Mansfield said long afterwards : " I would not have made Sir Edward Coke's speech against Sir Walter Raleigh to gain all Coke's estate and reputation." When Coke prose- cuted the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, he showed to the full his cowardly method of insulting the prisoners. Other trials were no less disgraceful. Yet, all through, worse than Coke's brutality, is his pharisaical self-satisfaction, his pitiable, snivelling, hypocritical piety. The best excuse for Bacon is that he was engaged in a rivalry with such a man. Coke became Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1606, and used his place to humble and coarsely insult Bacon. But Bacon's suppleness was ingratiating him with the King. Coke had become so puffed up that he was growing independ- ent. Bacon induced James to put Coke at the head of the