The Tyrannicide Brief Read online

  Contents

  About the Book

  About the Author

  Also by Geoffrey Robertson

  List of Illustrations

  Chronology

  Dedication

  Title Page

  Epigraph

  Preface

  Prologue: There But For Fortune . . .

  Part I: Revolution

  1. A Man of the Middling Sort

  2. Strafford, Ship Money and a Search for Self

  3. A King in Check

  4. The Breath of an Unfee’d Lawyer

  5. What the Independents Would Have

  6. The Poor Man’s Case

  7. Malignant Blood

  Part II: Republic

  8. To Clutch the Swimming Hare

  9. The Hare, Clutched: Cooke’s Charge

  10. The King’s Trial

  11. Farewell Sovereignty

  12. ‘Stone Dead Hath No Fellow’

  13. Impressions on White Paper

  14. The Protectorate

  Part III: Restoration

  15. Tumbledown Dick

  16. Endgame

  17. ‘They All Seem Dismayed . . .’

  18. The Trial of John Cooke

  19. A Trembling Walk with God

  20. Long Live the King

  Epilogue

  Picture Section

  Notes on Sources

  Notes

  Index

  Copyright

  About the Book

  Charles I waged civil wars that cost one in ten Englishmen their lives. But in 1649 parliament was hard put to find a lawyer with the skill and daring to prosecute a King who was above the law: in the end the man they briefed was the radical barrister, John Cooke.

  Cooke was a plebeian, son of a poor farmer, but he had the courage to bring the King’s trial to its dramatic conclusion: the English republic. Cromwell appointed him as a reforming Chief Justice in Ireland, but in 1660 he was dragged back to the Old Bailey, tried and brutally executed.

  John Cooke was the bravest of barristers, who risked his own life to make tyranny a crime. He originated the right to silence, the ‘cab rank’ rule of advocacy and the duty to act free-of-charge for the poor. He conducted the first trial of a Head of State for waging war on his own people – a forerunner of the prosecutions of Pinochet, Miloševic and Saddam Hussein, and a lasting inspiration to the modern world.

  About the Author

  Geoffrey Robertson QC is a leading human rights lawyer and a UN war-crimes judge. He has been counsel in many notable Old Bailey trials, has defended hundreds of men facing death sentences in the Caribbean, and has won landmark rulings on civil liberty from the highest courts in Britain, Europe and the Commonwealth. He was involved with cases against General Pinochet and Hastings Banda, and in the training of judges who will try Saddam Hussein. His book Crimes Against Humanity has been an inspiration for the global justice movement, and he is the author of an acclaimed memoir, The Justice Game, and the textbook Media Law. He is married to Kathy Lette: they live with their two children in London. Geoffrey Robertson is Head of Doughty Street Chambers, a Master of the Middle Temple, a Recorder and visiting professor at Queen Mary College, University of London.

  ALSO BY GEOFFREY ROBERTSON

  Reluctant Judas

  Obscenity

  People Against the Press

  Geoffrey Robertson’s Hypotheticals (Vols. I & II)

  Media Law

  Does Dracula Have Aids?

  Freedom, the Individual and the Law

  The Justice Game

  Crimes Against Humanity

  List of Illustrations

  Plate Section I

  1. ‘A Fictitious Portrait’ of John Cooke (National Portrait Gallery, London)

  2. Master John Rogers, Vicar of St. Sepulchre’s and Reader of St. Paul’s, London, burnt as a heretic at Smithfield, from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, (Mary Evans Picture Library)

  3. Execution of the conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot, 1605 (Contemporary engraving)

  4. The First Act, a satirical play against William Prynne, English School (Bridgeman Art Library)

  5. Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford and his Secretary, Philip Mainwaring, by Anthony van Dyck (Private Collection/Bridgeman)

  6. The Execution of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford at Tower Hill, 12th May 1641, by Wenceslas Hollar (Bibliothèque des Arts Décoratifs, Paris/Bridgeman)

  7. The Interior of Westminster Hall (engraving, 1793, British Museum/Bridgeman)

  8. Title page to The Vindication of the Professors and Profession of the Law, 1645 by John Cooke (British Library, London)

  9. Title page to The Poore Mans Case, 1647 by John Cooke (British Library)

  10. Oliver Cromwell by Robert Walker (Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon)

  11. Thomas, Lord Fairfax by circle of Robert Walker (Trustees of Leeds Castle Foundation, Maidstone/Bridgeman)

  12. Fairfax and the Council of the Army, 1647 (Mary Evans)

  13. John Lilburne, 1649 English School (Bridgeman)

  14. Cartoon The Isle of Wait, 1648 (British Library)

  15. Charles I at his Trial by Edward Bower (The Royal Collection © HM Queen Elizabeth II)

  16. The High Court of Justice, 1649

  17. Detail, showing John Cooke beside Charles II

  18. Title page to King Charls His Case, 1649 by John Cooke (British Library)

  Plate Section II

  19. Charles’s speech from the scaffold, detail from frontispiece to The True Characters of the Educations, Inclinations and Several Dispositions of all and every one of those Bloody and Barbarous Persons, 1660 (British Library)

  20. Frontispiece to Eikon Basilikon, 1650 (Bridgeman)

  21. Irish Atrocities of 1641 from A Generall Martyrologie, 1651 by Samuel Clarke (Huntington Library, San Marino)

  22. Title page to A True Relation of Mr John Cook’s Passage by Sea (British Library)

  23. Cartoon The Ranters Ranting, c. 1650

  24. Cromwell dismissing the Rump of the Long Parliament in April 1653 (Art Archive)

  25. Double Portrait of John Bradshawe and Hugh Peters by Sir Peter Lely (The Collection of Pictures, Helmingham Hall. Photograph: Photographic Survey, Courtauld institute of Art)

  26. John Lambert (National Portrait Gallery)

  27. Edmund Ludlow (National Portrait Gallery)

  28. George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, by Sir Peter Lely (National Portrait Gallery)

  29. Charles II by Pieter van der Banck, c.1660

  30. Edward Hyde, Earl Of Clarendon, Lord Chancellor, by Sir Peter Lely (Middle Temple, London/Bridgeman)

  31. Sir Orlando Bridgeman by John Riley (The Trustees of the Weston Park Foundation, UK; Bridgeman)

  32. The Sessions’ House in the Old Bailey

  33. The execution of the regicides, detail from frontispiece to The True Characters of the Educations, Inclinations and Several Dispositions of all and every one of those Bloody and Barbarous Persons, 1660 (British Library)

  34. Portrait heads of the regicides, late seventeenth-century print (British Museum)

  Chronology

  1599 Birth of Oliver Cromwell

  1600 Birth of Charles Stuart

  1603 Death of Elizabeth I. James VI of Scotland accepts invitation to reign as James I.

  1605 Gunpowder Plot

  1608 Birth of John Cooke

  1618 Execution of Sir Walter Ralegh

  1621–4 Cooke attends Wadham College, Oxford

  1624–31 Cooke studies at Gray’s Inn

  1625 Death of James I. Charles I crowned King of England, Scotland and Ireland. Cooke enrolled as a student at Gray’s Inn.

  1627 The Five Knights Case

 
1628 Assassination of Buckingham. The Petition of Right.

  1629–40 Personal rule by Charles I, without Parliament

  1630 Sir John Eliot’s case

  1631 Cooke admitted as barrister of Gray’s Inn

  1633 William Laud appointed Archbishop of Canterbury

  1634 Cooke admitted to King’s Inn, Dublin. Joins administration of Sir Thomas Wentworth.

  1637 Prynne, Bastwick and Burton mutilated and jailed indefinitely by the Star Chamber

  The Ship Money Case

  1638 John Lilburne jailed by the Star Chamber

  Scottish National Covenant opened for signature, Grayfriars Kirk

  1640 The Short Parliament (April/May)

  Second Bishop’s War (July–September)

  Opening of the Long Parliament (November)

  1641 March Strafford’s trial

  July Court of Star Chamber abolished

  November Rebellion in Ireland: slaughter of Protestants

  December Grand Remonstrance

  1642 4 January Charles attempts to arrest Pym and other MPs

  10 January The King flees London

  15 January Parliament establishes judicial independence

  February Militia Bill becomes law without royal assent

  June The Nineteen Propositions, and the King’s answer

  22 August Charles declares war on Parliament by raising his standard outside Nottingham Castle

  October Battle of Edgehill (a draw)

  1643 June Death of John Hampden

  July Fall of Bristol (Royalist victory)

  September Parliamentary alliance with Scottish covenanters

  October Battle of Winceby (Cromwell’s first victory)

  December Death of John Pym

  1644 January Scots army enters England

  July Battle of Marston Moor (parliamentary victory)

  1645 January Execution of Laud

  April Self-denying Ordinance (Cromwell excepted). Fairfax made commander-in-chief of the New Model Army.

  June Battle of Naseby (definitive parliamentary victory)

  September Siege of Basing House

  1646 6 February Publication of Vindication of the Professors and Profession of Law

  12 February Cooke and Bradshawe represent John Lilburne

  April–May King surrenders to Scots at Newark

  July The Newcastle propositions

  August The King’s first answers to the propositions

  September Cooke marries Frances Cutler, St Olave’s Church, London

  October House of Commons resolves to maintain New Model Army for only six months

  1647 January Scots sell the King to Parliament and withdraw

  February The King at Holmby House

  What the Independents Will Have

  May Parliament moves to disband the Army

  June Fairfax’s regiment refuses to disband; Joyce takes the King into army custody

  August Army enters London. A Union of Hearts.

  September Independents secure city government

  October Putney debates

  November King escapes from Hampton Court, detained on Isle of Wight (Carisbrooke Castle)

  Cork Bush Field mutiny

  December ‘Engagement’ between the King and Scots

  1648 January Vote of No Addresses

  February The Poor Man’s Case

  July Second Civil War: Scots army under Hamilton invades England

  August Cromwell vanquishes Scots; Hamilton captured Royalists surrender to Fairfax at Colchester

  September Parliament begins negotiations with the King at Newport

  October Murder of Colonel Rainborough;

  Treaty of Westphalia ends the Thirty Years War on the continent.

  November Remonstrance of the army

  1 December The King is moved to Hurst Castle

  5 December Parliament rejects Remonstrance, determines to treat with the King

  6 December Pride’s Purge

  16 December Army Council orders that the King be brought to Windsor

  23 December Commons passes Ordinance for trial of the King

  1649 1 January House of Lords rejects Ordinance

  6 January Commons passes Ordinance, this time as an Act of Parliament

  8 January (Monday) Judges of the High Court convene in the Painted Chamber

  10 January (Wednesday) High Court appoints Bradshawe as President, Steel, Cooke, Dorislaus and Aske as prosecutors

  15 January (Monday) Cooke produces first draft of charge against the King

  20 January (Saturday) Cooke signs and presents charge at the opening of the King’s trial in Westminster Hall

  22 January (Monday) Second session of trial

  23 January (Tuesday) Third session of trial

  24–25 January Cooke examines witnesses

  27 January (Saturday) Charles I sentenced to death.

  30 January Execution of Charles I

  9 February King’s burial at Windsor Castle

  King Charles: His Case. Also the King’s Book (Eikon Basilke)

  Opening of trials of Duke of Hamilton and other courtiers

  13 February John Milton, The Tenure of King and Magistrates, Mercurius Elencticus No. 56

  9 March Hamilton, Holland and Capel executed

  17 March Act abolishing the office of King

  19 March Act abolishing the House of Lords

  2 May Assassination of Dorislaus

  19 May Act declaring England to be a Commonwealth

  May Leveller revolt in Army put down at Burford

  June Cooke appointed Master of St Cross Hospital

  August–October Cromwell’s campaign in Ireland: storming of Drogheda and Wexford

  24–26 October Trial of John Lilburne

  1650 1–5 January John and Frances Cooke survive the storm at sea. A True Relation of the Sea Voyage.

  March Cooke appointed Chief Justice of Munster

  May Cromwell leaves Ireland; Henry Ireton appointed Lord Deputy

  June Fairfax resigns; Cromwell appointed Lord General

  3 September Cromwell defeats Scots at Dunbar

  1651 3 September Cromwell defeats Charles II at Worcester

  November Death of Henry Ireton

  1652 January Committee on law reform, chaired by Matthew Hale

  February Monarchy No Creature of God’s Making.

  July Settlement of Ireland Act

  6 August Charles II offers amnesty to all, excepting Cromwell, Bradshawe and Cooke

  1653 April Cromwell dissolves the Rump

  July Barebone’s Parliament

  August Lilburne’s last trial

  September Irish Satisfaction Act: Cooke given lands in Cork in lieu of pension

  December Instrument of Government: Cromwell installed as Lord Protector

  1654 Fleetwood made Lord Deputy in Ireland

  Opening of Protectorate Parliament

  1655 January Cooke made Recorder of Waterford

  June Council appoints Cooke as judge of the Upper Bench

  August Cooke writes to Fleetwood resigning judicial commission to the Upper Bench

  September Cromwell appoints major-generals to rule counties

  1656 August Ludlow, Bradshawe and Vane carpeted by Council of State for opposing Protectorate

  1657 April Cooke returns to England

  Cromwell refuses the crown

  November Henry Cromwell appointed Lord Deputy of Ireland

  1658 September Death of Cromwell; Richard becomes Lord Protector

  1659 April Army dissolves Protectorate Parliament

  May Richard Cromwell resigns

  ‘Rump’ of Long Parliament reconvenes

  July Ludlow appointed commander-in-chief for Ireland

  August Royalist rising led by Sir George Booth, put down by Lambert

  October Death of Bradshawe

  Army expe
ls Rump and sets up Committee of Safety

  26 December Rump returns

  1660 1 January Monck enters England

  10 February First report of Cooke’s arrest

  11 February ‘Roasting of the Rump’: Londoners celebrate after Monck’s meeting with City Council

  21 February Return of MPs ‘secluded’ by Pride’s Purge

  March Long Parliament dissolves for elections

  April Lambert surrenders

  Convention Parliament opens

  1 May Declaration of Breda

  8 May Charles II proclaimed King of England

  Cooke’s deposition taken in Dublin Castle

  19May Cooke departs under guard for England

  29 May King enters London

  7 June Parliament excepts Cooke from pardon

  29 August Act of Oblivion

  September Pre-trial meetings between judges and prosecutors at Serjeants’ Inn

  9 October(Tuesday) Regicides committed for trial

  10 October(Wednesday) Opening day at Old Bailey

  11 October(Thursday) Trial and conviction of Harrison

  12 October(Friday) Trials and convictions of Scroop, Scot, Clement, Carew and Jones

  13 October (Saturday) Cooke and Peters tried, convicted and sentenced Harrison executed

  15 October(Monday) Trials and convictions of Daniel Axtell, Colonel Hacker, William Hulet. John Carew executed

  16October (Tuesday) John Cooke and Hugh Peters hanged, drawn and quartered at Charing Cross. Trials of all remaining regicides

  17October (Wednesday) Scot, Clement, Scroop and Jones executed

  19 October(Friday) Axtell and Hacker executed at Tyburn

  1661 January Fifth Monarchy rebellion

  Desecration of corpses of Cromwell, Bradshawe and Ireton

  1662 Execution of Corbet, Barkstead and Okey

  Trials of Lambert and Vane, execution of Vane

  1663 Prosecution of Brewster for Speeches and Prayers of the Regicides

  For Kathy

  The Tyrannicide Brief

  The Story of the Man who sent Charles I to the Scaffold