The Chancellor meanwhile was confined to his bed, and this proceeding of Coke was considered the more reprehensible as an attempt to crush a dying rival. But Sir Francis Bacon, the Attorney General, gave information of the collision to the King, "commending the wit of a mean man, who said the other day, 'Well, the next term you shall have an old man come with a beesom of wormwood in his hand that will sweep away all this,' for it was Mylord's fashion, especially towards the summer, to carry a posy of wormwood." 66 Accordingly the Chancellor, having unexpectedly recovered, prepared a case, which he laid before the King, concluding with the question, Whether, upon an apparent matter of Equity which the Judges of the law by their place and oath cannot meddle with or relieve, if a judgment be once passed at common law, the subject shall perish, or that the Chancery shall relieve him? and, whether there be any statute of premunire, or other, to restrain this power in the Chancellor ?"* The King referred it to the Attorney and Solicitory General, the King's Serjeants, and the Attorney General of the Prince of Wales, who made a report to him, that the statutes of premunire did not apply to such a case, and that, according to reason and many precedents, the Chancellor had the jurisdiction which he had exercised, to examine the judgments of the Courts of common law, and to stay execution if he should find that they had been obtained by fraud for which the Courts of common law could not afford sufficient remedy. James, however, in deciding for the Chancellor, thought fit to rest on the plenitude of his royal prerogative, assuming that "it appertained only to his princely office to judge over all Judges, and to discern and determine such differences as at any time might arise between his several Courts touching their jurisdictions, and the same to settle and determine as he in his princely wisdom should find to stand most with his honour." To settle the question of jurisdiction in all time to come, the royal decree was ordered to be enrolled in the Court of Chancery. Coke made rather a humiliating submission, and during the short remainder of his judicial career offered no further resistance to injunctions; but, being convinced against his will, he retained his opinion, and in his "Third Institute," he stoutly denies the jurisdiction of the Chancellor on this subject, which he maintains is contrary to 27 Ed. 3.; and after citing the pretended authorities in his favour, he says, "The Privy Seal of 1616 to the contrary was obtained by the importunity of the then Lord Chancellor, being vehemently afraid; sed judicandem est legibus, and no precedent can prevail against an act of parliament."+ Some thought that this would have been a good opportunity for intimation that "theise thinges can be further proved by sundry other witnesses not yet examined, yf it be required." * 5 Bacon's Works. 416. † 1 Chanc. Rep. Append. 26. Council Book, July 26, 1616. 3 Bl. Comm. 3 Inst. c. 54. p. 125. After Lord Coke's death the question of equitable jurisdiction was again mooted, and it was revived at intervals down to 1695, when an 66 getting rid of Coke as Chief Justice. But Bacon writes to the King: My opinion is plainly that my Lord Coke at this time is not to be disgraced, both because he is so well habituate for that which remaineth of these capital causes*, and also for that which I find in his breast, touching your finances and matters of repair of your estate. On the other side, this great and public affront, not only to the reverend and well-deserving person of your Chancellor, (and at a time when he was thought to lie on dying, which was barbarous,) but to your high Court of Chancery, which is the Court of your absolute power, may not, in my opinion, pass lightly, nor end only in some formal atonement; but use is to be made thereof for the settling of your authority and strengthening of your prerogative, according to the true rules of monarchy. If it be true, as is reported, that any of the puisne Judges did stir this business, or that they did openly revile and menace the jury for doing their conscience as they did, honestly and truly, I think that Judge is worthy to lose his place. And to be plain with your Majesty, I do not think there is any thing a greater polychreston, or ad multa utile to your affairs, than upon a just and fit occasion to make some example against the presumption of a Judge in causes that concern your Majesty, whereby the whole body of those magistrates may be contained the better in awe." He concludes, however, by giving the milder advice, which appears to have been followed, "that the Judges should answer it on their knees before your Majesty or your Council, and receive a sharp admonition." The Attorney General was directed to prosecute in the Star Chamber the parties who had preferred the indictments; but the matter was allowed to drop without any farther judicial proceeding, the attention of the nation being now entirely absorbed in the prosecutions going forward for the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. The occurrences connected with this murder throw a deep stain on the reign of James; and Lord Ellesmere cannot be entirely cleared of the disgrace in which all concerned in them were involved. He was not answerable for the King's fondness for Car, the handsome unlettered youth, nor the favours bestowed upon this minion, nor the young Countess of Essex's preference of him to her wedded husband; but he was answerable, as Head of the Law, for countenancing the infamous process instituted to dissolve her marriage, and for putting the Great Seal to a commission for that purpose. Though Archbishop Abbot, to his honour, refused to concur in the divorce, which was pronounced on the fantastical plea of “ maleficium versus hanc," produced by witchcraft, which James himself wrote a treatise to elaborate treatise in support of Lord Coke's doctrine was published by Lord Chief Baron Atkyns, but the jurisdiction of equity as well after as before judgment, has been ever since exercised without controversy or interruption. See all the authorities collected by Mr. Hargrave in a note to the Life of Lord Ellesmere, in the Biogr. Brit, vol. v. p. 574. 1 Hall. Const. Hist. 469. 2 Swanst. 24. n. The prosecutions arising out of the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury. support, the Chancellor, several Bishops, and the most eminent statesmen, concurred in the judgment: and Sir Thomas Overbury became the victim of the advice he honestly gave to his friend, not to unite himself in marriage with an abandoned woman. The Earl and Countess of Somerset being now detected as the instigators of the murder, they were lodged in the Tower. It was indispensably necessary that they should be brought to trial, and the greatest consternation prevailed at Whitehall. Little sympathy was felt for the favourite, whose fall had been foreseen, as he had been supplanted in the King's affections by the younger, the handsomer, and the more sprightly Villiers; but he and his wife had some royal secrets in their keeping, which there was a dreadful apprehension that they might disclose when they stood at the bar, and had nothing more to hope or to fear on this side the grave. The plan adopted, with the sanction of the Chancellor, was to hold out to them an assurance of mercy if they demeaned themselves discreetly; but, by way of precaution, along with some frivolous questions, such as "whether the axe was to be carried before the prisoners, this being a case of felony?" and "whether, if there should be twelve votes to condemn, and twelve or thirteen to acquit, it would not be a verdict for the King?"—the Judges were asked "whether, if my Lord of Somerset should break forth into any speech taxing the King, he be not presently by the Lord Steward to be interrupted and silenced?" The inferior agents in the murder having been convicted under a special commission sitting at the Guildhall, London, Lord Ellesmere, the Chancellor, was appointed Lord High Steward for the trial of the Earl and Countess of Somerset before their Peers. It was concerted that the Lady was to plead guilty, and her trial was appointed to come on the first. Lord Ellesmere, as Lord High Steward, rode on horse-back in great state from York House to Westminster Hall, attended by the Peers who were summoned to sit on the trial. Then came the Judges and Serjeants at Law who were to act as assessors. The Court being constituted, the Countess was brought into the Hall; but the ceremony of carrying the axe before her was omitted. She stood pale and trembling at the bar, and when addressed by the Lord High Steward she covered her face with her fan; but I do not find any question made as to her having been personally present on this occasion, although in a prior judicial investigation she was supposed, concealing her face, to have been represented by a young virgin of her age and stature. Making a low courtesy to the Lord High Steward, she now confessed that the charge against her in the indictment was true, and she prayed for mercy. thus The Lord High Steward, holding his white wand in his hand, addressed her: "Frances Countess of Somerset, whereas thou hast been indicted, arraigned, and pleaded guilty, it is now my part to pronounce judgment; only thus much before, since my Lords have heard with what humility and grief you have confessed the fact, I do not doubt they will signify as much to the King, and mediate for his grace towards you; but in the mean time, according to the law, the sentence must be this, that thou shalt be carried from hence to the Tower of London, and from thence to the place of execution, where you are to be hanged by the neck till you be dead; and the Lord have mercy upon your soul." Ten days after, the Earl of Somerset was brought to his trial with the like solemnities; but as he refused to plead guilty, the Lieutenant of the Tower told him roundly that "if in his speeches he should tax the King, the justice of England was that he should be taken away, and the evidence should go on without him, and then all the people would cry, Away with him! and then it should not be in the King's will to save his life, the people would be so set on fire." When he had been arraigned, Ellesmere, as Lord High Steward, affected to desire him to make his defence boldly, "without fear," but evidently attempted to intimidate him by adding, "To deny that which is true increases the offence; take heed lest your wilfulness cause the gates of mercy to be shut against you.' The prisoner abstained from any attack on the King, and the trial was conducted decorously to its close, the counsel for the Crown first reading the written depositions of the witnesses, and then presenting the witnesses themselves to be examined by the prisoner or the Peers. The proofs were complete, the verdict of guilty unanimous, and sentence of death was pronounced in due form. These two titled culprits were far more guilty than the inferior agents employed by them, on whom the rigour of the law had taken its course; yet, according to the understanding which had been entered into with them, they were respited from time to time, and at last a pardon was granted to them, reciting that Lord Ellesmere, and the other Peers who tried them, had undertaken to intercede in their favour. In the annals of crime there is not a murder more atrocious for premeditation, treachery, ingratitude, and remorselessness, than the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury by the Somersets. The execution of Lord Sanquhar for killing the fencing-master, was the subject of much self-laudation to James; but the guilt of this nobleman was venial in comparison. Although it be possible that the remains of tenderness might alone have now actuated the royal mind, there must ever remain a suspicion that Ellesmere assisted him in screening from justice persons who, while convicted of a crime of the deepest Who would suppose that a poetical thought should be borrowed from a Lord High Steward on a trial for felony ? Yet the coincidence between Ellesmere and Gray could hardly be accidental, 66 "Forbad to wade through slaughter to a throne, And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.” Cumque Tho. Dominus Ellesmere Cancellar n' Angliæ et Magnus Senescallus nr' Angliæ ea vice existens necnon omnes pares ejus per quorum judicium convicta fuit ad humil. petitionem ejusdem Franciscæ publice fact. promisso suo ad intercedend. pro misericordia nostra regia, erga eam solemniter se obstrinxerunt," &c. malignity, were in possession of some secret which the monarch on the throne was desirous should be for ever buried in oblivion. These prosecutions being over, the Lord Chancellor joined in a scheme, not much to his credit, to dismiss Sir Edward Coke from his office of Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench. This is supposed to have originated with Buckingham, who then had a private quarrel with him about the appointment to a lucrative place in his Court; but the Chancellor, instead of standing up, as would have become him, for the independent administration of justice, rejoiced in the opportunity of being revenged upon a man who had injured him— little conscious that he was lowering his own character, and giving fresh lustre to that of his hated rival. A cause happened to be argued in the Court of King's Bench wherein the validity of the grant of a benefice to be held in commendam, or along with a bishopric, came into question, and counsel at the bar had denied the prerogative of the King to make such a grant. For the purpose of involving the Chief Justice in a quarrel that might give a pretence for cashiering him, the Chancellor and the Attorney General concocted a letter to him in the King's name, under the Privy Seal, forbidding the Court to proceed further in the cause, "Rege inconsulto," -until the King's advice should be taken upon a matter touching his prerogative. At Coke's request, similar letters were written to all the other judges, so that the obligation created by such a prohibition might be solemnly considered. The twelve Judges having assembled, - by a writing which they all subscribed, they certified his Majesty that "they were bound by their oaths not to regard any letters contrary to law, and that the letters in question being contrary to law, they were bound to proceed to hear the cause argued, and to do justice between the parties." They were summoned, as criminals, before the Council, and the King, with the Chancellor on his right hand, inveighed against the manner in which popular lawyers were allowed to tread on his prerogative, and pronounced the remonstrance of the Judges highly indecent, as they ought at once to have submitted to his princely judgment. All the twelve dropped down on their knees, and acknowledged their error as to the form of their answer; but Coke manfully entered on a defence of the substance of it, maintaining that "the delay required was against law and their oaths." James appealed to the Lord Chancellor, who, showing an utter want of dignity and courage, said he should first like to hear the opinion of the Attorney General. Bacon, without hesitation, asserted that "putting off the hearing of the cause, in obedience to his Majesty's command, till his Majesty might be consulted, to his understanding, was, without all scruple, no delay of justice nor danger of the Judges' oaths, and begged the Judges to consider whether their conscience ought not to be more touched by their present refractory conduct, for it is part of their oath to counsel his Majesty when called; and if they will proceed first to give judgment in Court in a business whereon |