• DOI:10.2307/785553
• Corpus ID: 158894307

THE WRITINGS OF SIR EDWARD COKE

@article{Gest1909THEWO,
  title={THE WRITINGS OF SIR EDWARD COKE},
  author={John Marshall Gest},
  journal={Yale Law Journal},
  year={1909},
  volume={18},
  pages={4}
}

• J. Gest
• Published 1 May 1909
• History
• Yale Law Journal

Elizabeth, Queen of England, had many claims to great distinction. Her very name was Tudor, a contraction, it seems. of Theodore, "the gift of God," an epithet of happy omen associated with the mighty rulers of the earth, among whom may be mentioned the African king, Theodore of Abyssinia. This monarch is described in the Encyclopedia Britannica as a "man of education and intelligence, superior to those among whom he lived, with natural talents for governing and gaining the esteem of others. He had a noble bearing, and a frame capable of enduring any amount of fatigue, and he was the best shot and the best horseman in Abyssinia. He was generous to excess and free from cupidity but subject to violent bursts of anger."' Elizabeth also possessed many of these royal traits of character, although Coke said her name was not really Tudor tut rather Owen or Meredith, though "God would not suffer her to have a sir name because by his grace and goodness she should deserve for her imperial vertues to be called Elizabeth the great." 2 "She was," said Coke, "the phoenix of her sex;3 she was Angliae Am or;l familiar with French, Italian and Spanish and learned in Latin and Greek; and "as the rose is the queen of flowers * she was the Queen of Queens. You cannot question what rose I mean; for take the red or the white she was not only by royal descent and inherent birthright but by roseal beauty also, heir to both."' Whether or not Elizabeth deserved this praise and even if she had no right to bear the royal name of Theodore, she was fortunate enough to lend her own to the most glorious period of her country's history. Never before was thought more effesvescing or life more iridescent and vivid. There was a volcanic eruption of brilliant men; Coke was born in 1552, Bacon in 1561, Shakes-