Lady Elizabeth Coke

From The Secret Life of Edward Coke there's a fascinating section on Lady Elizabeth:

Except for the rare student of the common law such as those sitting in on Legal History 101 at Cambridge or Oxford law schools, one would hardly know of Edward Coke (1552-1634 - see biography here). And yet, in the history of the common law, he is the most influential of them all. His career shaped the law, and in retirement, his Reports and 4-volume Institutes carried that law until William Blackstone's Commentaries.

But even in Legal History 101, and in typical British discreetness when it comes to the lives of their peers, you would never be told the half of it when it came to Edward Coke and his life away from the law.

Coke sparred constantly with his nemesis Francis Bacon. Bacon was more eloquent and a well-rounded philosopher, and also not one to be omitted from our imaginary tabloid as he was arrested for insolvency and married a 14-year old.

Edward Coke is not all fee tail and tenancies by the entireties. The personal life of few other legal icons compares to his. Lady Elizabeth Hatton

Elizabeth Hatton was the granddaughter of England's then Minister of finance William Cecil, often referred to as Lord Burghley, Queen Elizabeth's most senior minister.

When Hatton was suddenly widowed in 1597, her wealth and eligibility was not lost on two up-and-coming lawyers. Coke had lost his own wife Bridget in June of 1598. Francis Bacon was poor and saw gold and advancement in the wooing of Liz Hatton.

The two suitors went at it with a vengeance.

Coke in the newsJust how old Elizabeth Hatton was in 1598 will always be a mystery as a variety of credible sources set her birth-year as between 1574 and 1578. Quite possibly, then, she was as young as 20 years old when she was courted by the then 46-year old Edward Coke, a widower with eight children (Bacon eventually married a 14-year old, Alice Barnham, in 1606).

Since 1594, Coke had been Elizabeth's Attorney General, having beaten out the other candidate, Francis Bacon.

When Lord Burghley died on August 4, 1598, Hatton's fortune was increased by her dead husband's share. That sealed the deal for Coke; he proposed days later. She accepted. In November of 1598, the rich, young widow, Lady Hatton married Edward Coke even though the marriage broke the law as it was done without a license.

Hatton shocked society by marrying such an old man and so soon after her new husband's previous wife's death. Further, she retained her own name of Hatton. Something almost seemed odd in all this. One writer cut to the chase:

   "Coke's second wife, Elizabeth ... was with child when he married her...."1

A child was born to Elizabeth Hatton but even when the couple announced it in August 1599, the rumours could not be quelled even though the date of birth suggested it was legitimate. The Rack: Torture

As Attorney General, Edward Coke had no reservations about using torture to expedite confessions.

Common law historians often speak with hypocrisy against the horrific punishments used by the Spanish Inquisition after conviction but point out, as if it made some kind of difference, that this was somehow morally different from the investigative torture rampant in Middle Ages England.

Edward Coke participated in every horrible way in the administration of the rack on many prisoners to extract confessions or the names of suspected co-conspirators. Henry Walpole, a Jesuit priest, was racked in 1594 and 1595 and once convicted, sentenced to death by being drawn and quartered. Another Jesuit priest, John Gerard was racked repeatedly in 1597 while being questioned by Edward Coke. Guy Fawkes was so badly tortured in 1605 after the failed Gunpowder Plot, that he could barely climb the scaffold to his own execution.

All under the watch of Edward Coke, Attorney General to the Crown of England. More Francis Bacon

The two protagonists had words on several occasions, mostly duly noted by observers. One occasion was a skirmish in Exchequer Court in which Bacon was the loser. Bacon retreated to his office and wrote Coke a letter admonishing him for having taken the "liberty to disgrace and disable my law, my experience, my discretion."

But in 1613, with Coke sitting as Chief Justice, the new Attorney General, Francis Bacon appeared before him. Coke sensed that Bacon was stoking the king towards bolder and bolder exercise of the rights of a monarch all of which was causing friction between king and court of law.

   Coke: "Mr. Attorney, this is all your doing. It is you that have made this great stir."

   Bacon : "Ah, my Lord. Your Lordship all this while hath grown in breadth. You must needs grow in height or else you would be a monster."

Elizabeth Hatton II

Elizabeth Hatton later alleged that in the early years of her marriage, she was subjected to spousal abuse by Edward Coke. He would, she claimed in public court papers, break into tantrums and seize or damage her property.

Her uncle Robert Cecil was often called upon to reconcile the couple, especially on the frequent occasions that Hatton would leave her husband (on one occasion, for a whole year). Queen Elizabeth herself had to get involved, circa 1601, as she roughly demanded of her Attorney General that he get his personal house in order.

Edward CokeThe problem seems to be that both Hatton and Coke were pigheaded and stubborn.

In 1617, their marital discord spilled out onto the streets, again. This time, each petitioned the Privy Council, Hatton alleging that Coke and his "fighting son Clement" had broken into her private quarters and stolen her property.

The most sensational incident occurred when husband and wife disagreed on the marriage of their 14-year old daughter Frances Coke to 30-year old John Villiers. The groom's mother wanted a much larger dowry than Coke was prepared to pay but they were negotiating.

When she found out about the discussions to which she had not been made privy by Coke, Hatton reacted by rejecting her daughter's proposed marriage outright.

One night, after Coke had gone to bed, mother kidnapped daughter and went into hiding at Oatlands, near London. Coke got a warrant for his wife's arrest, saddled up with a posse of ten men including his son Clem, and discovered where the pair was hiding.

They knocked but were rebuffed at the door of Oatlands. Coke waved his warrant and ordered his men to ram the door down. He then forced his way in and found his daughter who he wrenched from the arms of her wailing mother and returned her to his home.

Weird turned to crazy when Hatton turned to none other than Francis Bacon for help. He directed her to the Privy Council where she attended and begged for a warrant to return Frances to a mutual guardian, to which Edward Coke acquiesced.

Then followed an extraordinary scene in the Privy Council as first wife then husband aired their dirty laundry and asked the court for relief against the other.

Finally, King James put an end to it by directing that Frances be returned to Edward Coke and that he alone make decisions as regards her marriage.

A time later, James pulled Hatton aside and proposed a reconciliation with her husband. Her reply:

   "If he come in at one door, I will go out at the other."

Conduct Unbecoming

During the 1603 treason trial of Walter Raleigh, Edward Coke grew increasingly frustrated with Raleigh's eloquence on the stand. Coke, ever before the classy barrister, lost it and used language unbecoming an attorney general, much to the chagrin of the commoners and historians alike who revered Raleigh. During the trial, Coke shook his closed fist at the prisoner and shouted:

   "Thou art the most vile and execrable traitor that ever lived! There never lived a viler traitor on the face of the earth than thou!"

Raleigh was convicted and sentenced to be drawn and quartered but King James commuted his sentence to life in the Tower (Raleigh was eventually beheaded in 1618). The Tower

In December of 1621, Edward Coke was a prominent member of the House of Commons and far too outspoken about the limits of monarchical jurisdiction, King James knew who the mover and shaker of this Parliament was.

Angry at demands being made of his office, James adjourned Parliament and sent Coke to the Tower of London, where he was to spend his 70th birthday. James considered charging the old lawyer with treason for using the Parliament to stir up rebellion.

After six months, Coke was released. Near-Death Experiences

Edward Coke had two near death experiences that we know of. In this era of travel by horse or horse and carriage, roads and weather were uncertain as were horses.

Once, the carriage he was travelling in rolled over at high speed. Coke emerged unscathed.

On May 3, 1632, at the age of 80, Coke was out riding when his horse reared and fell on top of him. The octogenarian again walked away without so much as a bruise. Sons

Edward Coke's sons never came close to his greatness. "The five sons were forever in debt, forever quarrelling," wrote Catherine Drinker Bowen.

Robert Coke ran up colossal debts and needed to be bailed out by his father regularly.

Clem Coke, law school drop-out, was a battler; his nickname, Fighting Clem. Once, in the great Parliament of 1621, Clem hit another member (Charles Morison), who then drew his sword, an offence punishable by life in prison and forfeiture of all property to the Crown. Morison never reached Coke with his weapon but the House was aghast. Coke was sent to the Tower where he spent two days until his father could get his release. Death

Edward Coke died on September 3, 1634. On the 1st, as he lay on his deathbed, the local sheriff executed a search warrant and seizure of his papers as Charles I feared Coke's deathbed writings.

Coke's body was kept in state for a month before burial. REFERENCES:

   Drinker Bowen, Catherine, The Lion and the Throne - The Life and Times of Sir Edward Coke (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1957) [NOTE 1 at page 125]

   Duhaime, Lloyd, Edward Coke (1552-1634)

Posted in Legal History on August 28, 2011 by Lloyd Duhaime

From Wikipedia:

Elizabeth Hatton was the second wife of Sir William Hatton, the nephew and heir of Sir Christopher Hatton (Lord Chancellor of England during the reign of Elizabeth I).

After the death of William Hatton in 1597, and after a failed wooing by Francis Bacon, Elizabeth Hatton married Edward Coke. Elizabeth's often public disagreements with her second husband, together with her refusal to take his name, gave her a reputation as a troublesome woman. That reputation — along with a liberal dose of mistaken identity — led to the association of Elizabeth Hatton with the urban legend of Bleeding Heart Yard.

The reality is that Elizabeth Hatton was not murdered in Bleeding Heart Yard in 1626. Born Elizabeth Cecil sometime between 1574 and 1578, she was the daughter of Lord Burghley’s eldest son Thomas Cecil. She married Sir William Newport after the death of his first wife (Elizabeth Gawdy) and became Lady Elizabeth Hatton when her husband took on both the property and surname of his deceased uncle, Sir Christopher Hatton.

On William's death in 1597, she married Sir Edward Coke, but kept the Hatton name. They had a daughter, Frances Coke, whose forced marriage to John Villiers, 1st Viscount Purbeck, the older brother of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, was a major factor in her parents' marital strife.

On Elizabeth's death in 1646, she was buried in the crypt at St. Andrew Guild Church in Holborn

ELIZABETH CECIL (1578-January 3,1646)

Elizabeth Cecil was the daughter of Thomas Cecil, earl of Exeter (May 5,1542-1623) and Dorothy Latimer (1547/8-1609). She married Sir William Hatton (d.1597), a wealthy gentleman who left her with properties on the Isle of Purbeck and in London. She also had the guardianship of her stepdaughter, Frances Hatton. She was courted by Francis Bacon and Fulke Greville, but married Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634), a widower who had recently won a lawsuit for her father. She insisted on the wedding taking place in secret, on November 2, 1598, with only her father and the minister present. This was illegal for several reasons. They had wed without banns. They did not have a special license. The ceremony took place in a house instead of a church. And it took place outside the acceptable hours of the day for weddings. When Queen Elizabeth heard of it, she insisted that they remarry in St. Andrew’s Church. Rumor had the bride pregnant by another man before either ceremony, but the couple’s first child was not born until August 1599. Elizabeth continued to be known as Lady Hatton. By Coke she had two daughters, Elizabeth (1599-1623) and Frances (1603-1645) but for most of their marriage she did not live with her husband. They quarreled over the arrangements Coke made for the marriages of Elizabeth’s daughter and stepdaughter. By 1614, the servants at Hatton House had orders not to admit their mistress’s husband. He was forced to use a side door to see his own wife. In 1617, Lady Hatton kidnapped her daughter, Frances Coke, from Stoke Park to prevent her marriage to Sir John Villiers. She took the girl first to the house of her cousin, Sir Edmund Withipole, at Oatlands and then to the earl of Argyll at Hampton Court. Coke found them there, hiding in a closet, and took Frances away. Elizabeth chased them in her coach until it lost a wheel, forcing her to stop. According to one account, Elizabeth followed her husband, seeking another opportunity to make off with their daughter, until King James stepped in and ordered her locked up until after the September 27, 1617 wedding. The DNB, however, says that the matter went to trial, where it was ruled that the consent of both parents was needed for her marriage, since Frances was heir to her mother’s estates. Eventually, Lady Hatton agreed to the match, but on terms ensuring Frances’s income. Villiers, created Viscount Purbeck in 1618, later went insane and Frances returned to her mother’s house. There she fell in love with Robert Howard. In the hope of putting an end to their affair, Elizabeth took her daughter to Holland to visit the Electress Palatine, King James’s daughter, but in 1624, Frances gave birth to an illegitimate child and both she and Howard were arrested for adultery. After 1623, when she sold Hatton House in London, Lady Hatton lived mostly at Stoke Park. She entertained Parliamentary leaders there during the Civil War and in 1643 they returned Hatton House to her. According to legend, she died there, carried off by the devil in a clap of thunder, leaving behind only her heart. The name Bleeding Heart Yard clung to Hatton House for many years. In fact, she was buried in St. Andrew’s Holborn. Biography: Laura L. Norsworthy, The Lady of Bleeding Heart Yard (1935); Oxford DNB entry under “Hatton, Elizabeth [n%C3%A9e Lady Elizabeth Cecil].”

From Darryl Lundy's Peerage page on Elizabeth Cecil:

http://www.thepeerage.com/p1635.htm#i16347

Lady Elizabeth Cecil [1]

• F, #16347
• Last Edited=2 Apr 2011

Lady Elizabeth Cecil was the daughter of Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter and Dorothy Neville.[1] She married, secondly, Sir Edward Coke, son of Robert Coke and Winifred Knightley.[1] She married, firstly, Sir William Hatton.[1] Her married name became Coke.[1] Her married name became Hatton.[1] Child of Lady Elizabeth Cecil and Sir Edward Coke

• 1. Frances Coke+[2] b. 1601, d. 4 Jun 1645

Citations

• 1. [S37] Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 1363. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition.
• 2. [S37] Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition, volume 2, page 2095.

  ---

GEDCOM Source

@R-1349992918@ Web: International, Find A Grave Index Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,70699::0 1,70699::1636353

GEDCOM Source

@R-1349992918@ Web: International, Find A Grave Index Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,70699::0 1,70699::1636353

GEDCOM Source

@R-1349992918@ Web: International, Find A Grave Index Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,70699::0 1,70699::1636353

Origins

From “Burghley: The Life of William Cecil, Lord Burghley, Lord High Treasurer of ...” By W. H. Charlton. Page 126:
GoogleBooks

The Earl had by his first wife, Dorothy Nevill, five sons and eight daughters, viz.:—

His daughters were—

• I. Catherine, who died unmarried.
• II. Lucy, married William, Marquis of Winchester.
• III. Mildred, married, first, Sir Thomas Read, Knight; secondly, Sir Edmund Trafford, of Lancashire, Knight.
• IV. Mary, married Sir Edward Denny, who was afterwards created Baron Denny nnd Earl of Norwich. Their only daughter, Honora, married Sir James Hay, Knt., afterwards Earl of Carlisle.
• V. Susan, who died unmarried.
• VI. Elizabeth, married, first, Sir William Hatton, Knt.; secondly, Sir Edward (afterwards Lord) Coke, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas.
• VII. Dorothy, married Sir Giles Alington.
• VIII. Frances, married Sir Nicholas Tufton, afterwards Earl of Thanet