Killers of the King: The Men Who Dared to Execute Charles I by Charles Spencer

Author:Charles Spencer [Spencer, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1408851715
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2014-08-08T04:00:00+00:00

Peters had been tried alongside the lawyer John Cook, who had mounted a brilliant legal defence that led to awkward questions as to the validity, the procedure and the content of the charges against him.

Cook claimed he had only accepted the case against the late King because he needed the fee: he assured the court that he had no malice in helping the prosecution; rather his involvement was down to avarice. This raised the vital question as to whether a lawyer paid to represent a cause could be condemned for doing so, since he was performing his professional duties. With similar ingenuity Cook stated that he could not be guilty of contriving or plotting the death of the King, since he was only engaged as solicitor to the court the day after the charges against Charles I were proclaimed.

On a more mundane level he also pointed out that the charge against him had been drawn up in the name of ‘I. Cooke’, not ‘J. Cooke’. This sort of administrative error could, Cook knew from experience, lead to cases being dismissed.

But none of Cook’s clever points could penetrate the all-enveloping hostility of this Royalist court. They had come to condemn the prime movers in the death of the King, and the case’s lead prosecutor could not be allowed to elude them. Additionally, Cook had been a legal pioneer who had tried to straighten out some of the abuses of his profession, and who had recommended that lawyers should donate one-tenth of their fees to the poor. Accordingly, as Ludlow noted, ‘The malice towards this gentleman was very great from those of his own robe.’47 He was not going to receive any favours from disgruntled colleagues.

Cook and Peters received their death sentence at the same time. They were manacled together and escorted back to prison.

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