Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #316639 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

The Sunday Times
"shows just why his vision of justice and accountability is of
continuing importance"

The Week
`An absorbing portrait of a hitherto forgotten figure in British
history'

Synopsis
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 theradical barrister, John Cooke. Cooke was a plebeian, son of a poor Leicestershire farmer. His puritan conscience, political vision and love of civil liberty gave him 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. Geoffrey Robertson QC, the internationally renowned human rights lawyer, provides a vivid new reading of the tumultuous Civil War years, exposing long-hidden truths: that the King was guilty as charged; that his execution was necessary to establish the sovereignty of Parliament; and that the regicide trials were rigged and their victims should be seen as national heroes. 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, Milosevic and Saddam Hussein, and a lasting inspiration to the modern world.

Customer Reviews

A brilliant defence of the English Republic!
Geoffrey Robertson's account of the life of Cromwell's Solicitor-General is the best defence of the English Republic I have so far read. He does not gloss over its excesses, but he does at least attempt to put them in perspective (which is more than most 'historians' seem capable of), and he does so without relying on the over-used second-hand account left to us by the Royalist Earl of Clarendon.

However, Robertson's biography is also a cunning polemic than examines contemporary preoccupations with 'regime change', and with the need to bring tyrants to account for their war crimes. There are one or two minor errors (the 1966 film by Attenborough was actually the 1970 film by Ken Hughes), but I was impressed by the power and logic of Mr Robertson's argument. I read this book within four sittings, and was entranced from start to finish, so I shall be buying more books by this author.

Is British Republicanism Indegenous?
All the praise for this book in other reviews is well justified and so I need not add my own. This is among other things a great book for the Republican cause.

And what a better light on English history than stuffed shirt, pompous TV historians boring our pants off by pratting on about MON--AR--CHY.

I only wish to pick out a small reference by Geoffrey Robertson to the effect that British Republicanism is homegrown. The story he tells bears this out but JGA Pocock's well known The Machiavellian Moment (1975) takes a different view. Pocock argues that the British Republicans were influenced by the Italians.

On the face of it, it would seem that Harrington and Milton must have been aware of Italian thought. But Robertson convincingly suggests how British Republicanism grew out of Puritanism.

So who is right?

Brilliant Re-evaluation
This is a long overdue forensic analysis of the trial of Charles I, and John Cooke, the man responsible for preparing the charges. On its way the book explains the legal difficulties involved & the attempt to gain legitimacy to the proceedings in a world where it was believed that all justice flowed from the King. In writing this book Robertson highlights basic errors in the work covering this event in books by many leading historians. In addition he also covers the many much needed legal reforms undertaken during this period, for which John Cooke was the standard bearer.

The book is without doubt a polemic, and Robertson has his own agenda and a very big axe to grind. However, that shouldn't overshadow its importance. It stands as a brilliant piece of revisionism alongside Tom Reilly's "Cromwell: An Honourable Enemy".

A must for Cavalier & Roundhead alike.