Herbert Butterfield on Edward Coke

“The name of Sir Edward Coke, who lived from 1551 to 1634, is important in the development of English historical study, the evolution of the common law, and the parliamentary conflict with the early Stuarts. Coke used the historical methods of the time in order to magnify the claims of the common law; in order to codify our legal traditions in opposition to royal authority; and, particularly in the 1620's, in order to provide the House of Commons with material for a conflict with the crown on questions of historical interpretation. He helped to secure that the traditional system of English law should win the victory in the 17th century not only over the king but also over rival systems of law which could claim to be perhaps more efficient, perhaps even more up-to-date”

“We must remind ourselves that the weaknesses Coke might have had as a general historian did not prevent his being one of the greatest of English lawyers. If he gave a new turn to the law by what purported to be an appeal to the past, this was itself the mark of a creative mind that was able to achieve practical results by virtue of an added technical ability. He more than anybody else translated medieval limitations upon the monarchy into 17th-century terms; and if he transposed feudal safeguards into common-law restrictions, still his anachronistic sins became a service to the cause of liberty. All that he did helped to confirm the view that in England the king is under the law, and conspired to bring that view of English government to a more complete and vivid realization.”