The Tyrannicide Brief The Story of the Man Who Sent Charles I to the Scaffold |
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| Author:
| Robertson, Geoffrey |
| ISBN: | 978-0-09-949942-8 |
| Publication Date: | Mar 2006 |
| Publisher: | Penguin Random House
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| Imprint: | Vintage |
| Book Format: | Paperback |
| List Price: | Contact Supplier contact
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Book Description:
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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...
More DescriptionCharles 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; 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.