Sir John Coke (1563-1644), MP and Secretary of State to King Charles I of England prior to the English Civil War, during the period from March 1629 to April 1640 when the king ruled without Parliament. One of Coke's sons supported Parliament and the other the King in the English Civil War. Square detail of engraving created in the 1700s by English engraver and artist, John Sturt (1658-1730).
Sir John Coke (1563-1644), Secretary of State to King Charles I and staunch royalist. Square detail of an original copperplate engraving by English engraver and artist, John Sturt (1658-1730), from a portrait by an unknown artist. This engraving was first used in a verse history of the English Civil Wars by Edward Ward (1667 - 1731), 'History of the Grand Rebellion’ published in 1713. The engraving was then re-used, with plate number added, in later editions of the 'History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England' by Edward Hyde, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to King Charles I, who was later raised to the peerage as 1st Earl of Clarendon. Sir John Coke was described by Clarendon as “a man of very dumb education and a narrower mind….. his cardinal perfection was industry and his most eminent infirmity covetousness”. Coke entered Parliament in 1621 as MP for Warwick and was knighted in 1624. The same year, he was elected MP for St Germans and was re-elected for the seat in 1625. In 1626 and 1627 he was elected MP for Cambridge University. In the parliament of 1625 Coke acted as Secretary of State and the king made full use of Coke’s bureaucratic skills during the period from March 1629 to April 1640 when the king ruled without Parliament - known as the king’s Personal Rule. By 1629, Coke had accrued sufficient funds to purchase Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire. However, in 1639, Coke was scapegoated for the humiliating Berwick peace treaty with the Scots and dismissed from office. He died in 1644, at the height of the first English Civil War. John Sturt is best known for his illustrations of John Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress'.
Size: 3571px × 3571px
Location: London, England, UK
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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