FORTESCUE, SIR JOHN (c. 1394–c. 1476), English lawyer, the second son of Sir John Fortescue, of an ancient Devonshire family, was born at Norris, near South Brent, in Somersetshire, and educated at Exeter college, Oxford. In 1430 he was made a king's sergeant-at-law, and in 1442 chief justice of the king's bench. Fortescue held his office during the remainder of the reign of Henry VI., to whom he steadily adhered; he was attainted of treason in the first parliament of Edward IV. When Henry subsequently fled into Scotland, he is supposed to have appointed Fortescue, who appears to have accompanied him in his flight, chancellor of England. In 1463 Fortescue accompanied Queen Margaret and her court in their exile on the Continent, and returned with them to England in 147i. The chancellor wrote for the instruction of the young prince Edward his cele brated work De laudibus legion Angliae. (See trans. by F. Grigor, 1917.) In this treatise, in defining the position of a king, he says "he is appointed to protect his subjects in their lives, properties, and laws ; for this very end and purpose he has the delegation of power from the people, and he has no just claim to any power but this." He was taken prisoner at the battle of Tewkesbury and on the defeat of the Lancastrian party he made his submission to Edward IV., from whom he received a general pardon dated Westminster, Oct. 13, 1471. He died at an advanced age, but the exact date of his death has not been ascertained.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—Fortescue's masterly vindication of the laws of EngBibliography.—Fortescue's masterly vindication of the laws of Eng- land, though received with great favour by the learned of the profes sion to whom it was communicated, did not appear in print until the reign of Henry VIII., when it was published, but without a date. It was subsequently many times reprinted. Another valuable and learned work by Fortescue, written in English, was first published in 1714, under the title of The Difference between an Absolute and a Limited Monarchy. See a revised edition of this work, with valuable historical and biographical introduction, by Charles Plummer, under the title The Governance of England (1885). Fortescue's minor writings were collected as The Works of Sir John Fortescue (1869, for private circu lation) , by his descendant, Lord Clermont.