In the first parliament of Charles I., called in April 1625, Sir E. Coke was again returned as one of the knights of the shire for the county of Norfolk, as he says in his Note, " eiue aliquft motione nut petitions inde a me przebitis." At the commencement of this parlia ment he adopted a moderato tone. He dissuaded the house from insisting upon grievances, and urged conciliatory measures ; saying, that "as it was the very beginning of the new king's reign, there could bo no grievances as yet." But this disposition to peace was overcome by the determined tendency of the crown to arbitrary measures ; and the king being unable to obtain any answer to his demand of a subsidy, but repeated remonstrances against grievances, abruptly dissolved the parliament. Compelled however by his pecuniary wants, to assemble a new parliament in the course of the same year, he previously appointed Sir Edward Coke and three other popular leaders sheriff's of counties, in order to prevent their serving as members. Coke, having been in this manner named Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, was again returned as knight of the shire for Norfolk ; and though in coneevence of his ahrievalty, ho did not take his seat in that parlia ment, no new writ was issued to supply his place, and it was con sidered that he was de facto a member of the house. Ile mentious this circumstance in his 'Fourth Institute,' p. 48, though he does not date it to have been his own case; and says, that "having a subpwna out of chancery served upon him, he had his privilege of parliament allowed unto him by the judgment of the whole house of Commons." On occasion of the third parliament summoned by Charles I. in March 1628, Sir Edward Coke was returned for two counties, Buckingham and Suffolk ; but be tells us that "he chose the former, because ho resided there, and because his election for that county took place first." In this parliament, though now in his seventy-ninth year, this extra ordinary man asserted and defended the constitutional rights of the people of England Neith all the energy of youth, and all the sagacity of age. By his advice, and with his active co-operation and assist ance. which his extensive and varied experience rendered particularly valuable, the celebrated Bill of Right. was framed; and by his perse verance and reasoning the lords were, after many conferences, induced to concur in the measure, which was, at last, and after many ineffectual attempts at evasion, reluctantly assented to by the king. One of the last acts of his public life was his spirited denunciation of the Duke of Buckingham as the cause of all the misfortunes of the country. As a proof of the earnest feelings by which he was impressed, Rush worth records that, on this occasion, "Sir Edward Coke, overcome with passion, seeing the desolation likely to ensue, was forced to sit down when he began to speak, through the abundance of tears." At the close of the session of parliament in March 1629, the growing infirmities of advanced age induced him to withlraw from public life, and to spend the remainder of his days in retirement on his estate at Stoke Pogis, in Buckinghamshire. Still it appears that his vigorous and active mind was not without employment; and the last years of his life are said to have been occupied by the revision of the numerous works which he left behind him.
The last entry in his note-book, written with almost as firm a hand as he wrote at the age of forty, records the following incident, which may possibly have been the cause of his death : "Memorandum. Die Jovis, the iiird of May 1632, riding in the morning in Stoke, between eight and nine of the clocke to take the gyre, my horse under me had a strange stumble backward, and fell upon me (being above eighty years old), where my bead lighted nere to Sharpe stubbes, and the heavy horse upon me. And yet, by the providence of Almighty God, though I was in the greatest danger, yet I had not the least hurt,—nay, no hurt at all. For Almighty God saith by his prophet David, The angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that feare him, and delivereth them.' Et nomen Domini benedictum, for it was his work 1" He died on the 3rd of September, in the following year, repeating with his last breath the words, " Thy kingdom come, thy will be done ; " and was buried in the family burying-place of the Coke family in the church of Titeahall, in Norfolk.
The most celebrated of Sir Edward Coke's works is the treatise commonly known by the name of Coke upon Littleton, or the First Institute.' It consists of a minute and laborious commentary upon the text of Littleton's ' Tenures,' in the coarse of which almost the whole learning of the common law, as it existed in his time, is digested and explained. This book has ever since the time of Lord Coke to the present day been considered as a work of the highest authority in the municipal and constitutional law of England. The ' Second Institute' contains notes on several ancient statutes ; the 'Third Institute' is a treatise on criminal law ; and the 'Fourth Institute' treats of the origin and jurisdiction of different courts. Besides these works, Sir Edward Coke was the author of a treatise on copyholds, entitled The Complete Copyholder,' and a 'Reading on Fines.' He also published a collection of Reports, which are still of great value to the profession, and at the time of their appearance formed an epoch in the history of the law. Sir Francis Bacon speaks of this produce of the industry and learning of his great rival in terms of high and deserved commenda tion ; and justly acribes to the Reports the praise of having pre served the vessel of the common law in a steady and consistent course; " For the law," eays he, " by this time had been like a ship without ballast, for that the cases of modern experience are fled from those that are adjudged and ruled in former time." It would have been well for the critical' fame of Coke had be spoken in as honourable terms of his greater rival's philosophical labours, (Many of the dates and incidents in this sketch of Sir E. Coke's life are taken from some characteristic memoranda in his own hand-writing prefixed to a volume of Notes among the Harleian manuscripts in the British Museum, No. 6687. It is remarkable that these Notes had not been referred to by any of Coke's numerous biographers before the publication of this biography in the 'Penny Cyclopmdia.)