COKE, SIR EDWARD

born Feb. 1, 1552, Mileham, Norfolk, Eng. died Sept. 3, 1634, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire British jurist and politician whose defense of the supremacy of the common law against Stuart claims of the royal prerogative had a profound influence on the development of the English law and constitution. Additional reading Catherine Drinker Bowen, The Lion and the Throne (1957, reprinted 1990); Stephen D. White, Sir Edward Coke and The Grievances of the Commonwealth (1979).