The Reformation of the Constitution: Law, Culture and Conflict in Jacobean England (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781509957798)

This book revisits one of the defining judicial engagements in English legal history.

It provides a fresh account of the years 1606 to 1616 which witnessed a series of increasingly volatile confrontations between, on the one side, King James I and his Attorney-General, Sir Francis Bacon, and on the other, Sir Edward Coke, successively Chief Justice of Common Pleas and Lord Chief Justice.

At the heart of the dispute were differing opinions regarding the nature of kingship and the reach of prerogative in reformation England. Appreciating the longer context, in the summer of 1616 King James appealed for a reformation of law and constitution to complement the reformation of his Church.

Later historians would discern in these debates the seeding of a century of revolution, followed by another four centuries of reform. This book ventures the further thought that the arguments which echoed around Westminster Hall in the first years of the seventeenth century have lost little of their resonance half a millennium on. Breaks with Rome are little easier to 'get done', the margins of executive governance little easier to draw.

Author: Ian Ward
ISBN-10: 1509957790
ISBN-13: 9781509957798
Publisher: Hart Publishing
Language: English
Published: 11/27/2025
Pages: 232
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 1.00d