The Tyrannicide Brief
Life and law during the Civil Wars as you have never seen it before - and a passionate argument for the people's right of justice against tyrannical leaders.
Available Formats
-
The Tyrannicide Brief Paperback ISBN: 9780099459194 Published: 01/08/2006 Imprint: Vintage Extent: 448 pages Subject: British & Irish history $19.95 RRP
-
The Tyrannicide Brief EBook ISBN: 9781407066035 Published: 01/08/2011 Imprint: Vintage Digital Extent: 448 pages Subject: British & Irish history $19.95 RRP Buy Now
Synopsis
Charles I waged civil wars that cost one in ten Englishmen their lives. But in 1649 parliament was hard put to find a lawyer with the skill and daring to prosecute a King who was above the law: in the end the man they briefed was the radical barrister, John Cooke.Cooke was a plebeian, son of a poor farmer, but he had the courage to bring the King’s trial to its dramatic conclusion: the English republic. Cromwell appointed him as a reforming Chief Justice in Ireland, but in 1660 he was dragged back to the Old Bailey, tried and brutally executed.John Cooke was the bravest of barristers, who risked his own life to make tyranny a crime. He originated the right to silence, the ‘cab rank’ rule of advocacy and the duty to act free-of-charge for the poor. He conducted the first trial of a Head of State for waging war on his own people – a forerunner of the prosecutions of Pinochet, Milo?evic and Saddam Hussein, and a lasting inspiration to the modern world.
Editorial Reviews
"[Robertson's] forensic intelligence can penetrate where professional historians have not reached" - Blair Worden, Literary Review
"Robertson has come up with that desperately rare thing: a subject worthy of biography who has never before been addressed and, to his huge advantage, in his field. The result is a work of literary advocacy as elegant, impassioned and original as any the author can ever have laid before a court" - Anthony Holden, Observer
"Robertson tells a spellbinding story. He combines lucid analysis of the legal issues with acute understanding of the various factions. His prose is crisp and he inserts some comments that only a professional advocate, as opposed to an academic historian, would make" - Christopher Silvester, Daily Telegraph
"This is a work of great compassion and, at a time when it seems to be fashionable for politicians to denigrate lawyers, it is an essential read for anyone who believes in the fearless independence of the law" - John Cooper, The Times
Your Reviews
Geoffrey Robertson Books
More
The Statute of Liberty: How to Give Australians Back Their Rights
by Geoffrey RobertsonGeoffrey Robertson puts forth his case for giving Australians back their rights in his brilliantly...
Others Also Viewed
The Norman Conquest
by Marc MorrisAn epic tale, with violence at its heart, and a triumph of narrative history
The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England
by Ian MortimerThe past is a foreign country - this is your guide.
Our Man in Rome: Henry VIII and his Italian Ambassador
by Catherine FletcherThe inside story of Henry VIII’s divorce from Catherine of Aragon.
