Master of English common law, defender of "the king under the law"
An English jurist and judge, one of the most important defenders of the common-law tradition. In an age when the king claimed "divine right above the law," he stood forth, insisting that "the king too is under God and the law," and used the common law and the ancient Magna Carta to check royal power. The Petition of Right he drafted is a milestone in English constitutional history in limiting the crown. He rediscovered and elevated Magna Carta, casting it as the fundamental guarantee of Englishmen’s liberties — his thought passed, through Locke and others, all the way to the founders of America.
James I is said to have claimed that the king, as God’s deputy, could judge cases in person. Coke rebuffed him to his face: His Majesty had excellent gifts, but judging cases required the "artificial reason" of long study of the law, in which the king was not versed — the king too must obey the law. This "the king under the law" became one of the most resounding declarations of constitutional spirit in the English-speaking world.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.