# Taking the King to Court, John Cooke 

**URL:** <https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts/portraits-of-liberty/taking-the-king-to-court-john-cooke>

**By** Paul Meany

**Published:** May 7, 2020

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Born into poverty in 1609, John Cooke a Puritan lawyer is the first person in history to prosecute a head of state for crimes against humanity.

Despite being born into poverty John Cooke attained an education as a lawyer. While practicing law he realized the unfairness of the current legal system and wrote about how it ought to be reformed to be a system where a crime is a crime no matter who commits it. After the English Civil War King Charles I was put on trial for his heinous crimes, Cooke was the only lawyer in London brave enough to prosecute the king of the country. Despite his obscurity, John Cooke was a remarkable figure who ultimately led to way in articulating why even heads of state should be answerable to the law.

## Further Reading:

[Radical Weirdness in the English Civil Wars](https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/radical-weirdness-english-civil-wars), by Anthony Comegna \& Caleb Brown

[The English “Revolution,” or Civil Wars: Guizot’s Thirteenth Lecture](https://www.libertarianism.org/essays/english-revolution-or-civil-wars-guizots-thirteenth-lecture)

[English Civil Wars](https://www.libertarianism.org/encyclopedia/english-civil-wars), Encyclopedia of Libertarianism