The Tyrannicide Brief - Hardcover

Robertson QC, Geoffrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701176024 ISBN 13: 9780701176020

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2005

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 theradical barrister, John Cooke. Cooke was a plebeian, son of a poor Leicestershire farmer. His puritan conscience, political vision and love of civil liberty gave him 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. Geoffrey Robertson QC, the internationally renowned human rights lawyer, provides a vivid new reading of the tumultuous Civil War years, exposing long-hidden truths: that the King was guilty as charged; that his execution was necessary to establish the sovereignty of Parliament; and that the regicide trials were rigged and their victims should be seen as national heroes. 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, Milosevic and Saddam Hussein, and a lasting inspiration to the modern world.

About this title

About the Author

Geoffrey Robertson QC is an Australian born radical lawyer. He went to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and has lived in England ever since. He is Master of the Middle Temple and a Recorder (a part-time judge), and was recently appointed by the United Nations as an Appeal Judge for its war crimes court in Sierra Leone. He has written and presented TV programmes in Australia. His previous books include the acclaimed memoir The Justice Game (Vintage), and Crimes Against Humanity - The Struggle for Global Justice (Penguin). He is married to the author Kathy Lette.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0701176024
• ISBN 13: 9780701176020
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 448