John Cook

John Cook, also spelled Cooke, was an English lawyer who became Solicitor General for the Commonwealth and led the prosecution of Charles I in January 1649. He helped frame the case that a king could be called to account for actions against his people, making him one of the most legally significant participants in the unprecedented trial. Cook remained identified with the regicide after the Commonwealth collapsed.

Following the Restoration of Charles II he was excluded from the general indemnity, convicted of high treason and executed in October 1660. Cook was the principal prosecutor at the trial of Charles I and articulated the legal case for holding the king accountable before a specially constituted court. John Cook was born in Leicestershire, England and died in London, England.

Charles Spencer’s Killers of the King treats John Cook as the lawyer appointed Solicitor General for the prosecution of Charles I, making his preparation of the charge and participation in the unprecedented regicide trial central to his later fate. After the Restoration, Cook is hunted as one of the men legally responsible for the king’s execution and is himself tried and executed, allowing Spencer to trace how the revolution’s judicial machinery was turned back upon its surviving agents.