p. 86.

CHAPTER III.

"Marriage is a matter of more worth
Than to be dealt in by attorneyship."
_Henry VI._, I., v., 5.

If Bacon flattered himself that he had extinguished Coke for good and
all, he was much mistaken. It must have alarmed him to find that Lady
Elizabeth, after constant quarrels with her husband and ceasing to
live with him, had taken his part, now that he had been dismissed from
office, that she had solicited his cause at the very Council
table,[11] and that she had quarrelled with both the King and the
Queen about the treatment of her husband, with the result that she had
been forbidden to go to Court, and had begun to live again with Coke,
taking with her her daughter, now well on in her 'teens.

There was a period of hostilities, however, early in the year 1617.
Sir Edward and Lady Elizabeth went to law about her jointure. In May
Chamberlain wrote to Carleton:--

"The Lord Coke & his lady hath great wars at the council table. I was
there on Wednesday, but by reason of the Lord Keeper's absence, there
was nothing done. What passed yesterday I know not yet: but the first
time she came accompanied with the Lord Burghley" (her eldest
brother), "& his lady, the Lord Danvers" (her maternal grandfather),
"the Lord Denny" (her brother-in-law), "Sir Thomas Howard" (her
nephew, afterwards first Earl of Berkshire) "& his lady, with I know
not how many more, & declaimed bitterly against him, and so carried
herself that divers said Burbage" [the celebrated actor of that time]
"could not have acted better. Indeed, it seems he [Sir Edward Coke]
hath carried himself very simply, to say no more, in divers matters:
and no doubt he shall be sifted thoroughly, for the King is much
incensed against him, & by his own weakness he hath lost those few
friends he had."

It is clear from this letter that, although her husband was one of the
greatest lawyers of the day, Lady Elizabeth was not at all afraid of
pitting herself against him in Court, where indeed she seems to have
proved the better pleader of the pair.

This dispute was patched up. On 4th June Chamberlain wrote: "Sir
Edward Coke & his Lady, after so much animosity and wrangling, are
lately made friends; & his curst heart hath been forced to yield more
than ever he meant; but upon this agreement he flatters himself that
she will prove a very good wife." So Coke and his "very good wife"
settled down