View source for Robert Cooke (officer of arms)

{{Short description|English Officer of Arms}}
{{EngvarB|date=April 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2014}}
[[File:Funeral procession of Sir Philip Sidney 1587 Theodor de Bry pallbearers.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Sir Philip Sidney's funeral procession, under Robert Cooke, King of Arms, in 1587]]
[[File:Arms of Robert Cooke.svg|thumb|Arms of Robert Cooke: ''Gules, a cinquefoil ermine in an orle of crosses crosslet fitchy argent'';<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/bk16/pp74-101 |title=Clarenceux King of Arms {{!}} British History Online |website=www.british-history.ac.uk |language=en |access-date=2018-11-21}}</ref>  crest: ''A dexter hand in armour proper joined to a wing or and holding a sword erect proper entwined with a branch of (? olive) vert'']]
[[File:PastonArms TwelveQuarters 1573.png|thumb|Detail from foot of 1573 illuminated pedigree of the Paston family of Norfolk made by Robert Cooke and signed by him in Latin below as ''Rob(ertu)s Cooke alias Clarencieulx Roy d'Armes'']]
'''Robert Cooke''' (born c. 1535, died 1592–3)<ref>''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (2004).</ref><ref name=Venn>{{acad|id=CK553R|name=Cooke, Robert}}</ref> was an [[English law|English]] [[Officer of Arms]] during the reign of [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]], who rose swiftly through the [[Hierarchy|ranks]] of the [[College of Arms]] to [[Clarenceux King of Arms]], serving in that [[Public office|office]] from 1567 until his death in 1592–3.
Cooke served as [[Deputy Earl Marshal]] at the [[state funeral|funeral]] of [[Sir]] [[Philip Sidney]] in 1587, but was later accused by some fellow [[officer of arms|herald]]s of [[grant of arms|granting arms]] to unworthy men for personal gain.
==Life and work==
Educated at [[Kirkham Grammar School]] from a [[recusant]] family, Cooke was brought up in the household of [[Sir]] [[Earl of Cardigan|Edmund Brudenell]], an ardent [[genealogist]]. He went up to [[St. John's College, Cambridge]], graduating in 1558.<ref name=Venn /> He was appointed Rose Blanche [[pursuivant|Pursuivant Extraordinary]], 25 January 1561–2<ref name="DNB87">Stephen 1887, "Robert Cooke, herald".</ref> and succeeded [[William Flower (officer of arms)|William Flower]] as [[Chester Herald|Chester Herald of Arms]] four days later.<ref name="DNB87"/><ref>The patent was sealed 8 February, the date given for the appointment in ''Maychen's Diary''; see Nichols 1848 and Cooper et al. 1861.</ref> Both events were recorded in the diary of [[Henry Machyn]], who twice identified Cooke as the servant of [[Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester|Lord Robert Dudley]].<ref>Nichols 1848, January 1561–2.</ref> Cooke was promoted to Clarenceux King of Arms on 21 May 1567.<ref name="DNB87" /> Cooke served as [[Acting (rank)|Acting]] [[Garter King of Arms]], after the death of [[Sir Gilbert Dethick]] on 3 October 1584, until the permanent appointment of Sir Gilbert's son [[William Dethick]] on 21 April 1586. As Acting Garter, Cooke with [[Robert Glover (officer of arms)|Robert Glover, Somerset Herald]], accompanied the [[Henry Stanley, 4th Earl of Derby|Earl of Derby]] to France to invest [[Henry III of France|King Henri III]] with the [[Order of the Garter|Garter]] in 1584.<ref name="DNB87" /><ref name="Raines">Raines 1870, pp. x, xiii.</ref>
As Clarenceux, Cooke was responsible for arranging the funerals of all [[knight]]s resident south of the [[River Trent]]<ref name="Bos">Bos, Sanders, Marianne Lange-Meyers, and Jeanine Six, "Sidney's Funeral Portrayed".  In Van Dorten et al. 1986, p. 38.</ref> In this capacity he oversaw the "magnificent" state funeral at [[St Paul's Cathedral]] of [[Sir Philip Sidney]], who died in [[Flanders]] on 17 October 1586.<ref name="Bos" /><ref name="PS">Moule 1822, p. 34.</ref> Detailed drawings of the funeral procession on 16 February 1587, with its hundreds of mourners, were published as ''The Procession at the Obsequies of Sir Philip Sydney, Knight, drawn and invented by [[Thomas Lant]], Gentleman, servant to the said honourable Knight, and engraven on copper by [[Theodor de Bry|Derick Theodore de Brijon]], in the City of London. 1587.''<ref name="PS" />
Cooke had sought appointment as Garter (with the support of Dudley, by then the powerful Earl of Leicester),<ref name="Cooper">Cooper 1861, p. 145.</ref> and William Dethick, who secured the appointment, later charged Cooke with encroaching on the traditional privileges of Garter King of Arms. In 1595, after Cooke's death, [[William Segar]], [[Norroy and Ulster King of Arms|Norroy King of Arms]], sided with Dethick, criticising Cooke for his inability to write clearly and for making many grants of arms to "base and unworthy persons for his private gaine onely."<ref name="DNB87" /><ref>Wagner 1967, p. 207.</ref><ref name="Rockett">Rockett 2000.</ref> [[Ralph Brooke]], [[York Herald]] and sometimes deputy to Cooke, complained in 1614 that Cooke had granted more than 500 new coats of arms during his tenure.<ref name="Rockett" />
===Visitations===
In 1530, Henry VIII had issued an instruction governing the conduct of [[heraldic visitations]], in which Clarenceux and Norroy Kings of Arms (or their deputies) were to tour their areas of authority, recording [[coat of arms|coats of arms]] and [[Pedigree chart|pedigree]]s of armigers, with powers to forcibly prevent the bearing of unauthorised arms.<ref name="W1">Wagner 1946, pp. 20–21.</ref>
As Chester Herald and deputy to [[William Harvey (officer of arms)|William Harvey]], who preceded him as Clarenceux, Cooke conducted visitations of [[Worcestershire]] in 1560, [[Devon]]shire in 1562, [[Lincolnshire]] in 1562 and 1564, and [[Leicestershire]] and [[Warwickshire]] in 1563.<ref name="Moule1">Moule 1822, pp. 571, 584, 585, 598, 601.</ref>
As Clarenceux, Cooke conducted visitations of [[London]] in 1568 and again in 1593; Worcestershire in 1569; [[Herefordshire]] in 1569 and 1584; [[Worcester, England|Worcester]] in 1569; [[Shropshire]] in 1569 and 1584; [[Essex]] in 1570 and 1583; [[Surrey]], Hertfordshire and [[Middlesex]] in 1572; Devonshire in 1572; [[Somerset]] in 1573 and 1591; [[Cornwall]] in 1573; [[Kent]] in 1574 and 1589; [[Dorsetshire]] in 1574; [[Hampshire]] and [[Cambridgeshire]] in 1575; [[Suffolk]] in 1577; [[Buckinghamshire]] in 1580; [[Bedfordshire]] in 1582 and 1586; [[Gloucester]] in 1583; [[Berkshire]] in 1584; and [[Norfolk]] in 1589.  Robert Glover, [[Somerset Herald]], [[Richard Leigh (officer of arms)|Richard Leigh]] (then [[Portcullis Pursuivant]]), and Ralph Brooke (then [[Rouge Croix Pursuivant]]), acted as Cooke's deputies on various visitations.<ref name="Moule2">Moule 1822, pp. 560–563, 565, 569, 571, 573, 575, 577, 580, 586–588, 593, 594, 597, 601.</ref>
===Other manuscripts===
Cooke's invaluable writings in manuscript include ''An English Baronage'', ''Heraldic Rudiments'', ''An Ordinary of Arms'' and ''A Treatise on the Granting of Arms''.  On one copy of ''An English Baronage'' the [[antiquarian]] [[Sir Simonds d'Ewes, 1st Baronet|Sir Simonds d'Ewes]] wrote a title concluding "in which are a world of errors, ''ergo caveat lector''."<ref name="DNB87" /><ref name="Cooper" />
==See also==
*[[College of Arms]]
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
==References==
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lVVpAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA144|year=1861|title=Athenae Cantabrigienses: 1586–1609 |volume=2|publisher=Deighton, Bell|access-date=6 September 2009|author=Cooper, Charles Henry, Thompson Cooper, and George John Gray}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/101006148/|author=Day, J. F. R.|title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 'Cooke, Robert (d. 1593)'|year=2004|access-date=5 September 2009}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=45529|authorlink=John Gough Nichols|editor-last=Nichols|editor-first=J. G. |title=Diary: 1562 (Jan – June)|work=The Diary of Henry Machyn: Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London (1550–1563)|year=1848|access-date=6 September 2009}}
* {{cite book|last=Moule|first=Thomas|authorlink=Thomas Moule|title=Bibliotheca heraldica Magnæ Britanniæ: An analytical catalogue of books on genealogy, heraldry, nobility, knighthood, & ceremonies: with a list of provincial visitations, pedigrees, collections of arms, and other manuscripts; and a supplement, enumerating the principal foreign genealogical works|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_GRkCAAAAQAAJ|year=1822|publisher=Privately published|access-date=5 September 2009}}
*{{cite book|title=The visitation of the county palatine of Lancaster, made in the year 1567 by William Flower, esquire, Norroy king of arms|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wzvRAAAAMAAJ|editor=Raines, Francis Robert|publisher=Chetham Society|year=1870|isbn = 9780598801272|access-date=5 September 2009}}
* {{cite journal|last=Rockett|first=William|date=22 June 2000|title=Britannia, Ralph Brooke, and the Representation of Privilege in Elizabethan England|journal=Renaissance Quarterly|volume=53|issue=2|pages=474–499|doi=10.2307/2901876|jstor=2901876|s2cid=163852592 |url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Britannia,+Ralph+Brooke,+and+the+Representation+of+Privilege+in...-a065285980|access-date=5 September 2009}}
*{{cite DNB|wstitle=Cook, Robert (d.1593?)|volume=12}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v-QUAAAAIAAJ|editor=van Dorsten, J. A. |editor2=Dominic Baker-Smith |editor3=Arthur F. Kinney|title=Sir Philip Sidney: 1586 and the creation of a legend|publisher=Brill Archive|year=1986|access-date=5 September 2009 | isbn=978-90-04-07923-6}}
*{{cite book|authorlink=Anthony Wagner|last=Wagner|first=Anthony|title=Heraldry in England|publisher=Penguin, London|year=1946}}
*{{cite book|last=Wagner|first=Anthony|title=Heralds of England: A History of the Office and College of Arms|publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London|year=1967}}
==External links==
===Heraldic manuscripts by Robert Cooke===
*{{Cite web|url=http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/About/12.htm|title=Letters patent of Robert Cooke, Clarenceux King of Arms, dated 18 March 1576, confirming arms and crest to Henry Stanley, of Sutton Benington, Nottinghamshire, and granting arms for his wife, Anne, daughter of Richard Bradshaw |access-date=5 September 2009}}
*{{cite web|url=http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=7225&CollID=19&NStart=396|title=Genealogy of Queen Elizabeth I|date=c. 1567|access-date=6 September 2009}}
===Visitations===
*{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/visitationscoun01banngoog|editor=Bannerman, W. Bruce|title=The Visitations of the County of Surrey Made and Taken in the Years 1530 by Thomas Benolte, Clarenceux King of Arms: 1572 by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux King of Arms, and 1623 by Samuel Thompson, Windsor Herald, and Augustin Vincent, Rouge Croix Pursuivant, Marshals and Deputies to William Camden, Clarenceux King of Arms|year=1899|publisher=Harleian Society}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bBYNAAAAIAAJ|editor=Bannerman, W. Bruce|title=The Visitations of Kent taken in the years 1530-1 by Thomas Benolte, Clarenceux, and 1574 by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux|year=1924|publisher=Harleian Society}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yygEAAAAIAAJ|editor=Blaydes, Frederic Augustus|title=The visitations of Bedfordshire: annis Domini 1566 [Harvey], 1582 [Cooke], and 1634 [Owen]|year=1884|publisher=Harleian Society}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wr4KAAAAYAAJ|editor=Howard, Joseph Jackson and Sir George John Armytage|title=The Visitation of London in the year 1568: Taken by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux king of arms, and since augmented ...|year=1869|publisher=Harleian Society}}
*{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/visitationsesse00britgoog|editor=Metcalfe, Walter Charles|title=The Visitations of Essex by Hawley, 1552; Hervey, 1558; Cooke, 1570; Raven, 1612; and Owen and Lilly, 1634... |year=1879|publisher=Mitchell and Hughes}}
*{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wos_cFDb2_AC|editor=Metcalfe, Walter Charles|title=The visitations of Hertfordshire: made by Robert Cooke, esq.,Clarencieux, in 1572, and Sir Richard St. George, kt., Clarencieux, in 1634...|year=1886|publisher=Harleian Society}}
*{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/visitacionnorff00ravegoog|editor=Rye, William|title=The Visitations of Norfolk [1563 by William Harvey, Clarenceux, 1589 by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux, and 1613 by John Eaven, Richmond Herald]|year=1891|publisher=Harleian Society}}
*{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/visitationscoun00benogoog|editor=Weaver, Frederic William|title=The Visitations of the County of Somerset, in the years 1531 and 1573, together with additional pedigrees, chiefly from the visitation of 1591 |year=1885|publisher=Privately printed by W. Pollard | first1=Thomas | last1=Benolt | first2=Robert | last2=Cooke}}
*{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/visitationofhere00cookrich|editor=Weaver, Frederic William|title=The visitation of Herefordshire made by Robert Cooke, Clarencieux, in 1569|year=1886|publisher=Privately printed by W. Pollard}}
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{{s-herald}}
{{s-bef|before=[[William Flower (officer of arms)|William Flower]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Chester Herald|Chester Herald of Arms]]|years=1562–1566}}
{{s-aft|after=John Hart }}
{{s-bef|before=[[William Harvey (officer of arms)|William Harvey]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Clarenceux King of Arms]]|years=1567–1593}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Richard Leigh (officer of arms)|Richard Leigh]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, Robert}}
[[Category:1593 deaths]]
[[Category:1530s births]]
[[Category:16th-century English people]]
[[Category:People educated at Kirkham Grammar School]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:English officers of arms]]