The INCREDIBLE HOLKHAM
In 1628 the Jacobean jurist Sir Edward Coke coined the famous phrase “an Englishman’s home is his castle”. His descendants would one day be lords of a magnificent ‘castle’ of their own, as custodians of one of England’s finest houses.
Holkham Hall in Norfolk is the historic home of the Cokes (pronounced ‘cook’), Earls of Leicester. One of the ten Treasure Houses of England, the house is extraordinary – and the characters behind its creation even more so.
Three scions of the family had a particular influence on Holkham’s fortunes. To avoid confusion (a case of too many Cokes) the three are sometimes referred to according to their achievements: ‘the lawyer’, ‘the builder’ and ‘the agriculturalist’.
It was the lawyer, Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634), who made the family’s fortune. A brilliant barrister and Attorney General to both Elizabeth I and James I, he was responsible for the prosecution of and influenced the American Constitution.
