g the crime. With such a trial, trial by jury was
frequently contrasted, and if the rigour of the civil law was not to be
insisted on, the only alternative seemed to be that the jury should form
their opinion as they could, if not from their own knowledge, then from
any materials that might be laid before them. This naturally did away
with any rules of evidence as we understand them, and consequently
Cobham's confession became as good evidence as the jury could expect to
have. In fact, as Sir James Stephen says, 'The only rules of evidence as
to matters of fact recognised in the sixteenth century seem to have been
the clumsy rules of the mediaeval civil law, which were supposed to be
based on the Bible. If they were set aside, the jury were absolute,
practically absolute, and might decide upon anything which they thought
fit to consider evidence.' See further Gardiner's _History_, vol. i. pp.
108-140; and Stephen's _History of the Criminal Law_, vol. i. pp.
333-337.

Sir Walter Raleigh was tried at Winchester on the 17th of November 1603
before a commission consisting of Thomas Howard,[3] Earl of Suffolk,
Lord Chamberlain; Charles Blunt,[4] Earl of Devon; Lord Henry Howard,[5]
afterwards Earl of Northampton; Robert Cecil,[6] Earl of Salisbury;
Edward, Lord Wotton of Morley; Sir John Stanhope, Vice-Chamberlain; Lord
Chief-Justice of England Popham;[7] Lord Chief-Justice of the Common
Pleas Anderson;[8] Justices Gawdie and Warburton; and Sir W. Wade.

The indictment charged Raleigh with high treason by conspiring to
deprive the King of his government; to alter religion; to bring in the
Roman Superstition; and to procure foreign enemies to invade the
kingdom. The facts alleged to support these charges were that Lord
Cobham,[9] on the 9th of June 1603, met Raleigh at Durham House in
London, and conferred with him as to advancing Lady Arabella Stuart[10]
to the throne; that it was there agreed that Cobham should, with
Aremberg, the ambassador of the Archduke of Austria, bargain for a bribe
of 600,000 crowns; that Cobham should go to the Archduke Albert, to
procure his support for Lady Arabella, and from him to the King of
Spain; that Lady Arabella should write three letters to the Archduke, to
the King of Spain, and to the Duke of Savoy, promising to establish
peace between England and Spain, to tolerate the Popish and Roman
superstition, and to be ruled by them as to her marriage. Cobham was
then to return to Jersey, where