he cases of _Heath v. Rydley_ and _Courtney v. Granvil_. This
relief was declared by Coke and other judges sitting with him to be
illegal, and a counter-attack was made by a praemunire, brought against
the parties concerned in the suit in chancery. The grand jury, however,
refused to bring in a true bill against them, in spite of Coke's threats
and assurances that the chancellor was dead, and the dispute was
referred to the king himself, who after consulting his counsel and on
Bacon's advice decided in favour of equity. The chancellor's triumph was
a great one, and from this time the equitable jurisdiction of the court
of chancery was unquestioned. In June 1616 he supported the king in his
dispute with and dismissal of Coke in the case of the _commendams_,
agreeing with Bacon that it was the judge's duty to communicate with the
king, before giving judgments in which his interests were concerned, and
in November warned the new lord chief justice against imitating the
errors of his predecessor and especially his love of "popularity."[10]
Writing in 1609 to Salisbury, the chancellor had described Coke (who had
long been a thorn in his flesh) as a "frantic, turbulent and idle broken
brayned fellow," apologizing for so often troubling Salisbury on this
subject, "no fit exercise for a chancellor and a treasurer."[11] He now
summoned Coke before him and communicated to him the king's
dissatisfaction with his _Reports_, desiring, however, to be spared
further service in his disgracing. After several petitions for leave to
retire through failing health, he at last, on the 3rd of March 1617,
delivered up to James the great seal, which he had held continuously for
the unprecedented term of nearly twenty-one years. On the 7th of
November 1616 he had been created Viscount Brackley, and his death took
place on the 15th of March 1617. Half an hour before his decease James
sent Bacon, then his successor as lord keeper, with the gift of an
earldom, and the presidentship of the council with a pension of L3000 a
year, which the dying man declined as earthly vanities with which he had
no more concern. He was buried at Dodleston in Cheshire.

As Lord Chancellor Ellesmere he is a striking figure in the long line of
illustrious English judges. No instance of excessive or improper use of
his jurisdiction is recorded, and the famous case which precipitated the
contest between the courts was a clear travesty of justice, undoubtedly
fit for the ch