Educated at Kirkham Grammar School from a recusant family, Cooke was brought up in the household of Sir Edmund Brudenell, an ardent genealogist. He went up to St. John's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1558.^[3] He was appointed Rose Blanche Pursuivant Extraordinary, 25 January 1561–2^[4] and succeeded William Flower as Chester Herald of Arms four days later.^[4][5] Both events were recorded in the diary of Henry Machyn, who twice identified Cooke as the servant of Lord Robert Dudley.^[6] Cooke was promoted to Clarenceux King of Arms on 21 May 1567.^[4] Cooke served as 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, Somerset Herald, accompanied the Earl of Derby to France to invest King Henri III with the Garter in 1584.^[4][7]

As Clarenceux, Cooke was responsible for arranging the funerals of all knights resident south of the River Trent^[8] 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.^[8][9] 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 Derick Theodore de Brijon, in the City of London. 1587.^[9]

Cooke had sought appointment as Garter (with the support of Dudley, by then the powerful Earl of Leicester),^[10] 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 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."^[4][11][12] 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.^[12]

Visitations edit

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 coats of arms and pedigrees of armigers, with powers to forcibly prevent the bearing of unauthorised arms.^[13]

As Chester Herald and deputy to William Harvey, who preceded him as Clarenceux, Cooke conducted visitations of Worcestershire in 1560, Devonshire in 1562, Lincolnshire in 1562 and 1564, and Leicestershire and Warwickshire in 1563.^[14]

As Clarenceux, Cooke conducted visitations of London in 1568 and again in 1593; Worcestershire in 1569; Herefordshire in 1569 and 1584; 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 (then Portcullis Pursuivant), and Ralph Brooke (then Rouge Croix Pursuivant), acted as Cooke's deputies on various visitations.^[15]

Other manuscripts edit

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 wrote a title concluding "in which are a world of errors, ergo caveat lector."^[4][10]

• College of Arms

• Cooper, Charles Henry, Thompson Cooper, and George John Gray (1861). Athenae Cantabrigienses: 1586–1609. Vol. 2. Deighton, Bell. Retrieved 6 September 2009.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Day, J. F. R. (2004). "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 'Cooke, Robert (d. 1593)'". Retrieved 5 September 2009.
• Nichols, J. G., ed. (1848). "Diary: 1562 (Jan – June)". The Diary of Henry Machyn: Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London (1550–1563). Retrieved 6 September 2009.
• Moule, Thomas (1822). 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. Privately published. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
• Raines, Francis Robert, ed. (1870). The visitation of the county palatine of Lancaster, made in the year 1567 by William Flower, esquire, Norroy king of arms. Chetham Society. ISBN 9780598801272. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
• Rockett, William (22 June 2000). "Britannia, Ralph Brooke, and the Representation of Privilege in Elizabethan England". Renaissance Quarterly. 53 (2): 474–499. doi:10.2307/2901876. JSTOR 2901876. S2CID 163852592. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
• Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Cook, Robert (d.1593?)" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 12. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
• van Dorsten, J. A.; Dominic Baker-Smith; Arthur F. Kinney, eds. (1986). Sir Philip Sidney: 1586 and the creation of a legend. Brill Archive. ISBN 978-90-04-07923-6. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
• Wagner, Anthony (1946). Heraldry in England. Penguin, London.
• Wagner, Anthony (1967). Heralds of England: A History of the Office and College of Arms. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London.

Heraldic manuscripts by Robert Cooke edit

• "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". Retrieved 5 September 2009.
• "Genealogy of Queen Elizabeth I". c. 1567. Retrieved 6 September 2009.

Visitations edit

• Bannerman, W. Bruce, ed. (1899). 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. Harleian Society.
• Bannerman, W. Bruce, ed. (1924). The Visitations of Kent taken in the years 1530-1 by Thomas Benolte, Clarenceux, and 1574 by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux. Harleian Society.
• Blaydes, Frederic Augustus, ed. (1884). The visitations of Bedfordshire: annis Domini 1566 [Harvey], 1582 [Cooke], and 1634 [Owen]. Harleian Society.
• Howard, Joseph Jackson and Sir George John Armytage, ed. (1869). The Visitation of London in the year 1568: Taken by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux king of arms, and since augmented ... Harleian Society.
• Metcalfe, Walter Charles, ed. (1879). The Visitations of Essex by Hawley, 1552; Hervey, 1558; Cooke, 1570; Raven, 1612; and Owen and Lilly, 1634... Mitchell and Hughes.
• Metcalfe, Walter Charles, ed. (1886). The visitations of Hertfordshire: made by Robert Cooke, esq.,Clarencieux, in 1572, and Sir Richard St. George, kt., Clarencieux, in 1634... Harleian Society.
• Rye, William, ed. (1891). The Visitations of Norfolk [1563 by William Harvey, Clarenceux, 1589 by Robert Cooke, Clarenceux, and 1613 by John Eaven, Richmond Herald]. Harleian Society.
• Benolt, Thomas; Cooke, Robert (1885). Weaver, Frederic William (ed.). The Visitations of the County of Somerset, in the years 1531 and 1573, together with additional pedigrees, chiefly from the visitation of 1591. Privately printed by W. Pollard.
• Weaver, Frederic William, ed. (1886). The visitation of Herefordshire made by Robert Cooke, Clarencieux, in 1569. Privately printed by W. Pollard.