John Fortescue

Sir John Fortescue was an English jurist, born around 1394 in Devon and died in December 1479, who served as Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 1442 to 1460 under Henry VI. During the Wars of the Roses he remained loyal to Henry VI, was attainted for treason by Edward IV, and later had that attainder reversed in 1471. His treatise De Laudibus Legum Angliae, published after his death around 1543, set out foundational arguments for English common law and constitutional government, including an early statement of the principle that it is better for many guilty people to escape than for one innocent person to be wrongly punished.