Sir John, an eminent English lawyer in the reign of Henry VI., was descended from an ancient family in Devonshire, though both the time and place of his birth are unknown. He is supposed to have been educated at Oxford, and the great learning displayed in his writings does no discredit to such a supposition; but it is nevertheless altogether uncertain at which university he studied, or whether he ever studied at any. When he turned his views to the legal profession he entered himself of Lincoln's Inn, where he soon distinguished himself by his knowledge of the civil as well as of the common law. In the fourth year of Henry VI. he was appointed one of the governors of Lincoln's Inn, and three years afterwards the same office was again conferred upon him. In 1441 he was made a king's serjeant at law, and the following year chief justice of the King's Bench. As a judge Fortescue is highly commended for his wisdom, gravity, and uprightness; and he seems to have enjoyed great favour with the king, who is said to have given him some substantial proofs of esteem and regard. He held his office during the remainder of the reign of Henry VI., to whom he steadily adhered; and having faithfully served that unfortunate monarch in all his troubles, he was attainted of treason in the first parliament of Edward IV., which assembled at Westminster in November 1461; having been included in the same act by which Henry VI., Margaret of Anjou his queen, Edward their son, and many persons of the first distinction, were likewise attainted. When Henry subsequently fled into Scotland, he is supposed to have appointed Fortescue, who appears to have accompanied him in his flight, chancellor of England; and although the name of the latter is not found recorded in the patent rolls, because, as Selden remarks, "being with Henry VI., driven into Scotland by the fortune of the wars with the house of York, he was made chancellor of England while he was there," yet several writers have mentioned him by this style and title; and in his book De Laudibus Legum Angliae, he calls himself Cancelleria Anglicae, which seems to settle the question. Early in 1463, Fortescue embarked at Bamberg with Queen Margaret, Prince Edward her son, and many other persons of distinction who followed the fortunes of the house of Lancaster, and landed at Helvoetsluys, from which the party were conducted by Bruges and Lisle to Lorraine. Being thus expatriated, he remained many years on the Continent, moving about from place to place, as the necessities of the royal exiles required, and endeavouring to promote their interest by every means in his power. But his most important labours during this period were of a different and more lasting kind. Having observed that Prince Edward applied himself wholly to military exercises, and seemed to think of nothing but qualifying himself to command in battle, Fortescue, who had observed in him indications of a sound understanding, judged it high time to endeavour to give him other impressions, and particularly to infuse into his mind just notions of the constitution of his country, as well as a due regard for its laws. With this view he drew up his celebrated work De Laudibus Legum Angliae, which, though it failed of its primary intention, owing to the barbarous murder of the young prince for whose benefit it was composed, will yet remain a lasting monument of the author's learning and patriotism. When the prospects of the exiles began to brighten a little, the queen and the prince returned to England, accompanied by Fortescue and others, who no doubt hoped that a more auspicious day was about to dawn upon the descendant of time-honoured Lancaster. But destiny still counter-worked the designs of the heroic Margaret. Her attempt to assert the rights of her son totally failed; and the chancellor, forced to reconcile himself as he best could to the victorious Edward IV., wrote an apology for his conduct, which, though Selden had seen it, has never been published. Little further is known respecting the life of this remarkable man, excepting that, amidst all the changes of masters and varieties of fortune, he steadfastly maintained those constitutional principles which he had with equal ability and conciseness explained in the celebrated treatise above referred to. He appears to have died at a very advanced age, though the time of his death, like the date of his birth, has not been ascertained.

Fortescue's masterly vindication of the laws of England, though received with great favour by the learned of the profession to whom it was communicated, did not appear in print until the reign of Henry VIII., when it was published by Whitechurch in 16mo, but without a date. In 1516 it was translated by Mulcaster, and printed by Totel; and again in 1567, 1573, and 1575, and also by White in 1598, 1599, and 1609. It was likewise printed, with Hengham's Summa Magna et Pareo, in 1616 and 1660, 12mo; and again with Selden's notes in 1672, in 12mo. In 1737 it appeared in folio; and, in 1775, an English translation, with the original Latin, and Selden's notes, besides a variety of remarks relative to the history, antiquities, and laws of England, was published in 8vo. Waterhouse's Fortescue Illustratus, which appeared in 1663, though prolix and defective in style, may be consulted with advantage, and will serve to facilitate the labours of more judicious and able inquirers. 2. Another valuable and learned work by the same author, but written in English, was published in the reign of Queen Anne, under the title of The Difference between an absolute and limited Monarchy, as it more particularly regards the English Constitution, and accompanied with some remarks by John Fortescue Aland of the Inner Temple, London, 1714, in 8vo; and a second edition with amendments appeared in 1719, 8vo. In the Cotton Library there is a manuscript of this work, in the title of which it is said to have been addressed to Henry VI.; but many passages show plainly that it was written in favour of Edward IV. 3. Of the author's other writings, which were pretty numerous, but never printed, we know nothing more than can be collected from the titles, and the commendations bestowed on them by persons who had perused the manuscripts. Those still extant are, 1. Opusculum de Natura Legis Naturae, et de ejus censura in successione Regnorum Supremorum; 2. Defensio juris Domus Lancastriae; 3. Genealogy of the House of Lancaster; 4. Of the Title of the House of York; 5. Genealogie Regum Scotiae; 6. A Dialogue between Understanding and Faith; 7. A Prayer Book which savours much of the times we live in; with some others, which, as the author was a man of great knowledge and observation, will, we trust, yet be printed. When lord-chancellor, Fortescue is said to have drawn up the statute of the 28th Henry VI., on the resumption of certain grants of the crown, which, though much relied on by writers on that subject, is not extant in any edition of the statutes.