Robert Cooke (born c. 1535, died 1592–3)^[2][3] was an English Officer of Arms during the reign of Elizabeth I, who rose swiftly through the ranks of the College of Arms to Clarenceux King of Arms, serving in that office from 1567 until his death in 1592–3.

Cooke served as Deputy Earl Marshal at the funeral of Sir Philip Sidney in 1587, but was later accused by some fellow heralds of granting arms to unworthy men for personal gain.

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]

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