For a man’s house is his castle, et domus sua cuique tutissimum refugium.

Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634), jurist and Chief Justice, articulated the maxim that a person’s home is a “castle” while reporting and systematizing English common-law principles on property and personal security. The phrase is associated with Coke’s early‑seventeenth‑century discussions of the sanctity of the dwelling against intrusion, a doctrine that later became known as the “castle doctrine.” The attached Latin—“et domus sua cuique tutissimum refugium” (“and to each, his home is the safest refuge”)—reflects the learned legal style of Coke’s Reports, which often mix English with Latin maxims to state general rules. The idea became influential in later Anglo‑American law, especially in arguments about limits on state entry into private homes.

The quotation asserts that the home is a uniquely protected sphere: a place where an individual’s security and autonomy are at their highest. Calling the house a “castle” elevates ordinary domestic space into a fortified domain, implying both a right to exclude others and a presumption against external interference. The Latin tag reinforces the claim as a general legal maxim rather than a mere metaphor. In legal and cultural afterlives, the line has been used to justify strong protections for privacy, property, and self‑defense in the home, while also raising questions about how far such protections extend when balanced against public authority (e.g., warrants, emergencies) and the rights of others within the household.