The Divine Right of Kings vs. Individual Rights
About this Collection
Does the legitimacy of government depend on the divinely instituted right of the monarch to rule or upon the natural rights of man and the consent of the governed? Debate on this issue spurred the English Civil War and continued long after the Restoration of 1660.
For additional information see:
- the Timeline on the Debate about the Divine Right of Kings
- Eric Mack’s reading list on James Tyrrell on Authority and Liberty
- West’s Introduction Sidney, Filmer & Locke on Monarchical Power
Members:
- Discourses Concerning Government (Algernon Sidney)
- Patriarcha non monarcha. The Patriarch unmonarch’d (James Tyrrell)
- Patriarcha, or the Natural Power of Kings (Sir Robert Filmer)
- The Two Treatises of Civil Government (Hollis ed.) (Thomas Hollis)