Patriarcha, or the Natural Power of Kings

In the aftermath of the English Revolution which saw the execution of a king and the creation of a Commonwealth and the restoration of the monarchy, Filmer wrote a solid defense of the divine right of kings which in turn prompted John Locke to write a riposte - part 1 of the Two Treatises of Government.

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Citation

Patriarcha; of the Natural Power of Kings. By the Learned Sir Robert Filmer Baronet (London: Richard Chiswell, 1680).

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John Locke (Author)

Social contract theorist Locke refuted monarchy and supported republican ideals. In his Two Treatises of Government, Locke attacked Filmer’s arguments for absolute monarchy.
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (Author)

Bossuet was a French bishop in the court of Louis XIV. He was known as a great orator and supported absolute monarchy and the divine right of kings.
Thomas Hobbes (Author)

Although he shared Filmer’s absolute monarchist views, Hobbes refuted the divine right of kings. He defended monarchy with the secular social contract theory.

Key Quotes

The State

Since nature hath not distinguished the habitable world into Kingdomes, nor determined what part of a people shall belong to one Kingdome, and what to another, it follows that the originall freedome of mankind being supposed, every man is at liberty to be of what Kingdome he please, and so every…

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Critical Responses

Book

Discourses Concerning Government

Algernon Sidney

Sidney wrote Discourse as a direct rebuttal to Filmer’s royal absolutism.

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The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates

John Milton

In this essay, Milton challenges Filmer’s defense of the divine right of kings and absolute monarchy.

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Connected Readings

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Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture

Jacques Bénigne Bossuet

Bossuet biblically defends absolute monarchy through the divine right of kings.

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Kant’s Doctrine of Right: A Commentary

Immanuel Kant

In this philosophical endeavor, Kant defends republicanism as the only proper government.

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Book

The English Works, vol. III (Leviathan)

Thomas Hobbes

Hobbes argues the validity of monarchy from a social contract theory.

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Book

Patriarcha non monarcha. The Patriarch unmonarch’d

James Tyrrell

Patriarcha non-monarcha refutes Filmer and discusses proper familial relations.

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Book

The Works of John Locke, vol. 4 Economic Writings and Two Treatises of Government

John Locke

In this political work, Locke argues against the divine right of kings and presents a socially contracted republic as the only valid form of government.

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