The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates

The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates

John Milton

The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates: Proving, That it is Lawfull, and hath been held so through all Ages, for any who have the Power, to call to account a Tyrant, or wicked KING, and after due conviction, to depose and put him to death ; if the ordinary MAGISTRATE have neglected or deny'd to doe it.

And that they, who of late, so much blame Deposing, are the Men that did it themselves. The Author, J. M.

London, Printed by Matthew Simmons, at the Gilded Lyon in Aldersgate Street, 1649.

THE TENURE OF KINGS

AND MAGISTRATES.

If Men within themselves would be govem'd by reason, and not generally give up their understanding to a double tyrannie, of Custome from without, and blind affections within, they would discerne better, what it is to favour and uphold the Tyrant of a Nation, s But being slaves within doores, no wonder that they strive so much to have the public State conformably govem'd to the inward vitious rule, by which they govern themselves. For indeed none can love freedom heartilie, but good men; the rest love not freedom, « but licence; which never hath more scope or more indulgence then under Tyrants. Hence is it, that Tyrants are not oft offended, nor stand much in doubt of bad men, as being all naturally servile ; but in whom vertue and true worth most is eminent, them n they feare in earnest, as by right their Masters, against them lies all thir hatred and suspicion. Consequentlie neither doe bad men hate Tirants, but have been alwaies readiest with the falsifi'd names of Loyalty and Obedience, to colour over their base compliances. And * although sometimes for shame, and when it comes to their owne grievances, of purse especially, they would seeme good patriots, and side with the better cause, yet when others for the deliverance of their Countrie, endu'd with fortitude and Heroick vertue to feare > nothing but the curse writt'n against those That doe the work of the Lord negligently, would goe on to remove, not onely the calamities and thraldomes of a people,

4 The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates

but the roots and causes whence they spring, streight these men, and sure helpers at need, as if they hated onely the miseries but not the mischiefes, after they have juggl'd and palter'd with the World, bandied

s and borne armes against their King, devested him, disanointed him, nay, curs'd him all over in their pulpits and their pamphlets, to the ingaging of sincere and reall men, beyond what is possible or honest to retreat from, not onely tume revolters from those

» principles, which onely could at first move them, but lay the staine of disloyaltie, and worse, on those proceedings, which are the necessarie consequences of their owne former actions ; nor dislik'd by themselves, were they manag'd to the intire advantages of their

>s owne Faction ; not considering the while that he toward whom they boasted new fidelitie, counted them accessory; and by those Statutes and Laws which they so impotently brandish against others, would have doom'd them to a traytors death, for what they

*> have done alreadie. ' Tis true, that most men are apt anough to civill Wars and commotions as a noveltie, and for a flash, hot and active ; but through sloth or inconstancie, and weakness of spirit either fainting ere their owne pretences, though never so just, be

s halfe attain 'd, or through an inbred falshood and wickednesse, betray oft times to destruction with themselves, men of noblest temper join'd with them for causes, which they in their rash undertakings were not capable of. 1 If God and a good cause give them

3» Victory, the prosecution whereof for the most part, inevitably drawes after it the alteration of Lawes, change of Goverment, downfall of princes with their Families ; then comes the task to those Worthies which 1 Second edition, omits of. A new paragraph is also Indicated here.

W It being thus manifest that the power of Kings and Magistrates is nothing else, but what is onely deriv- ative, transferrd and committed to them in trust from

<° the people, to the Common good of them all, in whom the power yet remaines fundamentally, and cannot be tak'n from them, without a violation of thir natural birthright, and seeing that from hence Aristotle and the best of Political writers have defin'd a king, him who governs to the good and profit of his people, and not for his owne ends, it follows from necessary causes, that the Titles of Sovran Lord, natural Lord, and the like, are either arrogancies, or flatteries, not admitted by Emperors and Kings of best note/,/ and dislikt by the Church both of Jews, Isai. 26. la and ancient Christians, as appears by Tertullian and others.

Although generally the people of Asia, and with them the Jews also, especially since the time they chose a King, against the advice and counsel of God, are noted by wise authors much inclinable to slavery.

/( ,.' Secondly, that to say, as is usual, the King hath as good right to his crown and dignitie, as any man to his inheritance, is to make the subject no better

.« then the Kings slave, his chattell, or his possession that may be bought and sould, And doubtless, if hereditary title were sufficiently inquir'd, the best foundation of it would be found but either in courtesie la Europe, the Greek and German, besides the French, Italian, .Ajragonian, English, and not least, the Scottish Histories.'

The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates 13

or convenience. But suppose it to be of right hered- itaria, what can be more just and legal, if a subject for certaine crimes be to forfet by Law from himselfe and posterity, all his inheritance to the King, then that a King for crimes proportional)., should forfet all 5 his title and inheritance to the people: unless the people must be thought created all for him, he not for them, and they all in one body inferior to him single, which were a kinde of treason against the dignitie of mankind to affirm. »

\~y Thirdly it followes, that to say Kings are account- n a//able to none but God, is the overturning of all Law '\ / and goverment. For if they may refuse to give / account, then all covnants made with them at Coro- nation ; all Oathes are in vaine, and meer mockeries, u all Lawes which they sweare to keep, made to no purpose ; for if the King feare not God, as how many of them doe not ? we hold then our lives and estates, by the tenure of his meer grace and mercy, as from a God, not a mortall Magistrate, a position that none » but Court parasites or men besotted would maintain. 1 And 8 no Christian Prince not drunk with high mind, and prouder then those Pagan Ccesars, that deifi'd themselves, would arrogate so unreasonably above human condition, or derogate so basely from a whole n Nation of men his brethren, as if for him onely subsisting, and to serve his glory, valuing them in comparison of his owne brute will and pleasure, no more then so many beasts, or vermine under his feet,

1 The sec ed. adds : ' Aristotle, therefore, whom we commonly allow for one of the best Interpreters of nature and morality, writes In the fourth of his Politics chap. 10. that Monarchy unaccountable, is the worst sort of Tyranny ; said least of all to be endnr'd by free born men.'

> In sec. ed. surtfy follows and.

i+ The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates

not to be reasond with, but to be injurd 1 ; among whom there might be found so many thousand men for wisdome, vertue, nobleness of mind and all other respects, but the fortune of his dignity, fan- above s him. Yet some would perswade us that this absurd opinion was King Davids ; because in the 51 Psalm he cries out to God, Against thee onely have I sinn'd ; as if David had imagind that to murder Uriah and adul- terate his Wife, had bin no sinne against his Neighbour,

rant from God. To the first I answer, it imports not whether forren or native : For no Prince so native but professes to hold by Law ; which when he him- selfe over-turnes, breaking all the Covnants and Oaths that gave him title to his dignity, and were the bond < and alliance between him and his people, what differs he from an outlandish King, or from an enemie ? For look how much right the King of Spaine hath to govern us at all, so much right hath the King of England to govern us tyrannically. If he, though not " bound to us by any league, comming from Spaine, in person to subdue us or to destroy us, might law- fully by the people of England either bee slaine in fight, or put to death in captivity, what hath a native King to plead, bound by so many Covnants, bene- -i fits and honours to the welfare of his people, why he through the contempt of all Laws and Parlaments, the onely tie of our obedience to him, for his owne wills sake, and a boasted praerogative unaccountable, after sev'n years warring and destroying of his best * subjects, overcom and yeilded prisoner, should think to scape unquestionable as a thing divine, in respect of whom so many thousand Christians destroy'd, should lye unaccounted for, polluting with thir slaugh- terd carcasses all the Land over, and crying for venge- »: ance against the living that should have righted them.

Who knows not that there is a mutual bond of amity and brother-hood between man and man over all the World, neither is it the English Sea that can sever us from that duty and relation : a straiter bond yet * there is between fellow -subjects, neighbours and friends; but when any of these doe one to another so as hostility could doe no worse, what doth the Law decree less against them, then open enemies and invaders ? or if the law be not present, or too weake, y.

22 The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates

what doth it warrant us to less then single defence or civil warr? and from that time forward the Law of civill defensive warr, differs nothing from the Law of forren hostility. Nor is it distance of place that s makes enmitie, but enmity that makes distance. He therfore that keeps peace with me, neer or remote of whatsoever Nation, is to mee as farr as all civil and human offices an Englishman and a neighbour: but if an Englishman forgetting all Laws, human,

10 civil and religious offend against life and libertie to him offended and to the Law in his behalf, though bom in the same womb, he is no better then a Turk, a Sarasin, a Heathen. This is Gospel, and this was ever Law among equals: how much rather then in

is force against any King whatsoever 1 , who in respect of the people is confessd inferior and not equal: to distinguish therfore of a Tyrant by outlandish, or domestic is a weak evasion. To the second that he was an enemie, I answer, what Tyrant is not? yet

.o Eglon by the Jewes had bin acknowledgd as thir Sovran, they had servd him eighteene yeares, as long almost as wee our William the Conqueror, in all which time he could not be so unwise a Statesman but to have tak'n of them Oaths of Fealty and Alle-

s geance by which they made themselves his proper subjects, as thir homage and present sent by Ehud testifyd. To the third, that he had special warrant to kill Eglon in that manner, it cannot bee granted, because not expressd ; tis plain, that he was raysd

so by God to be a Deliverer, and went on just prin- ciples, such as were then and ever held allowable, to deale so by a Tyrant that could no otherwise be dealt with. Neither did Samuell though a Profet, with bis owne hand abstain from Agag; a forren enemie 1 S«c ed. whatever.