But the People's Creatures - The Philosophical Basis of the English Civil War

This book explores the unprecedented political and philosophical ferment in England between 1642 and 1649, a period in which the legitimacy of armed resistance to Charles I, Lebellerism and regicide were all hotly debated. Sanderson argues that the `ascending' theory of politics, excapsulated in Charles I's prosecutor's description of magistrates as `but the people's creatures', is the key to understanding the ideological struggles of the Civil War. The Parliamentarians used the theory to justify bearing arms against the king, and to legitimate his execution. The Levellers used it as their philosophical basis for an attempted remoulding of the English polity. On the other side, Royalists based their support for the King on a strenuous denial of the theory, and a conviction that political power came not from the people but from God. Moreover, Thomas Hobbes and Dudley Digges, both Royalists, appropriated the theory and used it as an original way to discourage resistance. This work provides a major reinterpretation of the political philosophy which inspired the English Civil War and is essential reading for all those interested in 17th century England, and in the political philosophy of the early modern period...