The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates

The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates is a book by John Milton, in which he defends the right of people to execute a guilty sovereign, whether tyrannical or not.

In the text, Milton conjectures about the formation of commonwealths. He comes up with a kind of constitutionalism but not an outright anti-monarchical argument. He gives a theory of how people come into commonwealths and come to elect kings. He explains what the role of a king should be, and conversely what a tyrant is, and why it is necessary to limit a ruler's power through laws and oaths.

The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates: proving that it is lawful, and hath been held so through the 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 do it. And that they, who of late so much blame Deposing, are the Men that did it themselves.

In February 1649, less than two weeks after Parliament executed Charles I, Milton published The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates to justify the action and to defend the government against the Presbyterians who initially voted for the regicide and later condemned it, and whose practices he believed were a “growing threat to freedom.” Milton aimed to expose false reasoning from the opposition, citing scripture throughout the Tenure of Kings and Magistrates to counter biblical reference that would cast holy and public disapproval on Parliament’s actions. “Milton’s case was not that Charles I was guilty as charged, but that Parliament had the right to prosecute him.” Milton later remarked that the piece was “written to reconcile men's minds, rather than to determine anything about Charles”.

The work also rebuts theories posited by Robert Filmer and Thomas Hobbes. Specifically, Milton took issue with the notions that a separation of powers leads to anarchy and that the king's power was naturally absolute.

The work was printed five times: the first edition was printed in 1649, perhaps written during the King’s trial, with a second edition following in 1650 (“with improvements”); two editions in collections of Milton's works, including The Works (1697), A Complete Collection (1698); and an edited version in 1689. Only one edition altered Milton's views: a version possibly edited by James Tyrell, a historian, was changed during a controversy over the succession of William III. The work was retitled Pro Populo Adversus Tyrannos: Or the Sovereign Right and Power of the People over Tyrants. This work continued to be advertised, in 1691, as being Milton's work.

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