divine right

divine right doctrine that sovereigns derive their right to rule by virtue of their birth alone—a right based on the law of God and of nature. Authority is transmitted to a ruler from his ancestors, whom God himself appointed to rule. Because the sovereign was responsible not to the governed, but to God alone, active resistance to a king was a sin ensuring damnation. The doctrine evolved partly in reaction against papal claims to wield authority in the political sphere. In England, King James I and his son Charles I made many claims based on divine right, and a notable exponent of the theory was Sir Robert Filmer . It ceased to be important in England after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The epitome of the doctrine is found in the rule of Louis XIV of France.

Bibliography: See J. N. Figgis, The Theory of the Divine Right of Kings (1896, repr. 1965); F. Kern, Kingship and Law in the Middle Ages (tr. 1939, repr. 1970).

divine right of kings It was taken for granted in early modern Europe that monarchs derived their authority from God. James VI of Scotland, the protestant son of a catholic mother, defended his own authority against the claims of both presbyterians and Jesuits. But his insistence that kings were gods in their own right, above the law in theory, alarmed his English subjects after 1603. Charles I overrode property rights through prerogative taxation, and political liberties by ruling without Parliament. The divine right of kings apparently died with him but was resuscitated during the later Stuart period. Only after the Glorious Revolution did it become irrelevant.

Divine Right of Kings A European doctrine teaching that monarchy was a divinely ordained institution, that hereditary right could not be abolished, that kings were answerable only to God, and that it was therefore sinful for their subjects to resist them actively. It evolved during the Middle Ages, in part as a reaction to papal intrusions into secular affairs. The extension of the principle, to justify absolute rule and illegal taxation, aroused controversy. JAMES I of England upheld the doctrine in his speeches and writings and his son CHARLES I was executed for refusing to accept parliamentary control of his policies. After the GLORIOUS REVOLUTION the doctrine was far less influential, yielding to anti-absolutist arguments like those of John LOCKE. In late 17th-century France LOUIS XIV's monarchy was based on the principle of Divine Right.