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AS
Medieval & Early Modern
Algernon Sidney
1623–1683 · Republican liberty
Authority that cannot be resisted is slavery with better manners.
Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government answered the divine right of kings with the claim that all just rule is founded on consent and revocable for cause. He was executed on forged evidence, and said at his trial that he was being killed for the principles printed in his book. America's founders quoted him as often as they quoted Locke.
Why it matters for freedom
He made the right of resistance a principle rather than a last resort, and was executed for the manuscript.
Who they stood against
Charles II and the doctrine that kings rule by right and not by trust