British monarchical rule rested on a claimed divine right

Evidence

For Locke, because we are bound by natural law, our natural liberty is not licence, a freedom to do whatever we wish. The point of a free state is not to liberate us to follow our whims and desires, but to provide us with a secure arena within which to strive to perfect ourselves within the mould of God’s making. Because we are God’s creatures, there are strict limits on our freedom. In particular, nobody is free to take their own life, because that violates God’s creation of us. We are God’s property, and property should not be violated. Locke’s ‘suicide taboo’ shows the distance between his Christian natural jurisprudence and modern secular libertarian values. — , Second Treatise of Government and A…, 27 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The presence of William’s Norman Conquest, which began at Hastings in 1066, had manifested itself and continued to do so in many different ways, in both institutions and the historical experience of political subjects in England. It manifested itself quite explicitly in the rituals of power as, until Henry VII, or in other words, until the early sixteenth century, royal acts specifically stated that the king of England exercised his sovereignty by right of conquest. They described him as an heir to to the Normans’ right of conquest. — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 115 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Its first paragraph speaks of “a people” advancing from “subordination” to an “equal” station of nationhood much as the second proposition of Mason’s Declaration of Rights spoke of all power vesting in and deriving from “the people.” Any notion of the divine right of monarchs or might making right is foreign to both documents. In them, the people—not God, party, or power—are sovereign, but Jefferson’s draft quickly added that their sovereignty rested on “the laws of nature & of nature’s god.” — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 210 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: English kings claimed sovereignty by Norman right of conquest until the sixteenth century — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 115; Natural rights rest on divine ownership, not individual autonomy — , Second Treatise of Government and A…, 27; Popular sovereignty in the Declaration rested on nature’s laws and nature’s God — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 210

Broader Connections

• Natural rights rest on divine ownership, not individual autonomy #corroborates (0.80) — , Second Treatise of Government and A…, 27
• English kings claimed sovereignty by Norman right of conquest until the sixteenth century #complicates (0.75) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 115
• Popular sovereignty in the Declaration rested on nature’s laws and nature’s God #corroborates (0.75) — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 210