Radical politics in Ponet's a Shorte treatise of Politike power and Milton's the tenure of kings and magistrates

Abstract

Toward the end of The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, Milton cites a line—“Kings have thir autoritie of the people, who may upon occasion reassume it to themselves”—thinking it comes from one Anthony Gilby, when in fact it is from John Ponet. The relationship of The Tenure to Ponet's earlier A Shorte Treatise of Politike Power is particularly interesting for the light it sheds on the evolution of radical political thought from Marian England to the reign of the Stuarts. The same topics relating to the legitimacy of tyrannicide that Ponet will treat while in exile from England are present in Milton's Tenure, but revisioned in their scope and emphasis.