INTRODUCTION: THE LAW OF WAR

That republicanism has not usually been seen as furnishing a resistance theory owes something to the historiographical disassociation of classical republicanism from natural law theory. It also relates to the perception of republicanism as a theory of government, rather than against it. In fact as republican writers combined these languages, and others, so republican government was both preceded and succeeded by armed resistance. Within the historiography of resistance theory attention has focused predominantly upon natural law arguments and sources. While these were also crucial in the English case, so were classical anatomists of tyranny, both Greek and Roman, and early modern humanists including Machiavelli.

The justification of armed resistance against tyranny was a major component of English republicanism. The republic emerged from a war against Stuart ‘popery and arbitrary government’ sharing many characteristics with earlier protestant rebellions in France, Scotland and the United Provinces. As resistance theory had been among the most important ideological products of these earlier struggles, so those theories were revived, augmented and adapted to English needs.