Contract and Monarchy: King James VI/I and Thomas Hobbes—Brothers in Mind?

Tue 10 Nov · Online

Hosted by German Historical Institute London

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10 November 2026 (5.30pm) GHIL Lecture Contract and Monarchy: King James VI/I and Thomas Hobbes—Brothers in Mind? Andreas Pečar (Halle) Hobbes’ Leviathan and his theory of authorization are very prominent in the history of political ideas, whereas King James’ tract The True Law of Free Monarchies has been, on the whole, neglected. In this lecture I will compare both tracts and their concepts of contractualism, asking, furthermore, why both concepts cannot prevail within the debate on the legitimacy of monarchy in seventeenth-century Stuart England.

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