Edward Forset (1553 – 1630) was an English writer, known for political works and as a playwright.

A justice of the peace

Justice of the Peace

A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

, he was involved on the prosecution side of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot

Gunpowder Plot

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.The plan was to blow up the House of...

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In A Comparative Discourse (1606) he contributed to the traditional monarchist theory of the king’s two bodies: the body politic

Body politic

A polity is a state or one of its subordinate civil authorities, such as a province, prefecture, county, municipality, city, or district. It is generally understood to mean a geographic area with a corresponding government. Thomas Hobbes considered bodies politic in this sense in Leviathan...

 and the body natural. This is considered one important source for later divine right

Divine Right of Kings

The divine right of kings or divine-right theory of kingship is a political and religious doctrine of royal and political legitimacy. It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving his right to rule directly from the will of God...

 and royalist

Cavalier

Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...

 ideas, as well as spinning out the bodily metaphor (the King as the heart).

The 1624 Defence of the Right of Kings was a belated reply to writings of the Jesuit Robert Parsons

Robert Parsons (priest)

Robert Persons , later known as Robert Parsons, was an English Jesuit priest.-Early life:...

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His Pedantius was a Latin comedy. It made fun of Gabriel Harvey

Gabriel Harvey

Gabriel Harvey was an English writer. Harvey was a notable scholar, though his reputation suffered from his quarrel with Thomas Nashe...

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Works

• Pedantius (1581) (online text)
• A Comparative Discourse of the Bodies Natural and Politique (1606)
• A Defence of the Right of Kings. Wherein the power of the papacie over princes, is refuted; and the Oath of Allegeance justified (1624)