The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth
Encyclopedia
The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth was published by John Milton
at the end of February 1660. In the tract
, Milton warns against the dangers inherent in a monarchical form of government
. A second edition, published March 1660, steps up the prophetic rhetoric against a monarchy.
overtook him and he was alone. Matters were further complicated for Milton by the death of Cromwell
in 1658 and the end of the English Commonwealth. The work was a final plea to try to stop the restoration
of a monarchy while Milton promoted the establishment of a Republic
. However, this resulted only in his being ignored and mocked.
Milton began writing a pamphlet during early February of 1660 while the Rump Parliament
was in session with the support of General George Monck
. It seemed certain that Monck would put forth a republican form of government that Milton supported but various complications divided Monck from the Parliament
during this time. On 21 February, Monck forced Parliament to readmit members that were purged in December 1648 and it seemed certain that the Commonwealth would stay in power. The tract was written in order to persuade those who still thought that a monarchy would serve as a better form of government than the one Monck was setting into motion.
This was not to happen, and when Milton published his pamphlet The Readie and Easie Way in late February, it was only one month before the Restoration
would reestablish a monarchy. By March 1660, Parliament enacted various laws which forced pledges to the defence of the king and all connections with the Commonwealth were dissolved. This was compounded by laws that allowed royalists who may have supported the Parliament during the Civil War
to be granted the right to vote shortly before the Long Parliament
was dissolved. Monck did not allow the republicans
under his command to stand in the way of an establishment of a monarchy, and he eventually allowed the king
to return. This prompted Milton to publish a second edition of The Readie and Easie Way at the beginning of April 1660
Early in the tract, Milton believed that the premise of his work would be accepted by his fellows:
"I doubt not but all ingenuous and knowing men will easily agree with me, that a free Commonwealth without single person or house of lords, is by far the best government". He continues by attacking "the fond conceit of somthing like a duke of Venice, put lately into many mens heads, by som one or other suttly driving on under that prettie notion his own ambitious ends to a crown" and declares that "our liberty shall not be hamperd or hoverd over by any ingag'ment to such a potent family as the house of Nassaw, of whom to stand in perpetual doubt and suspicion, but we shall live the cleerest and absolutest free nation in the world".
Milton puts forth his Republican ideas throughout the piece, but he occasionally allows other forms of government to slip into consideration. At one moment, he talks about a monarchy that may satisfy the needs of the people, but he is quick to dismiss such a monarchy as being what England
needs:
With the monarchy about to be restored, Milton predicted that
In particular, Milton feared that a future King "must be ador'd like a Demigod
, with a dissolute and haughtie court about him, of vast expence and luxurie, masks and revels" and fill the court with debauchery.
Near the end of the work, Milton describes how no one would bother to listen to what he said:
, taken from Juvenal
, connects Monck to Sulla and Sulla's dictatorship
leading to the rise of Caesar
: et nos consilium dedimus Syllae, demus populo nunc (we have advised Sulla, now let us advise the people).
The tract responds to various attacks on the first edition, including those who believe that there will be less liberty
under a republican government that may ignore the will of a people. Milton believes that the even if the majority want a monarchy, they are attacking their own liberty and that the minority must try to preserve the freedom of everyone:
. Within this epic
, Satan
is directly linked to monarchical rule, whereas the pre-fallen Adam
is able to act without the pomp of the court
. Instead, Milton promotes a republican form of government and believes that it is impossible for a government
run by an individual to ever work even if the individual was completely virtuous. He also believed that a true republican would not accept a monarchical form of government.
The tone of the piece is to ensure that the citizenry
would not backslide into their old monarchical ways. In particularly, Milton relied on predictions of the future combined with biblical analogies
to ensure that people knew the dangers inherent in such a governmental system. In particular, Milton argued that it would be a sin
against God
to bring back the monarchy and warned against the lack of freedom and virtue that would correspond with a king. The second edition emphasizes the prophetic qualities of the work.
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
at the end of February 1660. In the tract
Tract (literature)
A tract is a literary work, and in current usage, usually religious in nature. The notion of what constitutes a tract has changed over time. By the early part of the 21st century, these meant small pamphlets used for religious and political purposes, though far more often the former. They are...
, Milton warns against the dangers inherent in a monarchical form of government
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
. A second edition, published March 1660, steps up the prophetic rhetoric against a monarchy.
Background
The 1650s took their toll on Milton, and he was already in a declining state, beginning with his wife dying during the birth of their third daughter and their son dying later in that year. As the years progressed, his blindnessBlindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
overtook him and he was alone. Matters were further complicated for Milton by the death of Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
in 1658 and the end of the English Commonwealth. The work was a final plea to try to stop the restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
of a monarchy while Milton promoted the establishment of a Republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
. However, this resulted only in his being ignored and mocked.
Milton began writing a pamphlet during early February of 1660 while the Rump Parliament
Rump Parliament
The Rump Parliament is the name of the English Parliament after Colonel Pride purged the Long Parliament on 6 December 1648 of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason....
was in session with the support of General George Monck
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, KG was an English soldier and politician and a key figure in the restoration of Charles II.-Early life and career:...
. It seemed certain that Monck would put forth a republican form of government that Milton supported but various complications divided Monck from the Parliament
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
during this time. On 21 February, Monck forced Parliament to readmit members that were purged in December 1648 and it seemed certain that the Commonwealth would stay in power. The tract was written in order to persuade those who still thought that a monarchy would serve as a better form of government than the one Monck was setting into motion.
This was not to happen, and when Milton published his pamphlet The Readie and Easie Way in late February, it was only one month before the Restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
would reestablish a monarchy. By March 1660, Parliament enacted various laws which forced pledges to the defence of the king and all connections with the Commonwealth were dissolved. This was compounded by laws that allowed royalists who may have supported the Parliament during the Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
to be granted the right to vote shortly before the Long Parliament
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...
was dissolved. Monck did not allow the republicans
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
under his command to stand in the way of an establishment of a monarchy, and he eventually allowed the king
King
- Centers of population :* King, Ontario, CanadaIn USA:* King, Indiana* King, North Carolina* King, Lincoln County, Wisconsin* King, Waupaca County, Wisconsin* King County, Washington- Moving-image works :Television:...
to return. This prompted Milton to publish a second edition of The Readie and Easie Way at the beginning of April 1660
Tract
Milton begins his work with a message of hope and admits that he is "not a little rejoicing to hear declar'd, the resolutions of all those who are now in power, jointly tending to the establishment of a free Commonwealth".Early in the tract, Milton believed that the premise of his work would be accepted by his fellows:
"I doubt not but all ingenuous and knowing men will easily agree with me, that a free Commonwealth without single person or house of lords, is by far the best government". He continues by attacking "the fond conceit of somthing like a duke of Venice, put lately into many mens heads, by som one or other suttly driving on under that prettie notion his own ambitious ends to a crown" and declares that "our liberty shall not be hamperd or hoverd over by any ingag'ment to such a potent family as the house of Nassaw, of whom to stand in perpetual doubt and suspicion, but we shall live the cleerest and absolutest free nation in the world".
Milton puts forth his Republican ideas throughout the piece, but he occasionally allows other forms of government to slip into consideration. At one moment, he talks about a monarchy that may satisfy the needs of the people, but he is quick to dismiss such a monarchy as being what England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
needs:
I denie not but that ther may be such a king, who may regard the common good before his own, may have no vitious favourite, may hearken only to the wisest and incorruptest of his Parlament: but this rarely happ'ns in a monarchie not elective; and it behoves not a wise nation to committ the summ of thir well-being, the whole of thir safetie to fortune. And admit, that monarchy of it self may be convenient to some nations, yet to us who have thrown it out, received back again, it cannot be prove pernicious.
With the monarchy about to be restored, Milton predicted that
if we return to kingship, and soon repent, (as undoubtedly we shall, when we begin to find the old encroachments coming on by little and little upon our consciences, which must necessarily proceed from king and bishop united inseparably in one interest,) we may be forced perhaps to fight over again all that we have fought, and spend over again all that we have spent
In particular, Milton feared that a future King "must be ador'd like a Demigod
Demigod
The term "demigod" , meaning "half-god", is commonly used to describe mythological figures whose one parent was a god and whose other parent was human; as such, demigods are human-god hybrids...
, with a dissolute and haughtie court about him, of vast expence and luxurie, masks and revels" and fill the court with debauchery.
Near the end of the work, Milton describes how no one would bother to listen to what he said:
What I have spoken, is the language of that which is not called amiss “The good old Cause:” if it seem strange to any, it will not seem more strange, I hope, than convincing to backsliders. Thus much I should perhaps have said, though I were sure I should have spoken only to trees and stones; and had none to cry to, but with the Prophet, O earth, earth, earth! to tell the very soil it self, what her perverse inhabitants are deaf to
Second edition
The second edition of The Readie and Easie Way was transformed with the knowledge that Monck would not stop the Restoration. An epigramEpigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising statement. Derived from the epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
, taken from Juvenal
Juvenal
The Satires are a collection of satirical poems by the Latin author Juvenal written in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries AD.Juvenal is credited with sixteen known poems divided among five books; all are in the Roman genre of satire, which, at its most basic in the time of the author, comprised a...
, connects Monck to Sulla and Sulla's dictatorship
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
leading to the rise of Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
: et nos consilium dedimus Syllae, demus populo nunc (we have advised Sulla, now let us advise the people).
The tract responds to various attacks on the first edition, including those who believe that there will be less liberty
Liberty
Liberty is a moral and political principle, or Right, that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions...
under a republican government that may ignore the will of a people. Milton believes that the even if the majority want a monarchy, they are attacking their own liberty and that the minority must try to preserve the freedom of everyone:
More just it is doubtless, if it com to force, that a less number compel a greater to retain, which can be no wrong to them, thir libertie, then that a greater number for the pleasure of their baseness, compel a less most injuriously to be thir fellow slaves. They who seek nothing but thir own just libertie, have always right to win it and to keep it, whenever they have power, be the voices never so numerous that oppose it.
Themes
Milton's view of monarchy and the decadence of monarchy is a theme later emphasized in Paradise LostParadise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
. Within this epic
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
, Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
is directly linked to monarchical rule, whereas the pre-fallen Adam
Adam
Adam is a figure in the Book of Genesis. According to the creation myth of Abrahamic religions, he is the first human. In the Genesis creation narratives, he was created by Yahweh-Elohim , and the first woman, Eve was formed from his rib...
is able to act without the pomp of the court
Court
A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...
. Instead, Milton promotes a republican form of government and believes that it is impossible for a government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
run by an individual to ever work even if the individual was completely virtuous. He also believed that a true republican would not accept a monarchical form of government.
The tone of the piece is to ensure that the citizenry
Citizenship
Citizenship is the state of being a citizen of a particular social, political, national, or human resource community. Citizenship status, under social contract theory, carries with it both rights and responsibilities...
would not backslide into their old monarchical ways. In particularly, Milton relied on predictions of the future combined with biblical analogies
Bible prophecy
Bible prophecy or biblical prophecy is the prediction of future events based on the action, function, or faculty of a prophet. Such passages are widely distributed throughout the Bible, but those most often cited are from Ezekiel, Daniel, Matthew 24, Matthew 25, and Revelation.Believers in biblical...
to ensure that people knew the dangers inherent in such a governmental system. In particular, Milton argued that it would be a sin
Sin
In religion, sin is the violation or deviation of an eternal divine law or standard. The term sin may also refer to the state of having committed such a violation. Christians believe the moral code of conduct is decreed by God In religion, sin (also called peccancy) is the violation or deviation...
against God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
to bring back the monarchy and warned against the lack of freedom and virtue that would correspond with a king. The second edition emphasizes the prophetic qualities of the work.