Milton: The Problem with the Monarchy and the Problem with a Single Power
By: Rebecca Middleton
5 – 7 pages + bibliography John Milton was born in 1608 in London, England, writing multiple pieces throughout his life that reflected his passions, personal issues, political turmoil and opinions, and his deepest fears and realizations concerning his reality and world around him. Writing profusely in Latin, English, Greek, and Italian, Milton was a very well rounded individual with many talents, and enjoyed many different writing styles, such as poetry, epic poetry, and even smaller and unofficial forms of writing such as pamphlet-ing. Later in life, Milton was an advocate for the Puritans during the English Civil War because he did not agree with the monarchy or the reforms of the Church (which was controlled by the authorities and vice versa) (Wikipedia, Milton). Milton’s writings and advocacy did not please the king, King Charles I, and his parliament at the time, as he not only advocated for the morality of divorce (which was against the church and the beliefs of the monarchy), but advocated for the freedom of press, populism, and other radically different political ideas
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Civilians, like John Milton, did not advocate for his reign nor have any respect for the monarchy because of the corruption that King Charles I was implementing and the use of the civilians to gain power (through wealth, by imposing huge taxes to benefit the king only), nor did they appreciate the dictatorship that followed – King Charles’ execution for treason led to a Commonwealth, before Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector and took power through military dictation, which ended up making everything worse for people like Milton.