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Notable Quote

"When a prince seizes sovereign power by force and arms without any legal title, without popular consent, and without the approval of the better part of the commonwealth, he may be killed by any man whatsoever — for he is a public enemy who has broken the bond that holds human society together."

— Mariana, Juan de event 1599

From De Rege et Regis Institutione (On the King and the Royal Institution)

Context: On the legitimacy of resisting tyranny. De Rege et Regis Institutione (1599), Book I, Chapter 6. Mariana's argument for tyrannicide shocked contemporaries; the book was publicly burned in Paris after Henri IV's assassination (1610).

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