Sir Robert Filmer (c. 1588–1653) was born at East Sutton in Kent, the eldest son of a landed family. He matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1604, entered Lincoln's Inn in 1605 and was called to the bar in 1613, and was knighted by James I in 1619. During the Civil War his house was plundered by Parliamentary soldiers and he was imprisoned for a time in Leeds Castle. Between 1647 and 1653 he published several tracts, including The Anarchy of a Limited or Mixed Monarchy (1648), Observations Concerning the Originall of Government (1652), on Hobbes, Milton and Grotius, and Observations upon Aristotles Politiques (1652). He died at East Sutton in 1653; Patriarcha, which had circulated only in manuscript, was printed in 1680.
c. 1630s (published 1680) · Renaissance Early Modern · Political Theory
Patriarcha: or the Natural Power of Kings is Sir Robert Filmer's defence of royal authority as the natural continuation of the authority of fathers. Written in manuscript during the reign of Charles I and circulated privately, it was printed in London in 1680, almost thirty years after Filmer's death, when supporters of the crown were resisting attempts in Parliament to bar the Catholic Duke of York from the succession.
