The Golden Bull of 1222 was a golden bull, or edict, issued by King Andrew II of Hungary. Magna Carta directly influenced the development of parliamentary democracy and many constitutional documents, such as the United States Constitution. It included a "security clause" that gave the right to a committee of barons to overrule the will of the King through force if needed. The lawspeaker claimed the King of Sweden was accountable to the people and would be overthrown by them if he continued with his unpopular war with Norway.Īnother example is Magna Carta, an English charter issued in 1215, which required the King to renounce certain rights and accept that his will could be bound by the law. One example of the emergence of a right of revolution can be traced back to Þorgnýr the Lawspeaker, who in 1018 had a dramatic confrontation with the King of Sweden. Magna Carta marks one of the earliest attempts to limit a sovereign's authority and it is seen as a symbol of the rule of law. Gibbon says that they "asserted the natural rights of men, but they asserted those rights with the most savage cruelty". These fought for their natural rights against the miserable conditions they were placed under. In 285 C.E., Maximian suppressed a rebellion of Gallic peasants violently resisting exploitation by their masters. The Praetorian Subrius Flavus justified his right of revolution against Emperor Nero on the grounds that Nero's crimes meant he no longer deserved the love of the people: "I began to hate you when you became the murderer of your mother and your wife, a charioteer, an actor, and an incendiary." According to the historian Tacitus, "The throng applauded from various motives, some pointing to the marks of the lash, others to their grey locks, and most of them to their threadbare garments and naked limbs." Believing they had the right to violently rebel to get better treatment and greater appreciation from the state, he rhetorically asked the common soldiery why they submitted to the centurions while military life entailed such low pay and so many years in service.
He strengthened his argument by highlighting the precedent of the overthrow of Tarquin the Proud "when he acted wrongfully and for the crime of one single man, the ancient government under which Rome was built was abolished forever." As historian Edward Gibbon observes, after Tarquin's overthrow, "the ambitious Roman who should dare to assume their title or imitate tyranny was devoted to the infernal gods: each of his fellow-citizens was armed with the sword of justice and the act of Brutus, however repugnant to gratitude or prudence, had been already sanctified by the judgement of his country." Īfter the death of Augustus, the soldier Percennius fomented mutiny in the legions of Pannonia. For Gracchus, he "who assails the power of the people is no longer a tribune at all". The populist leader Tiberius Gracchus tried to justify depriving power from tribune Marcus Octavius by arguing that a tribune "stands deprived by his own act of honours and immunities, by the neglect of the duty for which the honour was bestowed upon him". The Roman Republic was established following the overthrow of the Roman monarchy. Ruling dynasties were often uncomfortable with this, and the writings of the Confucian philosopher Mencius (372–289 BCE) were often suppressed for declaring that the people have the right to overthrow a ruler that did not provide for their needs. Throughout Chinese history, rebels who opposed the ruling dynasty made the claim that the Mandate of Heaven had passed, giving them the right to revolt. Chinese historians interpreted a successful revolt as evidence that the Mandate of Heaven had passed on. The Mandate of Heaven would then transfer to those who would rule best. To justify their overthrowing of the earlier Shang Dynasty, the kings of the Zhou Dynasty (1122–256 BCE) of China promulgated the concept known as the Mandate of Heaven, that Heaven would bless the authority of a just ruler, but would be displeased and withdraw its mandate from a despotic ruler.
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