Algernon Sidney

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Algernon Sidney bigraphy, stories - British philosopher

Algernon Sidney : biography

15 January 1623 – 7 December 1683

Algernon Sidney or Sydney (14 or 15 January 1623 – 7 December 1683) was an English politician, republican political theorist, colonel, and opponent of King Charles II of England, who was charged with plotting against the King and was executed for treason.Jonathan Scott, ‘’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008, accessed 5 July 2009.

Notes

Court Maxims

During 1665–66 Sidney wrote Court Maxims, in which he argued for a reversal of the Restoration of the monarchy: " . . . as death is the greatest evil that can befall a person, monarchy is the worst evil that can befall a nation". Sidney also claimed that an English republic would have a natural "unity of interest" with the Dutch Republic in "extirpat[ing] the two detested families of Stuart and Orange". Court Maxims was not published until 1996.

Early life

Sidney’s father was Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, a direct descendant of John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland and the great-nephew of Sir Philip Sidney. His mother was Dorothy Percy, daughter of Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland. Sidney was born at Baynard’s Castle, London, and was raised at Penshurst Place in Kent. His mother wrote to her husband in November 1636 that she had heard her son "much comended by all that comes from you . . . [for] a huge deall of witt and much sweetness of nature". After spending time in Ireland after his father was appointed Lord Lieutenant of that country, Sidney returned to England in 1643.

English Civil War and Republic

Despite having earlier vowed that only "extreame necessity shall make me thinke of bearing arms in England", he served in the Army of the Eastern Association, becoming Lieutenant Colonel of the Earl of Manchester’s regiment of horse (cavalry). He fought at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644, where an observer wrote: "Colonel Sidney charged with much gallantry in the head of my Lord Manchester’s regiment of horses, and came off with many wounds, the true badges of his honour".Thomas G. West, ‘Foreword’, in West (ed.), Discourses Concerning Government (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1996), p. xxix. He was later appointed Colonel of the regiment when it was transferred to the New Model Army, but relinquished the appointment due to ill health.

In 1645 he was elected to the Long Parliament as Member of Parliament for Cardiff where he opposed compromising with the King, Charles I, and in 1648 opposed the purge of moderates which formed the Rump Parliament. Despite being a commissioner for the trial of Charles, Sidney also opposed the decision to have him executed due to the questionable lawfulness and wisdom of the decision.West, p. xxix. This led to the famous exchange:

First, the King could be tried by noe court; secondly, that noe man could be tried by that court. This being alleged in vaine, and Cromwell using these formall words (I tell you, wee will cut off his head with the crowne upon it) I . . . immediately went out of the room, and never returned.

However by 1659 Sidney had changed his opinion, declaring the king’s execution as "the justest and bravest act . . . that ever was done in England, or anywhere".

In 1653 when Cromwell’s army entered Parliament to dissolve it after a Bill was introduced that would have made elections freer, Sidney refused to leave the House until threatened with physical removal. He regarded Cromwell as a tyrant.West, p. xxx. In retirement, Sidney was bold enough to outrage the Lord Protector by allegedly putting on a performance of Julius Caesar, with himself in the role of Brutus. He was for a time the lover of Lucy Walter, later the mistress of Charles, Prince of Wales. However Sidney regarded the Republic as vigorously pursuing England’s national interests (in contrast to the Stuart’s record of military failure), writing in his Discourses Concerning Government: