A Defence of the People of England, by John Milton in Answer to Salmasius's Defence of the King

n.p.: n.p., 1692. Hardcover. Very Good+. Hardcover. A handsome edition of John Milton's famous work first published in 1652. John Milton (1608 – 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. He served as a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under its Council of State and later under Oliver Cromwell 1651. In February 1652, Milton published his Latin defence of the English people Defensio pro Populo Anglicano, also known as the First Defence. In 1654, The second defence praised Oliver Cromwell, now Lord Protector, while exhorting him to remain true to the principles of the Revolution. Cromwell's death in 1658 caused the English Republic to collapse into feuding military and political factions. Milton, however, stubbornly clung to the beliefs that had originally inspired him to write for the Commonwealth. Milton participated in major controversies against two polemicists on the Continent: Claudius Salmasius (Claude de Saumaise), a Frenchman, and Alexander More (Morus). Charles II, while living in exile in France, is thought to have enlisted Salmasius to compose a Latin tract intended for a Continental audience that would indict the Englishmen who tried and executed Charles I. Universally acknowledged as a reputable scholar, Salmasius posed a formidable challenge to Milton, whose task was to refute his argument. Often imbued with personal invective, Milton’s Defense of the English People Against Salmasius (1651), a Latin tract, fastens on inconsistencies in Salmasius’s argument. Milton echoes much of what he had propounded in earlier tracts: that the execution of a monarch is supported by authorities from Classical antiquity to the early modern era and that public necessity and the tyrannical nature of Charles I’s sovereignty justified his death. Bound in later black leather with gilt titling to spine. Some rubbing and wear along the spine edges. Pastedowns have gilt ruled leather borders that caused offsetting to front and rear free endpapers. Ownership label of "AHA" is affixed to front pastedown. With gilt page edges. Text pages are clean but show some aging. A nice copy of this important work in very good plus condition. Measures 4.5 x 7 inches. 246 pages plus an advertisement from the publisher (not named) defending the name and reputation of King Charles I. ENGHIST/073025.