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The Influence of Dutch and Venetian Political Thought on Seventeenth-Century English Republicanism

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The Influence of Dutch and Venetian Political Thought on Seventeenth-Century English Republicanism The Influence of Dutch and Venetian Political Thought on Seventeenth-Century English Republicanism Amy Shields Doctor of Philosophy School of History, Classics and Archaeology Newcastle University June 2017 Abstract This thesis explores the engagement of seventeenth-century English republican thinkers, namely John Milton, James Harrington, Marchamont Nedham, Henry Neville and Algernon Sidney, with Dutch and Venetian models, theories, and experiences of republicanism. It challenges J.G.A. Pocock and Quentin Skinner's approach of tracing the origins of political ideas back to the ancient world and instead develops Franco Venturi’s emphasis on the significance of contemporary models to the development of early-modern republicanism. Chronologically the focus is c. 1640-1683 when republican ideas were at their height in England. In spatial terms, however, the approach is broader than traditional accounts of English republicanism, which tend to tell a purely national story. By adopting a transnational perspective this thesis promises to highlight the continuities and points of conflict between different republican thinkers, and in doing so challenges the idea of a coherent republican tradition. It suggests that narrowly defined and distinct definitions of republicanism do not capture the nuances in English republican thought, and that these thinkers engaged with various understandings of republicanism depending upon contextual political circumstances. The thesis looks at three significant themes. The first is the role of single person rule, an issue which has come to dominate discussions of English republicanism. By examining the ways in which English republicans understood the Dutch and Venetian models, both of which included an individual figurehead within a republican constitution, this thesis suggests that existing historiography places too much emphasis on 1649 as a turning point in English republican thought. Building on this discussion of non-monarchical government, the thesis then explores the constitutional proposals advocated by English republicans. It demonstrates that Venice was actually much less broadly admired and utilised for its constitutional model than has previously been assumed, and that in fact it was the Dutch Republic with which comparisons were more readily drawn. Finally, the thesis delineates a shift towards the end of this period. Post-Restoration, constitutional modelling was largely rejected in favour the practical experiences of the Dutch and Venetian Republics; the strengths, wealth and successes of which demonstrated, to these writers at least, the superiority of republican government over the existing form of monarchy in England. i ii Acknowledgements I am extremely grateful to Newcastle University and the Arts and Humanities Research Council for offering the opportunity to pursue a PhD and for granting the funding for this project. Thanks also to my two PhD supervisors, Helen Berry and Rachel Hammersley. To Helen, whose clear insight and sharp intellect ultimately helped shape this thesis. The biggest debt of gratitude goes to Rachel, who has been an emotional rock, a tireless cheerleader, and the source of endless advice. Without her ceaseless support and encouragement, this thesis would not exist. She went above and beyond, and in the most difficult and testing circumstances, she still sought to offer her invaluable wisdom. I would also like to thanks my friends and family for their support over the course of this thesis. Special thanks to Lyndsey and Rachel for keeping me sane, and to my mum and dad for their love and their unquestioning support. They have always believed in me and encouraged me to pursue my dreams, for which I will always be grateful. Finally, to James, with all my love. Thanks for listening, for always believing in me, and for the innumerable ways in which you’ve supported me through this. But most of all, thanks for putting up with me. iii iv Contents Abstract........................................................................................................................................i Acknowledgements....................................................................................................................iii Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………1 The Historiography of Republicanism and Republican Exchanges 3 English Republican Tradition 8 Dutch Republicanism 11 Venetian Republicanism 13 Scope and Rationale 15 Section 1: Europe: Travel and Tracts Chapter 1 – English Knowledge of Europe……………………………………………..……21 Travelling the Continent 21 Literature on Venice 29 The History and Political Theory of the Dutch Republic 43 Conclusions 51 Section 2: Regicide and Republic Chapter 2 – Single Person Government……………………………………………………...55 Rejecting the ‘Name King’ 58 Rejecting the ‘Thing King’ 62 Kingly Power: A Time and a Place 66 Tentative Support for Oliver Cromwell 69 Harrington and the Lord Archon 77 Conclusions 85 v Chapter 3 – James Harrington and Contemporary Republican Models………………………87 Defining Democracy 88 Ballot and Rotation 92 Agrarian Law 99 Internal Stability 105 External Stability 109 Conclusions 115 Chapter 4 – Debating the Dutch and Venetian Constitutions……………………………….117 James Howell 117 Responding to Harrington’s Venetian Principles 125 The Dutch Republic 131 Conclusions 141 Section 3: Post-Restoration England Chapter 5 – The Dutch Republican Experience……………………………………………..145 Form and Purpose 148 The Isle of Pines 152 Republican Languages 159 Conclusions 168 Chapter 6 – The Venetian Republic Revisited………………………………………………171 Single Person Government: Revisited 171 Ends of Government 175 Venice and the Anti-Myth in Plato Redivivus 181 Conclusions 194 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………..197 Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………….205 Bibliography……………….………………………………………..……….….…………...207 vi Introduction ‘An English Man should be shewn the Misery of the enslaved Parts of the World’ asserted Robert Molesworth in his 1692 book An Account of Denmark, which sought to explain that nation's loss of its liberty. The difference between liberty and slavery, Molesworth argued, ‘may be seen written in the very Faces of the several People…and when we find nothing but Misery in the fruitfullest Countries subject to Arbitrary Power, but always a face of plenty and Chearfulness in Countries naturally unfruitful, which have preserv’d their Liberties, there is no further Argument’. In short, ‘all our Gentry should go abroad…to make him in Love with the happiness of his own Country’.1 Molesworth evidently considered travel essential to coming to a full understanding of the difference between liberty and slavery, and particularly in order to teach men the importance of maintaining liberty within England. But Molesworth’s political approach was also more nuanced than a simple dichotomy between good and bad governments, for he also believed that ‘few governments are so ill constituted, as not to have some good Customs’. There were, he believed, ‘admirable Regulations in Denmark’, a country miserable under its recent enslavement; even ‘among the Savage Americans’ customs could be found ‘to serve for Models to the most civilized Europeans’.2 He used the metaphor of trade to illustrate his point, arguing that our ‘Merchants bring every day from barren Countries many useful things, which our own good one does not produce’. Why then, asked Molesworth, should we not learn of ‘the Constitutions, Manners, and Condition of other Nations, as we might without doubt find out many things to our purpose, which now out of mere Ignorance keeps us from being sensible that we want’.3 Although writing after the key constitutional crises of the seventeenth century, Molesworth’s tract highlights some important themes that have been overlooked in the scholarship of early modern republicanism. In emphasising the educational value of travel, Molesworth indicated that valuable political lessons could be learned from contemporary nations, and not just as was more conventionally advocated, from the ancient world. Nor did he just look to those countries that could be idealised as representing the ‘best’ form of government. Instead, he perceived that even in flawed nations or those with very different political arrangements, 1 Robert Molesworth, An Account of Denmark (1693), in Justin Champion, ed., An Account of Denmark with Francogallia and Some Considerations for the Promoting of Agriculture and Employing the Poor (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2011), 23. 2 Ibid., 10. 3 Ibid., 10. 1 history and customs from England, there might still be valuable lessons the English could learn or ideas that could be borrowed. Finally, Molesworth emphasised how travel was the best way to teach Englishmen the value of liberty, and for them to learn about foreign forms of government. Again this emphasised the value of modern examples of government, and it reminds us that Englishmen were not living in a vacuum in the seventeenth century. Travel to and around the continent was entirely possible, and was in fact undertaken by many of the English republicans who feature in this thesis. Each of these aspects has remained somewhat overlooked in the wealth of scholarship on seventeenth-century English republican thought. Traditionally, that scholarship has placed considerable emphasis on the influence of ancient and classical models, with a particular focus on the texts of Plato, Aristotle, Polybius, Cicero and Livy. By analysing the thought of five key English republicans – James Harrington, John Milton, Marchamont
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