Introduction
The 16th century was a period where political literature flourished, and authors emancipated themselves from conceptions developed in preceding centuries, embodying a renewal of political ideas in several respects. Among the notable characteristics of 16th-century authors is their heightened emphasis on the monarch's authority. The pontifical power appears less present in their writings, with the figure of the monarch commanding their utmost attention. It is in this context that the notion of sovereignty ascends to the forefront of 16th-century debate on political ideas.
Niccolo Machiavelli
To broach the renewal of political ideas in the 16th century, it is imperative to first consider Machiavelli. Indeed, Machiavelli marked the era with a realism seldom seen before, notably articulated in
The Prince. In the history of political ideas, his intervention emerges as original and divergent from the perspectives of ancient authors. It is no longer about describing society as it should be, but as it is, because he believes that philosophy is vain, positing that society never conforms to its ideal state. For him who dreams of a unified Italy, only a king unhesitant to employ violence to establish his authority appears providential. He no longer believes in these idealistic conceptions, in the pursuit of the common good that could stem from authors like Thomas Aquinas or Plato in ancient Roman times. He exhibits a certain cynicism that sets him apart from other authors before him, except for the second generation of sophists epitomized by Callicles or Thrasymachus who at their time, expressed the idea that power is merely a matter of force. He considers that the monarch wields absolute power and denies the divine origin of power that had been held as certain throughout the Middle Ages.
Religion, for Machiavelli, cannot dominate the state but must be subservient to it. The monarch is not bound by religion. The Church, in this regard, is merely a tool for the monarch to establish his dominance, just like cunning or calculation. The calculating and selfish prince depicted by Machiavelli aims above all at success. All that should matter to the prince is his objective, which is to retain power in the long term. It is through subtlety, cunning, and deception that the prince rallies the people to his cause and achieves his goals. The central notion guiding the monarch is the reason of state. Machiavelli no longer seeks the moralization of the monarch and his actions, as all means appear suitable to achieve his ends. Political success is gauged solely by the monarch's aptitude to retain power.
This single author already heralds a renewal in the conceptualization of politics. The pragmatism of the moment that he demonstrates in
The Prince signifies a novel perspective on politics, depicted as an autonomous and desacralized art.
Jean Bodin
Furthermore, the absolutist shift in France will be a marker of this new way of focusing the debate on the power of the monarch and notably on the notion of sovereignty. In this regard, an author like Jean Bodin illustrates this in
Six Books of the Commonwealth.
In this work, he endeavors to depict the characteristics of sovereignty. It is perpetual in that it does not perish with the royal figure, absolute in that the sovereign has no superior, and finally autonomous, inalienable, and indivisible. Beyond the theorization of the notion of sovereignty, Bodin appears innovative in that he rejects any conception of a mixed system that would mix elements of monarchy, democracy, and oligarchy but rather aims for a strict classification of regimes, each characterized by the organ that holds sovereignty. This represents a distinctive feature of the 16th century, as the notion of a mixed Constitution was frequently discussed in Roman thought, as expounded by Polybius or Cicero.
Monarchomachs
Finally, the doctrine of the Monarchomachs brings something innovative regarding the royal figure. They conceive the monarch as limited in his powers. This may appear trivial since already during the Middle Ages there could have been considered a limitation of royal power through the figure of the Pope and the Church in general. However, the renewal lies, in this case, in the source of the limitation of royal power. Thus, it is the people who constitute the focal point of this constraint on power in their writings, wherein the rudiments of the social contract emerge, subsequently developed by authors like Locke or Rousseau.
François Hotman, in
Franco-Gallia, thus develops the idea that it is the people who delegate their power to the king and never relinquish sovereignty, thereby rendering the king's authority contingent. Furthermore, his power is temporary in that the people can withdraw it. Theodore Beza in
Right of Magistrates asserts that the origin of power derives from a contract between the people and the king predicated on reason, equity, and good faith. Consequently, should the monarch govern counter to these principles, the people possess a natural right to revolt against what has become a tyrant. In this sense, Jean Boucher, in
The Just Deposition of Henri III, admits tyrannicide in case of transgression of the established contract.
This newfound approach to political ideas, characterized by pragmatism and a focus on sovereignty and monarchial power, delineates the pivotal juncture of this century in political thought.