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Leighton Library has 1580 edition of influential but controversial treatise "De Jure Regni apud Scotos" by George Buchanan
Added at 08:54 on 28 September 2025
The Leighton Library has a 1580 edition of influential but controversial treatise "De Jure Regni apud Scotos" (a book condemned by acts of parliament, and burned by the University of Oxford!) by Scottish historian and scholar George Buchanan who died #OnThisDay 28 September 1582.
The book (Latin title translates as “On the Right of Kingship among the Scots”) sets out that the source of all political power is the people, that the king is bound by those conditions under which the supreme power was first committed to his hands, and that it is lawful to resist tyrants.
George Buchanan's ideology of resistance to royal usurpation gained widespread acceptance during the Scottish Reformation.
Buchanan argued that kings are not above the law - they’re subject to it. If a king breaks the social contract, the people have the right to resist or even remove him. In 1580, that was revolutionary. He championed the idea that government should serve the common good, not just royal whims. That laid early groundwork for constitutional government and democratic thought.
Buchanan’s ideas echoed through later political revolutions. His arguments helped shape Enlightenment thinking and inspired figures like John Locke and even the framers of the American Constitution.
