Individual Blog

I pulled up an article on JSTOR by Joan S. Bennett, called God, Satan, and King Charles: Royal Portraits. In this article, the author points out several comparisons between Satan in John Milton’s, Paradise Lost, and King Charles I of the English Revolution. One of the major points was indicating how both Satan and Charles I were tyrants. Both characters declare that they deserve divine power, and they both achieved it by means of trying to usurp whoever was in their way. For Satan, it was God, and Charles I claimed that it was his divine right as he was next in line for the throne. The article states that “the comparison occurs, for example, when Milton criticizes Charles’s violations of religious liberty: ‘He [King Charles] calls the conscience Gods sovrantie, why then doth he contest with God about that supreme title…usurping over spiritual things, as Lucifer beyond his sphere’ (Eikonoklastes, pp. 501-502).’ Though Charles had not possessed the full strength of Satan, the king had been in Milton’s view a servant of the arch-rebel” (Bennett, 442). The author makes a great deal of references to Eikonoklastes to make her point about King Charles. Aside from both Charles and Satan claiming power as their right, the author states that they are both very ambitious. They would rather seek their own personal aspirations than serve God. This is obviously true of Satan, who is already among the strongest of the angels, yet still wants to surpass God himself. They both want to rule over people for the wrong reasons with absolute power. And when faced with possible death or judgment, both characters show signs of regret and contemplation (Bennett, 445). Charles was supposedly one who wanted to defend civil liberties, just like what Satan was preaching when he promised the fallen angels freedom from God. In reality, the author reveals, Charles just wanted tax money, and we know that Satan is too ambitious and stubborn to actually listen to any of his followers. Where Charles convinces Parliament falsely that Scotland is a threat, Satan makes the being that gave them life look like a bad guy. Satan and Charles must have both been very good public speakers to persuade all of the people that they did. “Satan retains his tyranny over them by means of his rhetorically effective, but false, reasoning about liberty” (Bennett 452). Paralleling Satan, Charles “shared, in Milton’s portrait of him, that fundamental element of tyranny which is self-enslavement” (Bennett 455). Though many would argue that Satan had a lot in common with Oliver Cromwell, there exist many similarities between himself and King Charles I as well.

Bennett, Joan S. "God, Satan, and King Charles: Royal Portraits." JSTOR. 1977. 1 Oct. 2008 .