Common Sense

Sometimes kings are crowned by their people, but usually they crown themselves and then retain the power within their families. This process, argues Paine, violates the natural rights of the citizens. King George III of Britain was such a ruler; for Paine, his Parliament was a rubber stamp. In the past, Paine explains, people would work together to build their societies. As those societies got very large, the citizens would choose someone to lead them. These leaders sometimes did well, but they might, at the end of their lives, hand power to their children, who often ruled poorly. Other kings crowned themselves after forcing people to obey them and pay tribute.

Kings soon argued that they had a divine right to rule. In fact, notes Paine, God expressly warns against kings in the Bible, and he punishes the Hebrews when they try to establish a royal leadership. Most kings tend to insulate themselves against the struggles of ordinary life, so they fail to understand the real needs of their subjects. Inevitably, royal rulers become tyrants; “the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise” (3).

King George, a hereditary ruler, exemplifies these bad traits in Paine’s mind.