Imagine, when they had cut off Charles's head, that Lords had abolished Commons and decided to rule without a King.
Would that have made Britain a republic?
Such was the Roman state, if you added a popular assembly of Londoners with a share of legislative power, and here and there a Tribune of the People.
And it was that "republic" the emperors castrated.
Which must have made ancient history interesting in quite a different way for Brits than for Americans.
In particular, the Elizabethans.
Reading Ben Jonson, Sejanus.
His great crimes, for the Elizabethans, were to murder Drusus and the sons of Germanicus to usurp their hereditary right.
An anachronistic view, certainly.
But, all the same, how handy Machiavelli was, to enable the Elizabethans to attack vicious rulers and politicos indirectly, ostensibly attacking him.
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