Hello, Reader!
This week, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) marked the one-year anniversary of the attempted assassination of President Trump. At a House Republican Leadership press conference, Speaker Johnson stated
"Assassins...tried to kill him, but God miraculously spared the president's life. I think it's undeniable. And he [God] did it for an obvious purpose. And his presidency and his life are the fruits of divine providence."
The Speaker's remarks invoked a long historical tradition of using language once used by monarchies to describe rulers as divinely chosen or protected.
Let's take a look at how that idea evolved and why the American Revolution rejected such claims.
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πΌοΈ The Big Picture
What's Happening: Speaker Johnson marked the one-year anniversary of the Trump rally assassination attempt by declaring, "God saved your life." His words-- reflective, reverent, and intense-- offered a spiritual reflection that many viewed as invoking a providential framing of Trump's political survival. [1]
β οΈ Why It Matters: When public figures begin to speak of leaders as saved by God for a higher purpose, it raises important historical questions about power, legitimacy, and the American rejection of monarchy.
What History Reveals: Americans once lived under a king said to rule "by divine right." But Americans rejected this idea and wrote a Constitution to stop anyone from being king. And yet-- some Americans still flirt with this idea.
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π A Brief History of the Divine Right of Kings
- In seventeenth-century England, kings such as James I and his son Charles I claimed a divine mandate, asserting that God had placed them on the English throne, and their power was not subject to earthly limitations, such as those imposed by Parliament.
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- King James I declared, "The state of monarchy is the supremest thing upon earth...even by God himself they are called gods." James I used this argument to also make the case that Kings made the law and therefore stood above it.[2]
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- James I's belief led to conflicts with Parliament, which sought a say in the taxation and governance of England. When Charles I dismissed Parliament and ruled alone, tensions exploded.
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- In 1649, during the English Civil War, the English High Court of Justice rejected the Stuarts' claims of divine right and tried and executed King Charles I. For a time, England became a republic under Oliver Cromwell.
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- In 1660, Parliament restored the monarchy, but with new limits. The Glorious Revolution of 1688 deposed Charles I's son, James II, for trying to reassert the divine rule of his father and grandfather, and Catholic absolutism.
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- Parliament offered the crown to William and Mary, but only if they agreed to the English Bill of Rights, which placed the monarchy firmly under the law. [3]
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πΊπΈ Founding the United States
π Founding Fears:
- The United States Constitution represents a clear rejection of monarchy. The Framers had lived under King George III, who ruled not by consent of the governed, but by birthright and divine will.
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- Under the Doctrine of the Divine Right of Kings, monarchs claimed their authority came directly from God, not from the people they governed. Under this doctrine, to resist the king meant to resist God.
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- For centuries, the Divine Right of Kings doctrine helped legitimize absolute rule in Europe. Monarchs were viewed as sacred, untouchable figures.
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- Revolutionaries in the emerging United States rejected the Divine Right of Kings doctrine. Thomas Paine famously wrote in Common Sense, "The folly of hereditary right is evident to every reader." [4]
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Turning Points
- In 1783, George Washington stunned the world by resigning his commission in the army rather than seizing power as a king or emperor. Legend has it (there's no documentary evidence) that King George III remarked that Washington's resignation made him "the greatest man in the world." [5]
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- The idea of referring to a U.S. president as a "king" first surfaced in 1832 during Andrew Jackson's populist presidency. The idea was a political joke. When Jackson vetoed the charter renewal of the Second Bank of the United States, a political cartoonist proclaimed him "King Andrew I," a joke about Jackson's heavy-handed leadership style. [6]
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π¬ Final Thought: The King's Shadow
The Framers of the U.S. Constitution structured the presidency in republican terms and ideas.
So when U.S. leaders are spoken of as being "spared by God for a divine purpose," these claims echo the Divine Right of Kings doctrine and tradition. This should raise questions about democratic accountability, because history shows that sacred authority is harder to challenge, or replace.
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π§ Go Deeper
Explore how early Americans faced catastrophe, built resilience, and redefined community in times of crisis:
π How "Mr. President" Beat "His Highness"β
βEpisode 040: For Fear of an Elected Kingβ
Discover how Americans debated what to call the president in 1789, and why they rejected royal-sounding titles like "His Highness."
π Revolution Against Parliament, Not the Kingβ
βEpisode 039: The Royalist Revolutionβ
Rethink the Revolution by examining why many colonists blamed Parliament more than the King--and even supported a stronger monarchy.
π The Bible in Early American Lifeβ
βEpisode 073: The Bible in Early Americaβ
Explore how differing interpretations of scripture shaped early American politics, public life, and religious pluralism.
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π£οΈ What Do You Think?
Americans still seem drawn to monarchy. Why do you think that is?
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π© Hit Reply to share your thoughts.β
π¬ Join the conversation in our Listener Community.
Have a great weekend,
βLiz Covartβ
Host, Ben Franklinβs Worldβ
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P.S.
I'm in Providence, RI this weekend for the annual meeting of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. I enjoy this conference as it tends to be low-key, and it's a great way to catch up with friends and colleagues who live throughout the country.
In non-history news, Tim and I were fortunate to attend our first in-person WNBA game on Tuesday, when the Connecticut Sun took on the Indiana Fever at Boston's TD Garden.
Admittedly, we're bandwagon jumpers. Caitlin Clark got us into the WNBA, and we're grateful because we enjoy watching these talented women play. We root for Indiana, but will change our allegiance when Boston gets a team. One of my favorite players on the Fever is Kelsey Mitchell. She's swift and finds a lot of ways to score.
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π End Notes
β[1] WAAY 31 News, "RAW: House Speaker Mike Johnson says he's grateful President Trump wasn't assassinated last year," July 15, 2023, accessed July 16, 2025.
[2] While not the first monarch to embrace the idea of the divine right of kings, King James I is the monarch who most famously articulated the doctrine. James I, The True Law of Free Monarchies; or, The Reciprocal and Mutual Duty Betwixt a Free King and His Natural Subjects (1598), W.W. Norton, The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Seventeenth Century: Topic 3: Texts and Contexts, https://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/17century/topic_3/truelaw.htm, accessed July 16, 2025.
[3] C.V. Wedgwood, The King's Peace, 1637-1641, (New York: Macmillan Company, 1956); C.V. Wedgwood, The King's War, 1641-1647, (New York: Macmillan Company, 1958); C.V. Wedgwood, A Coffin for King Charles, (New York: Time Life Books, 1964); Steve Pincus, 1688: The First Modern Revolution, (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011).
[4] United States, "Full Text: The Constitution of the United States," National Constitution Center, https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/full-text, accessed July 16, 2025; Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776, San Diego State University, https://loveman.sdsu.edu/docs/1776ThomasPaine.pdf, accessed July 16, 2025.
[5] George Washington Presidential Library, "Resignation of Military Commission," George Washington's Mount Vernon, https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/resignation-of-military-commission, accessed July 16, 2025.
[6] Wikipedia, "King Andrew the First," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Andrew_the_First, accessed July 16, 2025; Robert V. Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Bank War, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1967); Paul Kahan, The Bank War: Andrew Jackson, Nicholas Biddle, and the Fight for American Finance, (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2020).
π Further Reading
Kathleen Bartoloni-Tuazon, For Fear of an Elective King: George Washington and the Presidential Title Controversy of 1789, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014).
William H. Fowler, Jr., An American Crisis: George Washington and the Dangerous Two Years After Yorktown, 1781-1783, (New York: Walker Books, 2011).
Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776), (New York: Dover Publications, 2012).
Jonathan Healey, The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689, (New York: Vintage, 2023).
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