Advances in the History of Rhetoric Sep 2017

Legal Rhetoric and the Ambiguous Shape of the King’s Two Bodies in Calvin’s Case (1608)

Margaret Franz

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay examines how Francis Bacon’s speech in Calvin’s Case (1608) and Edward Coke’s report on the case engage with the doctrine of the king’s two bodies. While both texts portray the subject as perpetually obligated to the king’s personal body, the ambiguity of the doctrine combined with the topical resources of early-modern legal rhetoric allowed for disparate constructions of the king’s two bodies that could at once support and displace the absolute sovereignty of the king’s personal body. In the end, I argue that both texts offer distinct contributions to the early-modern era’s budding anti-royalist discourse.

Journal
Advances in the History of Rhetoric
Published
2017-09-02
DOI
10.1080/15362426.2017.1384768
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism discourse analysis
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