DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS IN SHAKESPEARE CHALLENGED BY SCRIPTURE ALLUSIONS

Divine right of monarchs is challenged by Shakespeare's scripture allusions, especially in Hamlet.

1. When Hamlet spares Claudius at prayer [1], this echos of 1 Samuel 24 and 26, where David has chances to kill King Saul, but will not raise a hand against “God’s anointed.”

Years before Saul’s death, Saul acted badly and fell to disfavor with God, whose prophet chose David as successor (1 Sam 16). This challenges unrestricted divine right.

2. St. Paul in Romans 13 urges obedience to rulers, as it is their job to maintain civil order, but does not include obedience to immoral orders of tyrants [2].

3. Darren Freebury-Jones recently noted key ideas from John Neville Figgis’ book on the Divine Right of Kings, [3], including that the monarch is accountable to God alone.

4. More fundamentally, scriptures quote Jesus as saying, “whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me” [4]. By this logic, when monarchs treat “the least” badly, they treat Jesus Christ (the incarnate second person of the Christian trinity) badly. So in fact, monarchs are accountable to a God present in “the least of these” among a realm’s subjects.

5. This same idea is manifest in Luke 16:19-31, where the rich man is ungenerous toward the beggar Lazarus. The ghost of King Hamlet refers to Lazarus [5.a], and Ophelia refers to a folktale retelling, “the owl was a baker’s daughter” [5.b].

Shakespeare’s allusions scrutinize divine right at least as much as they support it.
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For more, see excerpt at Folger by David Womersley on divine right as a secular assertion of power, opposing papal overreach [6].

See also Harry Berger, Jr.,  who cites Kantorowicz [7]:
“In Ernst Kantorowicz’s political reading of the play, Richard becomes ‘a traitor to his own immortal body politic and to kingship…’  [...] awareness of the betrayal is inscribed in Richard’s language, that it is the source of his self-contempt and of his often sarcastic use of Christian rhetoric.”

See also an excellent U. Cambridge short source exercise [8].

NOTES: Shakespeare plays are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/

[1] For Claudius’ prayer scene, note Hamlet 3.3. For a later moment in which he articulates one idea related to divine right of monarchs, see “There's such divinity doth hedge a king," 4.5.138.

[2] Both Martin Luther and John Calvin argued that even tyrants must be obeyed, but in some cases supported noncompliance.

[3.a.] Shakespeare and Friends podcast, “Was Shakespeare a Royalist?” Darren Freebury Jones and Rachel Aanstad, episode 7, Apr 25, 2026 https://youtu.be/Nsc0zjR-VPM?t=1046 - also available as Apple Podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/at/podcast/was-shakespeare-a-royalist/id1869395776?i=1000763589448&l=en-GB

[3.b.] Darren cites Figgis, John Neville. 'The Divine Right of Kings', 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1914. https://archive.org/details/divinerightofkin00figguoft/page/n3/mode/2up

[4] Matthew 25:40-45.

[5.a] The ghost of King Hamlet describes what he thinks is the effect of his brother’s poison on his skin, but which may in fact be God’s punishment for his sins like that of the rich man:

a most instant tetter barked about,
Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust
All my smooth body.
(Hamlet 1.5.78-80)

At death, the leper Lazarus and the rich man experienced a reversal of fortune, with the rich man burning in fire of an afterlife, while Lazarus went to the bosom of Abraham in heaven. The fate of King Hamlet seems to be like that of the rich man due to his sins.

[5.b] For Ophelia’s reference to “the owl was a baker’s daughter” see Hamlet 4.5.47-48.

[6] “Divine right theory was thus in some sense a realpolitik response on the part of the civil power to papal encroachment.” Womersley, David, excerpt from Chapter 3, Thinking Through Shakespeare, March 24, 2026, at Folger Shakespeare Library, https://www.folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-and-beyond/richard-ii-and-the-divine-right-of-kings/ (accessed 5/18/2026).

[7] Berger, Harry, Jr., “A Modern Perspective: Richard II,” (undated), Folger Shakespeare Library website,  https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/richard-ii/richard-ii-a-modern-perspective/ (accessed 5/18/2026).

[8] Source Exercise 6: The Divine Right of Kings: https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/source-exercise-6-divine-right-kings (accessed 5/18/2026).

IMAGES:
Left: Deutsch: Roger II. wird von Christus gekrönt, Mosaik in La Martorana. Date: 14 October 2019. By Matthias Süßen (1975–). Used via CC BY-SA via Wikimedia Commons:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/La_Martorana-msu-0246.jpg

Center: Cropped: King Richard II, Act IV, Scene I. Artist: After Mather Brown (British, 1761 - 1831). Enraved by Benjamin Smith (British, died 1833). Date: 1801. Dayton Art Institute. Public domain via https://daytonart.emuseum.com/internal/media/dispatcher/19694/full

Right:  Replica of a miniature of Emperor Basil II in triumphal garb, exemplifying the Imperial Crown handed down by Angels. Replica of the Psalter of Basil II (Psalter of Venice), BNM, Ms. gr. 17, fol. 3r. 11th C. Author unknown. Public domain via https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Basilios_II.jpg 

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