Editing Divine right of kings (section)

=== Enlightenment era ===
{{Further|All men are created equal}}
U.S. Founding Father [[John Adams]] considered [[John Ponet]]'s work to have contained "all the essential principles of liberty, which were afterward dilated on by [[Algernon Sidney|Sidney]] and [[John Locke|Locke]]", including the idea of a three-branched government.<ref>{{cite book |last=Adams |first=C. F. |title=The Works of John Adams, with Life |year=1850–56 |volume=6 |location=Boston |page=4}}</ref>

Over time, opposition to the divine right of kings came from a number of sources, including poet [[John Milton]] in his pamphlet ''[[The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates]]'', and [[Thomas Paine]] in his pamphlet ''[[Common Sense (pamphlet)|Common Sense]]''. By 1700 an Anglican 
Archbishop  was prepared to  assert  that  Kings hold their Crowns  by 
law alone, and  the  law  may forfeit  them.

Probably the two most famous declarations of a right to revolution against tyranny in the English language are [[John Locke]]'s ''Essay concerning The True Original, Extent, and End of Civil-Government'' and Thomas Jefferson's formulation in the [[United States Declaration of Independence]] that "[[all men are created equal]]".