Tyrannicide

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Tyrannicide

Tyrannicide literally means the killing of a tyrant

Tyrant

This article is about the political ruler. For other uses see Tyrant and Tyranny In modern usage, a tyrant is a single ruler holding absolute political power over a state or within an organization....
. Typically, the term is taken to mean the killing or assassination

Assassination

Assassination is the targeted killing of a public figure. Assassinations may be prompted by ideology, politics, or military reasons. Additionally, assassins may be motivated by contract killing, revenge, or celebrity or may be mental disorder....
of tyrants for the common good. The term "tyrannicide" does not apply to tyrants killed in battle or killed by an enemy in an armed conflict. It is rarely applied when a tyrant is killed by a person acting for selfish reasons, such as to take power for themselves, or to the killing of a former tyrant.

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Tyrannicide literally means the killing of a tyrant

Tyrant

Assassination

Harmodius and Aristogeiton

Harmodius and Aristogeiton , both d. 514 BC, were a Pederasty in ancient Greece couple known also as the Tyrannicides . As a result of their attack against the Peisistratid tyrant, they became the iconic personages of the Athenian democracy....
are called 'the tyrannicides'.

Tyrannicide can also be a political theory. The Monarchomachs

Monarchomachs

The Monarchomachs were originally Early Modern France Huguenot political theory who opposed absolute monarchy at the end of the 16th century, known in particular for having theoretically justified tyrannicide....
in particular developed a theory of tyrannicide, with Juan de Mariana

Juan de Mariana

Juan de Mariana , was a Spain Jesuit Catholic priest, historian, member of the Monarchomachs.He studied at the Complutense University of Alcal? de Henares, and was admitted at the age of seventeen into the Society of Jesus....
describing their views in the 1598 work De rege et regis institutione. The Jesuistic casuistry

Casuistry

Casuistry is an applied ethics term referring to case-based reasoning. Casuistry is used in juridical and ethical discussions of law and ethics, and often is a critique of principle or rule base reasoning....
developed a similar theory, criticized by Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal , was a France mathematician, physicist, and religion philosopher. He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a civil servant....
in the Provincial Letters. Before them, the scholastic

Scholasticism

Scholasticism was the dominant form of theology and philosophy in the Western Europe in the Middle Ages, particularly in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries....
philosopher John of Salisbury

John of Salisbury

John of Salisbury , English author, diplomat and bishop of Chartres, was born at Salisbury, England.Beyond the fact that he was of Anglo-Saxons, not of Normans extraction, and applied to himself the cognomen of Parvus, "short," or "small," few details are known regarding his early life; but from his own statements it is gathered that he...
also legitimised tyrannicide, under specific conditions, in the Policraticus
Policraticus

Policraticus is a book of ethical and political philosophy written by John of Salisbury around 1159. Although addressing a wide variety of ethical questions, it is most famous for attempting to define the responsibilities of Monarch and their relationship to their subjects....
, circa 1159. The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates
The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates

In The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, John Milton defends the right of people to execute a guilty sovereign.In the text John Milton conjectures about the formation of commonwealths....
by John Milton

John Milton

John Milton II was an English poet, author, polemicist and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England. He is best known for his Epic poetry Paradise Lost and for his treatise condemning censorship, Areopagitica....
in 1649 also described the history of tyrannicide, and a defense of it when appropriate.

Notable tyrannicides

Throughout history, many tyrants have died by tyrannicide. Other leaders considered by their assassins to be tyrants have also been killed under the pretext of tyrannicide. Some examples of those who have died by tyrannicide include (arranged by date):

Hipparchus, a ruler of Athens
Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, stabbed in 514 BC by Harmodius and Aristogeiton
Harmodius and Aristogeiton

Harmodius and Aristogeiton , both d. 514 BC, were a Pederasty in ancient Greece couple known also as the Tyrannicides . As a result of their attack against the Peisistratid tyrant, they became the iconic personages of the Athenian democracy....
, the original tyrannicides.
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, Roman Dictator, stabbed in 44 BC by Marcus Junius Brutus
Marcus Junius Brutus

File:Portrait Brutus Massimo.jpgMarcus Junius Brutus or Quintus Servilius Caepio Brutus, often referred to simply as Brutus, was a Roman Senate of the late Roman Republic....
, Gaius Cassius Longinus
Gaius Cassius Longinus

For other individuals with a similar name, see Cassius Longinus.Gaius Cassius Longinus was a Roman Republic Roman Senate, the prime mover in the conspiracy against Julius Caesar, and the brother in-law of Marcus Junius Brutus....
, and other Liberatores
Liberatores

Liberatores is the Latin name that the assassins of Julius Caesar gave themselves.The men considered the ringleaders of the conspiracy were Gaius Cassius Longinus and Marcus Junius Brutus ....
.
Caligula
Caligula

Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , more commonly known by his nickname Caligula , was the third Roman Emperor, reigning from 16 March 37 until his assassination on 24 January 41....
, Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
, stabbed in 41 by Cassius Chaerea
Cassius Chaerea

Cassia Chaerea was a centurion in the army of Germanicus and served in the Praetorian Guard under the emperor Caligula, whom he eventually assassinated....
and other Praetorian Guard
Praetorian Guard

The Praetorian Guard was a special force of guards used by Roman empire List of Roman Emperorss. Before being appropriated for the use of the Emperors' personal guards, the title was used for the guards of Roman generals, at least since the rise to prominence of the Scipio family around 275 BC....
s.
Commodus
Commodus

Lucius Aurelius Commodus Antoninus , was a Roman Emperor who ruled from 180 to 192 . The name given here was his official name at his accession to sole rule; see 'Commodus#Changes of name' for earlier and later forms....
, Roman Emperor, strangled and poisoned in 192 by Narcissus and his mistress Marcia.
Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, Order of the Bath Sovereign Military Order of Malta Order of the Tower and Sword was an Italy politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
, Italian Fascist and Duce
Duce

Duce is an Italian language word meaning leader or the second, derived from Latin word dux of the same meaning, of which Duke is a derivation....
, executed in 1945 by Walter Audisio
Walter Audisio

Walter Audisio was a Italy partisan and politician. He was responsible for the death of Benito Mussolini....
and other Italian partisans
Italian resistance movement

The Italy resistance movement was a Partisan force during World War II....
.
Anastasio Somoza García
Anastasio Somoza García

Anastasio Somoza Garc?a was officially the 65th and 69th President of Nicaragua of Nicaragua from 1 January 1937 to 1 May 1947 and from 21 May 1950 to 29 September 1956, but ruled effectively as dictator from 1936 until his assassination....
, dictator of Nicaragua
Nicaragua

Nicaragua officially the Republic of Nicaragua , is a representative democracy republic. It is the largest state in Central America with an area of 130,000 km2, about the size of the state of New York....
, shot in 1956 by Rigoberto López Pérez
Rigoberto López Pérez

Rigoberto L?pez P?rez was a Nicaraguan poet and music composer. He was the assassin of Anastasio Somoza Garc?a, the longtime dictator of Nicaragua....
.
Rafael Trujillo, dictator of the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are List of divided islands, Saint Martin being the other....
, shot in 1961 by Antonio de la Maza
Antonio de la Maza

Antonio de la Maza was one the the co-conspirators in the assassination of Rafael Trujillo. He used Raphael Maza's shotgun to shoot Trujillo while he was driving at night to see his wife....
with the aid of ten other conspirators.
Park Chung-hee
Park Chung-hee

Park Chung-hee was a former Republic of Korea Army general and the leader of South Korea from 1961 to 1979. He has been credited with the industrialization of the Republic of Korea through Export-oriented industrialization, but is also criticized for his authoritarian way of ruling the country ....
, dictator of South Korea
South Korea

South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea , ), often referred to as Korea and the "names of Korea#Revival of the names", is a Semi-presidential system republic in East Asia, located in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula....
, shot in 1979
Park Chung-hee assassination

The assassination of Park Chung-hee, then president of South Korea, occurred on October 26, 1979 at a secret house in the Cheong Wa Dae compound connected with Korean Central Intelligence Agency in Gungjeong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea, at 7:41pm....
by Kim Jaegyu
Kim Jaegyu

Kim Jaegyu was a retired Republic of Korea Army Lieutenant General and intelligence officer.He was most famous for, while Director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, Park Chung-hee assassination, who had been one of his closest friends for a long time, on October 26, 1979....
.
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceausescu

Nicolae Ceausescu was the Secretary General of the Romanian Workers' Party, later the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 until 1989, President of the Council of State from 1967 and President of Romania from 1974 until 1989....
, Communist dictator of Romania
Romania

Romania is a country located in Southeastern Europe Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian Mountains, bordering on the Black Sea....
, executed Christmas Day, 1989.

Additionally, the execution

Execution of Saddam Hussein

The execution of Saddam Hussein took place on December 30, 2006. He was Capital punishment by hanging, after being found guilty and convicted of Crime against humanity by the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal for the murder of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites in the town of Dujail in 1982, in retaliation for an assassination attempt against him....
of Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the President of Iraq of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003.A leading member of the revolutionary Ba'ath Party, which espoused secular pan-Arabism, economic modernization, and Arab socialism, Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup that brought the party to long-term power....
in 2006, is sometimes compared to Tyrannicide. John Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth

John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President of the United States Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865....
also compared his shooting

Abraham Lincoln assassination

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln, one of the last major events in the American Civil War, took place on Good Friday, April 14, 1865, when President of the United States Abraham Lincoln was shot while attending a performance of Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre with his Mary Todd Lincoln and two guests....
of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States. He successfully led the country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery....
in 1865 to tyrannicide.

Tyrannicides in fiction

Tyrannicide is a popular literary trope

Trope (literature)

A literary trope is a common pattern, theme , motif in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning....
. Many works of fiction deal with the struggle of an individual or group of individuals to overthrow and kill an unjust tyrant. Often the tyranny is caused by an usurper to a royal throne, where the conclusion often restores the balance. Children's literature

Children's literature

Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve and is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes exclude young-adult fiction, comic books, or other genres....
frequently deals with the subject. Folk tales

Folklore

Folklore is the body of expressive culture, including tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, superstitions, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group ....
like The Nutcracker

The Nutcracker

The Nutcracker Op. 71, is a fairy tale-ballet in two acts, three scenes, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composed in 1891?92. Alexandre Dumas, p?re's adaptation of the story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" by E....
include the act, as do some video games series, like The Legend of Zelda. Classical examples in Disney animation include The Lion King
The Lion King

The Lion King is a American Animation film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, released in theaters on June 15, 1994 by Walt Disney Pictures....
or The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid (1989 film)

The Little Mermaid is a 1989 in film animated feature produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation with a pencil test beginning on September 23, 1988 and its first release on November 17, 1989 distributed by Walt Disney Pictures....
which both involve the tyrannical takeover of a monarchy. Fantasy works like The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings is an Epic poetry high fantasy novel written by Philology J.R.R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work....
, The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children written by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 120 million copies in 41 languages....
, or Star Wars

Star Wars

Star Wars is an epic film space opera Media franchise initially conceived by George Lucas. The first film in the franchise was simply titled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, but later had the subtitle Episode IV: A New Hope added to distinguish it from its sequels and prequels....
also deal with killing tyrants. V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta is a ten-issue comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd , set in a dystopian future United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s about the 1990s....
is a popular comic and film

V for Vendetta (film)

V for Vendetta is a 2005 in film cult film action film-Thriller film film director by James McTeigue and produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers, who also wrote the screenplay....
to deal with tyrannicide. Besides Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar (play)

Julius Caesar is a Shakespearean tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the conspiracy against the Roman Empire dictator Julius Caesar, his assassination and its aftermath....
, a number of William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
's plays deal with the subject, including Hamlet
Hamlet

Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601. The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle King Claudius, who has murdered King Hamlet, the King, and then taken the throne and married Gertrude ....
, Macbeth
Macbeth

Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest Shakespearean tragedy and is believed to have been written some time between 1603 and 1606, with 1607 being the very latest possible date....
, and The Tempest
The Tempest

The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610?11, although some researchers have argued for an earlier dating. Its protagonist is the banished sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan, who uses his magical powers to punish and forgive his enemies when he raises a tempest that drives them ashore....
.

Tyrannicide

Notable tyrannicides

Tyrannicides in fiction

See also