Abstract
This text is a fragment from the De Republica Anglorum book, written by Sir Thomas Smith in 1565. The author was one of the first people to convert himself to Protestantism during the Protestant reformation. He also became a Member of Parliament. In the first part, the author presents the powers vested in the Parliament, its composition, role and functions in the realm. In the second part, Smith tells about the Monarch's powers and how his subjects have to behave towards him. All this is supposed to form the main characteristics of the English 'republica'. It is interesting to see how Thomas Smith well describes and explains the absolutism which existed under Elisabeth I's reign, while being influenced by the Renaissance and the Elizabethan world's ideas and values. Even if he makes a difference between the Parliament and the Monarch in this text so as to demonstrate that people have got the same liberties and rights in a Protestant monarchy than in a Roman catholic 'republica', the author, because he may have been particularly influenced by Machiavelli's book, The Prince (1513), writes a text which suits with this period of absolutism, by eulogizing and justifying the Monarch's supremacy in the realm. Indeed, according to him, a supreme Monarch ensures the power of the English religion and State.
