Matthew Wren (20 August 1629 – 14 June 1672) was an English politician and writer. He is now known as an opponent of James Harrington, and a

monarchist Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...

who made qualified use of the ideas of

Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5/15 April 1588 – 4/14 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy. Hobbes is best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influent ...

Life

He was the eldest child of the Royalist Bishop of Ely

Matthew Wren Matthew Wren (3 December 1585 – 24 April 1667) was an influential English clergyman, bishop and scholar. Life He was the eldest son of Francis Wren (born 18 January 1552 at Newbold Revell), citizen and mercer of London, only son of Cuth ...

and Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Cutler of Ipswich, and therefore cousin of

Sir Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

. He was educated at both

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

and the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, graduating M.A. at Oxford on 9 September 1661. He was secretary to Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, from 1660 to 1667, M.P. for St. Michael (1661 to 1672), and secretary to

James, Duke of York James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...

(1667 to 1672). He was fatally injured accompanying the duke at the

Battle of Solebay The naval Battle of Solebay took place on 28 May Old Style, 7 June New Style 1672 and was the first naval battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War. The battle began as an attempted raid on Solebay port where an English fleet was anchored and large ...

in 1672 and died on his return to Greenwich. He was buried with his father at

Pembroke Hall, Cambridge Pembroke College (officially "The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College or Hall of Valence-Mary") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college is the third-oldest college of the university and has over 700 ...

. He was one of the council of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

named in Charles II's original charter, dated 15 July 1662, and was a prominent member of the Society. He was a prominent investor in The African Company and therefore both a beneficiary and supporter of the transatlantic slave trade.

Works

He wrote: *''Considerations on Mr. Harrington's ... Oceana'', 1657, 12mo (anon.) *''Monarchy Asserted. In Vindication of the Considerations,'' 1659 8vo, 2nd edit. 1660, 8vo, to which Harrington replied in his ''Politicaster'', London, 1659, 8vo.

J. G. A. Pocock John Greville Agard Pocock (; born 7 March 1924) is a historian of political thought from New Zealand. He is especially known for his studies of republicanism in the early modern period (mostly in Europe, Britain, and America), his work on th ...

describes him as the leading contemporary opponent of Harrington, and an illustration in his views of the theory of

possessive individualism Crawford Brough Macpherson (1911–1987) was an influential Canadian political scientist who taught political theory at the University of Toronto. Life Macpherson was born on 18 November 1911 in Toronto, Ontario. After graduating from the Univ ...

C. B. Macpherson Crawford Brough Macpherson (1911–1987) was an influential Canadian political scientist who taught political theory at the University of Toronto. Life Macpherson was born on 18 November 1911 in Toronto, Ontario. After graduating from the Univ ...

. Francis D. Wormuth writes that Wren reversed the relation between politics and economics found in Harrington. According to

I. Bernard Cohen I. Bernard Cohen (1 March 1914 – 20 June 2003) was the Victor S. Thomas Professor of the history of science at Harvard University and the author of many books on the history of science and, in particular, Isaac Newton and Benjamin Franklin. C ...

, Wren may have been the first, in ''Monarchy Asserted'', to apply the term 'revolution' to the

English Revolution The English Revolution is a term that describes two separate events in English history. Prior to the 20th century, it was generally applied to the 1688 Glorious Revolution, when James II was deposed and a constitutional monarchy established unde ...

. The book was dedicated to

John Wilkins John Wilkins, (14 February 1614 – 19 November 1672) was an Anglican clergyman, natural philosopher, and author, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society. He was Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death. Wilkins is one of the fe ...

, and Wren's introduction explained that the anonymous ''Considerations'' had been taken by Harrington to come from the whole group of Oxford experimentalists around Wilkins (to which Wren belonged, as did his more famous cousin

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

).Margery Purver, ''The Royal Society: Concept and Creation'' (1967), p. 114.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Wren, Matthew 1629 births 1672 deaths 17th-century English writers 17th-century English male writers English MPs 1661–1679 English political writers Members of the pre-1707 English Parliament for constituencies in Cornwall Original Fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Alumni of the University of Oxford People of the Anglo-Dutch Wars