Killing No Murder

Killing No Murder is a 1657 pamphlet of disputed authorship that advocates for the assassination of Oliver Cromwell. Published durning The Protectorate period of the English Interregnum, it was in high demand at the time of its distribution, and Cromwell was said to have been so disturbed after its publication that he never spent more than two nights in the same place and always took extreme precaution in planning his travel.

The pamphlet offers a definition of the political roles of tyrants, and highlights the military background of historical tyrants as many of them were former generals or military officers. It also highlights that tyrants use religion to their advantage, claiming divine inspiration for their policies, while also claiming that their love of God and religion justifies whatever policy they support. The author claims that since tyrants place themselves above the law and acknowledge no legal limit to their own authority, they have no actual right to the protections provided by the law. When the courts of law fail to act against the tyrants, the matter has to be resolved by vigilantism (defined as street justice in the pamphlet).

The author of the pamphlet used the pseudonym William Allen, and his identity is uncertain. The disputes over the identity of the writer have mainly focused on three candidates: the politician Silius Titus (because the sarcasm in the pamphlet resembled his public arguments), the failed assassin and supposedly insane prisoner Edward Sexby (due to a coerced confession of having written it), and the Republican soldier William Allen (a New Model Army trooper who had previous political disputes with Cromwell).