What's an antonym for "tyranny"?

Solution 1:

Depends what you are looking for. If you were meaning the type of rule the king had, the antonym would be something having to do with democracy, like:

egalitarianism

However, if you are asking about the harshness of the king's rule, then you would probably use:

clemency

Solution 2:

benevolence (from thefreedictionary)

benevolent - intending or showing kindness; "a benevolent society"

Solution 3:

Benevolence is nice (in more ways than one!) but I'm not sure it's exactly the opposite of tyranny, which has to do with (a) the scope of the tyrant's power (i.e. absolute) and (b) the tyrant's use and abuse of that power. So while a tyrant is unlikely to be benevolent, I don't feel that benevolence and tyranny are quite opposites.

What about latitude, in the sense of freedom from narrow restrictions?

Solution 4:

I would say the opposite of tyrrany is anarchy -- no government at all.