The First Treatise of Government
40 pages • 1-hour read
John LockeThe First Treatise of Government
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Background
Historical Context: The Glorious Revolution
Locke probably wrote First Treatise in the early 1680s–the exact date is unknown–but he published it in 1689. In the book’s Preface, Locke explains that one of his primary objectives in publishing First Treatise is to “establish the throne of our great restorer, the present King William”; to ground William’s monarchy “in the consent of the people”; and to “justify to the world the people of England,” who “saved the nation when it was on the very brink of slavery and ruin” (I). The events Locke summarizes here have come to be known as the Glorious Revolution.
In 1688, at the invitation of English Protestants in Parliament, William of Orange, a Dutch prince, led an invasion of England designed to oust the Catholic King James II. With the help of English rebels, the invasion succeeded. William of Orange became King William III of England. Parliament secured the new king’s Protestant succession and drafted the English Bill of Rights in 1689. This sweeping revolutionary settlement represents one of the most important moments in modern England’s constitutional history.
The Protestant rebellion against King James II raised questions about the new monarch’s legitimacy. Supporters of James II, many of whom later became known as Jacobites, argued that Parliament had no right to depose a monarch. Some Jacobites embraced the divine-right doctrine, which led them to Sir Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha.
Locke’s First Treatise, therefore, must be understood in the context of the Glorious Revolution. Had English Protestants not orchestrated an effective coup against King James II and then settled both the crown and its succession on William III, there would have been no need to explore the question of political legitimacy. Likewise, had James’s supporters not resuscitated Filmer’s divine-right argument, Locke in 1689 would have had no occasion to refute that argument nor to build his case for natural freedom and government-by-consent.
Critical Context: Patriarcha, Locke, and Algernon Sidney
Sir Robert Filmer’s Patriarcha (1680) has a historical context of its own, and Locke was not the only prominent English political philosopher to criticize it.
Published twenty-seven years after Filmer’s death, Patriarcha appeared in print on the eve of the political and constitutional crisis that culminated in the Glorious Revolution of 1688-89. Filmer wrote Patriarcha, however, approximately half a century earlier, during the tumult that led to the English Civil War (1642-51). In the same way that Locke published First Treatise primarily to support King William III and a constitutional settlement based on consent of the governed, Filmer wrote Patriarcha to defend the absolutist claims of King Charles I. After ascending to the English throne in 1625, Charles I tried to govern by divine right and without the consent of Parliament. This led to the English Civil War and, ultimately, to Charles’s execution in 1649.
Shortly after the publication of Patriarcha in 1680, Algernon Sidney, an English political philosopher and contemporary of Locke, wrote Discourses Concerning Government, a direct answer to Filmer that, for political reasons, was not published until 1698. Locke and Sidney moved in the same social and intellectual circles, so it is likely that they influenced one another to some degree. In fact, the opening line of the preface to First Treatise reads as follows: “Reader, thou hast here the beginning and end of a discourse concerning government” (I).
The writings of Locke and Sidney share some common features. As a matter of style, for instance, both Locke and Sidney use direct quotations from Patriarcha and then answer each in turn. At times, both Locke and Sidney adopt a biting and sardonic tone, targeting both Filmer’s arguments and Filmer himself, who, though deceased, continued to be heralded by the divine-right apologists of the 1680s. In terms of theoretical substance, both Locke and Sidney defend government-by-consent.
Notwithstanding the similarity of their arguments against the divine right of kings, Locke and Sidney experienced very different fates. Whereas Locke championed the new King William III, Sidney did not live to see the Glorious Revolution: The author of Discourses Concerning Government was executed for treason in 1683.
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