Two Treatises of Government

Lore & Background

The First Treatise is a sentence-by-sentence refutation of the late Robert Filmer’s *Patriarcha*, which defended a divinely ordained, hereditary, absolute monarchy—ideas that still had living supporters. The Second Treatise presents Locke’s vision of a more civilized society founded on natural rights and contract theory, where government requires the consent of the governed and, under limited circumstances, the people may overthrow the ruler. The work was published anonymously in 1689, following the Glorious Revolution, but was likely drafted between 1679 and 1681 during the Exclusion Crisis. Historian Peter Laslett established that most of the writing was completed by 1680, with revisions after Locke fled to Dutch exile in 1683. The arguments in the First Treatise directly counter the divine right of kings, a pressing issue during the Exclusion Crisis, when Locke’s patron Lord Shaftesbury led efforts to bar the Catholic James from the throne. Richard Ashcraft later suggested the treatises are better linked to the revolutionary conspiracies surrounding the Rye House Plot, which forced Locke and others into exile. Locke did not acknowledge authorship until the end of his life, knowing the work was dangerous. The book is a foundational text of liberal theory, and the Second Treatise has been described as a revolutionary work in its time and place.

Reader's Guide

Two Treatises of Government is a key foundational text in the theory of liberalism. The Second Treatise was, in its time and place, a revolutionary work. Locke claimed in the preface that its purpose was to justify William III's ascension, but it is more likely the revolution presented an opportunity to publish the existing manuscript. The work was written during the Exclusion Crisis, a period of political turmoil over the succession of a Catholic monarch, and was later revised during Locke’s exile in the Netherlands. The First Treatise systematically dismantles the arguments for divine-right, hereditary monarchy found in Robert Filmer’s *Patriarcha*, while the Second Treatise builds a theory of civil society grounded in natural rights and the consent of the governed, including the right to overthrow a ruler under limited circumstances. Locke’s ideas were considered dangerous; he published anonymously and only acknowledged authorship near his death. The text’s influence was shaped by its publication history: early editions were riddled with errors, and a French translation omitted the preface, the entire First Treatise, and the first chapter of the Second, meaning that major Enlightenment thinkers like Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau encountered the work in this incomplete form. The only American edition printed in the 1700s also lacked these sections.

Did You Know?

• Locke never formally acknowledged authorship of Two Treatises until just before his death.
• More than half of Locke's original draft, occupying a space between the First and Second Treatises, has been irretrievably lost.
• The first edition was replete with errors; Locke held the printers to a higher standard of perfection than the technology of the time would permit.
• The First Treatise breaks off in mid-sentence.