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John Locke's Two Treatises (natural rights)
1689· Book, artwork, monument or document· Europe
Well documentedSolid records, physical evidence or scientific consensus.
English philosopher John Locke's 1689 argument that people have natural rights to life, liberty and property, and governments exist to protect them.
See it on the History map →What happened
Published anonymously in 1689, just after the Glorious Revolution replaced King James II, Two Treatises of Government rejected the claim that kings rule by divine right. Locke argued that people in a 'state of nature' already have rights to life, liberty and property. They create governments by consent to protect those rights. A government that violates them breaks the deal, and the people may replace it. He also argued that property begins when people mix their labor with land.
Why it matters
It gave the modern idea of government by consent of the governed, and of a right to revolt, which American revolutionaries closely echoed in 1776.
Think of it like
Like a property manager hired by the owners: authority comes from their consent, and a manager who betrays them can be fired.
How we know
The text survives in editions Locke himself revised. Scholars, notably Peter Laslett, showed much of it was written around 1679 to 1683, before the revolution it seemed to justify.
Still debated
Locke invested in the slave-trading Royal African Company and helped draft a Carolina constitution allowing slavery. How he squared that with natural rights is debated.
Connections (3)
▸Magna Carta foreshadowed the limited government of John Locke's Two Treatises (natural rights)Mostly agreed
The connection
Magna Carta set the precedent that a ruler is bound by law and by agreements with the ruled. In the 1600s, Parliament's struggles with the Stuart kings made it a rallying cry for limiting royal power. Locke wrote within that tradition but went further, grounding limits on government in natural rights and consent rather than old charters.
When and how
England: the charter of 1215; the Stuart-era conflicts of the 1600s, when Edward Coke revived it; Locke's Two Treatises, published in 1689.
How sure are we?
The line runs through 1600s English politics: Coke's writings and the 1628 Petition of Right invoke Magna Carta, and Locke wrote amid the same debates.
Debates and open questions
Locke barely cites Magna Carta. How much he drew on English legal tradition, versus abstract philosophy, is debated; the link is a shared tradition, not direct borrowing.
▸John Locke's Two Treatises (natural rights) helped launch EnlightenmentWell documented
The connection
Locke supplied two founding ideas. In politics: government by consent, protecting natural rights. In his Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689): the mind starts as a blank slate, and knowledge comes from experience. Both encouraged questioning inherited authority and tradition, central themes of the Enlightenment that followed.
When and how
England, 1689 to 1690, just after the Glorious Revolution; translated into French by 1700 and read by Voltaire, Montesquieu and others through the 1700s.
How we know
Enlightenment writers cite him constantly, Voltaire praised him lavishly, and his books ran through many editions and translations across Europe.
Debates and open questions
Some historians, such as Jonathan Israel, start the Enlightenment earlier with Spinoza and Dutch thinkers, giving Locke a less central role.
▸John Locke's Two Treatises (natural rights) inspired Declaration of IndependenceWell documented
The connection
Locke's argument that people have natural rights to 'life, liberty and estate,' and may replace a government that abuses them, became the Declaration's core. Jefferson wrote 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,' and justified independence with a list of the king's abuses, which was Locke's test for when revolution is right.
When and how
Philadelphia, June to July 1776; Jefferson drew on Locke and other writers widely read in the colonies.
How we know
Jefferson named Locke, with Bacon and Newton, among the three greatest men who ever lived, and the Declaration's wording closely echoes the Second Treatise.
Debates and open questions
Why Jefferson swapped 'property' for 'pursuit of happiness' is debated; other influences included Scottish Enlightenment thinkers and English republican writers.