The First Treatise of Government

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.