John Locke

Philosopher of

Limited Monarchy

 

 
John Locke was a famous philosopher who lived during the time of the Glorious Revolution.  He was private physician to one of the most powerful Whig political leaders, the Earl of Shaftesbury.

John Locke wrote an important book entitled Two Treatises of Government. The book contained many ideas that still influence the way we think about government and rights.  People in many parts of the world accept Locke's ideas now, but when he first wrote his book they were considered dangerous.  In fact, until recently historians believed that John Locke wrote his Two Treatises to explain or encourage the Glorious Revolution! 

One reason John Locke's ideas seemed so dangerous was that many people understood him to suggest that the people of a country did not exist to serve their kings, as James II thought.  Instead, kings and other types of rulers existed to serve their people, by protecting their rights to life, liberty, and property.

Remember those three kinds of rights--life, liberty, and property.  87 years later, a famous American, Thomas Jefferson, will borrow those terms from Locke, change the wording to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and write them into the American Declaration of Independence.  In that form, John Locke's ideas will shape the way Americans still think about government in the 21st century.

John Locke also believed that God gave people good minds and abilities so that they could make rulers and laws themselves.  Kings were not made directly by God. Monarchy--rule by a single king or queen--began only when people got together and agreed to create it.  People could just as easily have created a different kind of government.  And people had to obey kings only as long as they protected the people's rights. 

Kings like James II were wrong to think that they were responsible only to God and not to the people.  If a king refused to protect the people's rights, the people could take government away from the king and give it to a new ruler who would protect them.

John Locke believed that if leaders would only limit the power of the monarch, kings could be prevented from abusing people's rights and people would not rebel.  Locke suggested that an elected assembly like the English Parliament provided a good way to limit the king's power.  Parliament was chosen by the majority of property holders in each member's district (at that time in England and America only property holders could vote).  If Parliament shared power with the king, voting on laws he proposed, they could keep him from passing laws that took away rights.  People called this idea Limited Monarchy.

John Locke never commented directly on New Englanders' Glorious Revolution against Sir Edmund Andros.  But Locke's ideas were very similar to the reasons the colonists gave for sending Andros back to England.  Locke said government existed to protect liberty, but Andros was throwing people in jail and making them serve in his army against their will.  Locke said government existed to protect property, but Andros was seizing the titles to colonists' land and making them use their money to pay taxes they had not agreed to create.  Locke said an elected assembly could limit the power of a single ruler, but Andros was trying to eliminate representative government in New England.

We can't know exactly what John Locke would have told William and Mary about Massachusetts's Glorious Revolution.  But we do know that the ideas he wrote down could encourage people to take the kind of action the colonists took against Edmund Andros.