Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow The Divine Right of Kings vs. Individual Rights

Debate: The Divine Right of Kings vs. Individual Rights

Image

In this debate, Filmer presented a defense of the doctrine of the “divine right of kings” in 1680. It triggered a reply first from Algernon Sidney, who wrote between 1681 and his execution for treason in 1683, and then John Locke in the first part of *The Two Treatises of Government* (1689). Locke argued that the legitimacy of government depended not upon the divine right of the monarch to rule but upon the natural rights of man and the consent of the governed.

For more information see the Timeline on the Debate about the Divine Right of Kings

3 Titles in this Group:

authors and editors   title ↑ pub. date  
author: Algernon Sidney, editor: Thomas G. West Discourses Concerning Government (LF ed.) 1698
author: Sir Robert Filmer Patriarcha, or the Natural Power of Kings 1680
author: John Locke, editor: Thomas Hollis The Two Treatises of Civil Government (Hollis ed.) 1689