THE POLITICAL THEORY OF JOHN LOCKE

Locke had been born in 1632. After education at Westminster School he took his MA at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1658. He qualified in medicine and became physician to Lord Shaftesbury, a member of the inner cabinet of King Charles II. Charles had returned from exile in 1660 on a wave of popular reaction against the tyranny and austerity of Cromwellian rule. As his reign progressed, however, royalty became less popular, especially as the heir to the throne, the King's brother James, was a sturdy Catholic. Shaftesbury led the Whig party, which sought to exclude James from the succession; he had to flee the country after being implicated in a plot against the royal brothers in 1683. Locke accompanied him to Holland, and spent the years of his exile composing his greatest philosophical work, the Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which was published in several editions in the later years of his life.