⭐ Locke's Two Treatises: The Constitutional Theory Behind the Crisis
Part of The Exclusion Crisis — GCSE History
This significance covers ⭐ Locke's Two Treatises: The Constitutional Theory Behind the Crisis within The Exclusion Crisis for GCSE History. Revise The Exclusion Crisis in Restoration England 1660-1685 for GCSE History with 8 exam-style questions and 4 flashcards. This is a high-frequency topic, so it is worth revising until the explanation feels precise and repeatable. It is section 6 of 18 in this topic. Use this significance to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
Topic position
Section 6 of 18
Practice
8 questions
Recall
4 flashcards
⭐ Locke's Two Treatises: The Constitutional Theory Behind the Crisis
John Locke — political ally of the Earl of Shaftesbury — wrote his Two Treatises of Government around 1681 (though they were published in 1689, after the Glorious Revolution). For Grade 9 constitutional analysis, these ideas are essential:
Locke argued that government was a contract between ruler and people. Kings did not rule by divine right — they ruled because the people consented to be governed. If the ruler broke the contract by acting as a tyrant (for example, by threatening Protestant liberties or ignoring Parliament), the people had the right to resist. This directly challenged the divine right of kings that Tories used to defend James's succession.
The Exclusion Crisis debates forced these ideas into the open for the first time. Whig pamphlets, newspapers, and speeches drew on this contractual theory to argue that Parliament represented the people's consent — and could therefore determine who ruled. Charles defeated the Exclusion Bills, but he could not defeat the ideas. When James II broke his own "contract" with the English people in 1688, Locke's arguments justified the Glorious Revolution. The Bill of Rights (1689) embodied exactly the constitutional principles the Exclusion Crisis had debated.
Grade 9 link: Locke provides the theoretical framework that transforms the Exclusion Crisis from a political argument about one man's succession into a constitutional revolution about the foundations of government itself. Students who can connect the Exclusion Crisis debates to Locke's contract theory — and then to 1688-89 — are demonstrating the sustained reasoning that earns Level 4.