AP Euro Unit 3 Lit

4 pieces of literature

The Republic by Jean Bodin (1576)

• Bodin: high ranking French governmental official in the late 1500’s

  • devastated by the horrors and destruction of the French Wars of Religion

• political work

• argued in favor of an absolute monarchy as the best protection against chaos

The True Law of Free Monarchs by King James I (1598)

• James: King of both England and Scotland and son of Mary, Queen of Scots

  • came to the English throne at the same time as absolute monarchy was being created in France

• argued that God chooses kings to rule over nations

• used biblical examples to support absolute monarchy

The Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes (1651)

• Hobbes: English political philosopher

  • hurt by the devastation of the English Civil War

  • believed that a strong, all-powerful monarch was the best protection against chaos

• political thought

• belief in the “social contract” (an unwritten agreement between the people and the government)

Of Civil Government by John Locke (1689)

• Locke: agreed with Hobbes about social contract

  • believed that the people have the right to break the contract if they are unhappy with the king

• people possess “natural rights” (“life, liberty, and property”)

• people have a “right to revolt”

• writings inspired by the Glorious Revolution (1688) and influenced the founding fathers of the United States