Robert Filmer's best known work, Patriarcha, published posthumously in 1680, was the target of numerous Whig attempts at rebuttal, including Algernon Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government, James Tyrrell's Patriarcha Non Monarcha and John Locke's Two Treatises of Government.
18 Facts About Robert Filmer
2.
Robert Filmer was called to the bar in 1613, but there is no evidence he practised law.
3.
Robert Filmer bought the porter's lodge at Westminster Abbey for use as his town house.
4.
Robert Filmer became a Justice of the Peace and an officer of the county militia in the 1630s.
5.
Robert Filmer was investigated by the county committee on suspicion of supporting the King, though no firm evidence was uncovered.
6.
Robert Filmer was survived by his wife, three sons and one daughter, one son and one daughter having predeceased him.
7.
Robert Filmer was already middle-aged when the controversy between the King and the House of Commons roused him to literary activity.
8.
Robert Filmer's writings provide examples of the doctrines held by the extreme section of the Divine Right party.
9.
The fullest expression of Robert Filmer's thoughts is found in Patriarcha, or the Natural Power of Kings, published posthumously in 1680, but probably begun in the 1620s and almost certainly completed before the Civil War began in 1642.
10.
Robert Filmer's position was enunciated by the works which he published in his lifetime.
11.
Robert Filmer's early published works did not receive much attention, while Patriarcha circulated only in manuscript.
12.
Robert Filmer's theory is founded upon the statement that the government of a family by the father is the true origin and model of all government.
13.
The difficulty inherent in judging the validity of claims to power by men who claim to be acting upon the "secret" will of God was disregarded by Robert Filmer, who held that it altered in no way the nature of such power, based on the natural right of a supreme father to hold sway.
14.
Robert Filmer considered it monstrous that the people should judge or depose their king, for they would then become judges in their own cause.
15.
Ancient Rome was, according to Robert Filmer, ruled fairly only after the Empire was established.
16.
Robert Filmer's theory obtained wide recognition owing to a timely posthumous publication.
17.
Bentham went on to claim that Robert Filmer had failed to prove divine right theory but he had proved "the physical impossibility of the system of absolute equality and independence, by showing that subjection and not independence is the natural state of man".
18.
Robert Filmer died in 1668 and the East Sutton estate passed to his brother Robert who was created a baronet in 1674 in honour of their father's loyalty to the Crown.