A key thinker of the early Enlightenment, the English Locke was educated at Oxford but read wider than his course, gaining a degree in medicine before pursuing a varied career. His Essay Concerning Human Understanding of 1690 challenged Descartes’ views and influenced later thinkers, and he helped pioneer views on toleration and produced views on government which would underpin later thinkers. Locke was forced to flee England for Holland in 1683 because of his links to plots against the king, before returning after William and Mary took the throne.
