The origins of the Enlightenment can be traced in the tumult of the Civil Wars in England. With the re-establishment of a virtually intact autocratic regime, first with the return of Charles II in 1660 and then the rise of James II in 1685, leading political figures started to reassess how society and policy might be properly organized. Many writers of the late 17th century were willing to take a break from what they experience as decades of political tyranny in search of personal rights and freedom based on the citizen.
