It was likely begun in the 1620s and completed before the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642 but it was only published in 1680 after the Restoration.

The book defends the divine right of kings on the basis that all modern states' authority derived from the Biblical patriarchs (whom Filmer saw as Adam's heirs), history and logic.

Concurrently, he criticized rival theories claiming the basis of a state should be the consent of the governed or social contract.

The book describes an arrangement of patriarchy at every level of human society, and argues that this is natural.

Locke found Filmer's account of political authority unworkable, arguing that it could not be used to justify any actual political authority, since it is impossible to show that any particular ruler is one of Adam's heirs.