Thomas Hobbes

Timeline

1. 1603–1628Oxford · OxfordshireHe entered the University of Oxford in 1603 and later served for many years as tutor to the Cavendish family, traveling in Europe with his patron and encountering modern scientific ideas such as Galileo's, laying the groundwork for his philosophical methodology.
2. 1640–1651Paris · Kingdom of FranceHe went into exile in Paris during the English Civil War, associating with scholars such as Mersenne and Descartes; in 1651 he published Leviathan, systematically expounding natural right, the social contract, and the indivisibility of sovereignty, provoking enormous controversy.
3. 1651–1670London · Greater LondonAfter 1651 he returned to England, living in seclusion and writing under the protection of Charles II; from 1655–1658 he engaged in fierce disputes with Wallis and others over mathematics and church authority; in the 1660s he continued revising his philosophical and historical works.
4. 1661–1679Chatsworth · DerbyshireFrom the 1660s he mainly resided at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, publishing a revised Latin edition of Leviathan in 1668 to answer church criticism; in his later years he continued responding to scholarly doubts, dying at Hardwick Hall in 1679.