How did the Enlightenment challenge the idea that monarchs ruled by divine right?

The Enlightenment challenged the doctrine of the divine right of kings—which asserted that monarchs derived their authority directly from God and were unaccountable to earthly institutions—by shifting the basis of political legitimacy toward natural rights and the social contract.123

Thinkers like John Locke explicitly refuted the divine right theory, arguing instead that all individuals are endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and property. Enlightenment philosophers posited that political power is not a sacred inheritance but a trust granted by the people for the common good.243

This framework introduced the principle that government requires the consent of the governed. Consequently, if a ruler fails to protect these natural rights or acts arbitrarily, the social contract is broken, and the people possess the right—and sometimes the obligation—to resist or remove that authority. This intellectual shift replaced the absolute power of monarchs with the concept of constitutionalism, emphasizing that government power must be limited, divided, and subject to the rule of law.2453