With this powerful summary Gerard Noodt concluded his farewell lecture as Rector of the University of Leiden. It was February 1699 and Noodt had chosen ‘The Power of Sovereigns’ as the title of a lecture that was a synthesis of seventeenth-century debates on natural liberty, the formation of the commonwealth, the nature of sovereignty and the legitimacy of resistance against tyranny. Noodt presented his conclusions as mere common sense, underpinned by references to the leading authorities on the subject, to George Buchanan, the Vindiciae contra Tyrannos, Hugo Grotius and Samuel Pufendorf.

One of the most important legacies of Quentin Skinner's Foundations is its systematic study of theories of resistance in early-modern Europe – from Luther to Locke.