Now days, we in America give tributes to the veterans of our wars by saying "freedom is not free." In one sense that is true. At the cost of their lives or limbs, our soldiers have allowed our freedoms to continue. "Freedom is not free" because they have paid for it.
But if you really believe that "freedom is not free" then you are buying into the feudal argument that freedom ultimately comes from a king (essentially a military man) who can grant or withhold it as he wills. Louis XIV used to have his cannons stamped with a Latin phrase that meant "the final argument of kings."
The foundation of the Enlightenment was the realization that freedom is indeed free. Humans are born free and only consent to give up some of their freedoms when those freedoms impinge on another's.
The key thing the Enlightenment philosophers realized was that the Feudal system that gave rise to royalty and aristocracy was, in essence, a protection racket. The king and his vassals promised you ( at the very minimum) the protection of your life in return for everything you thought you owned. The 1700's was about the people of Europe and the Americas waking up to what feudalism really was and deciding they'd really rather try something else instead.
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