Which view is associated with Ireton/Cromwell as described in the notes?

• A. The populist view: universal manhood suffrage.
• B. The liberal republican view: natural rights and limited government.
• C. The grandees' view: community is an organization of landowners with freeholder suffrage; property is man-made.
• D. The nationalist view: central authority.

Answer: (C)

Ireton and Cromwell’s view ties political legitimacy to property and a landed elite. They saw the community as an organization of landowners whose freehold status gives them the right to participate in government, and they treated property as something created and protected by human institutions rather than a natural entitlement. This means political rights flow from owning land, anchoring authority in a stable, property-centered order designed to safeguard property and social order. This contrasts with universal suffrage, which would extend voting to all adults; with natural-rights liberalism, which grounds rights in inherent human nature and limits government to protect those rights; or with a nationalist emphasis on centralized authority. Hence, the grandees’ view best captures Ireton and Cromwell’s stance.