Os Commonwealthmen a serviço da liberdade: a oposição a Guilherme III e ao “cânone republicano”

The neo-republican interpretation held by the Cambridge School posits a stark contrast between republicanism and liberalism which needs re-examining. This paper seeks to contribute to this debate by proposing a case study of those Commonwealthmen or republicans that supported the 1688 revolution in England but then pitted themselves against the new political culture and “credit economy” of William III’s reign during the 1690s. Shifting our focus away from republicanism as a language to republicanism as a culture as well as a mode of political action helps us acknowledge that the line between natural rights and civic virtue, as well as between negative and positive liberty, is in fact blurred.