Anthony Ashley Cooper 1st earl of Shaftesbury

Home > People > History > British and Irish History: Biographies

Anthony Ashley Cooper Shaftesbury, 1st earl of 1621–83, English statesman. In the English civil war he supported the crown until 1644 but then joined the parliamentarians. He was made a member of the Commonwealth council of state and supported Oliver Cromwell until 1654, when he turned against the Protectorate because of his distrust of autocratic rule. He supported the Rump Parliament against John Lambert and then participated in the Restoration (1660) of Charles II . Made a privy councilor and Baron Ashley (1661), he assisted in the trial of the regicides but otherwise worked for a lenient settlement. The same year he became chancellor of the exchequer and gained royal favor by his support of religious toleration. Named one of the proprietors of Carolina, he took considerable interest in plans for the colony, commissioning his friend John Locke to draw up a constitution for it. He joined the opposition to the 1st earl of Clarendon and, when the latter fell (1667), became a member of the Cabal administration. Created earl of Shaftesbury, he became lord chancellor in 1672. Shaftesbury had not been party to the secret Treaty of Dover (1670), and he gradually became suspicious of the king's efforts to improve the position of Roman Catholics. Renouncing his earlier belief in toleration, he supported the Test Act (1673). He was dismissed from office in the same year. Out of favor at court and embittered by his imprisonment in 1677 for opposing the prorogation of Parliament, he made use of the Popish Plot (see Oates, Titus ) to promote opposition to the earl of Danby and to encourage anti-Catholic feeling. Using the Green Ribbon Club as his headquarters, Shaftesbury built up a party organization, and his followers, soon to be designated Whig , dominated the three Parliaments of 1679 to 1681. On Danby's fall (1679) Shaftesbury became president of the privy council and began to press for the exclusion bill to keep the Roman Catholic James, duke of York (later James II ), from the throne. He supported instead the claims of the duke of Monmouth . Again dismissed (1679), he continued the fight for exclusion until Charles dissolved the 1681 Parliament. Shaftesbury's position was now precarious, since his party was discredited and the king in complete control of the government. An indictment for treason failed, but he fled (1682) to Holland and soon died. Aided by his wealth and an exceptional mind, Shaftesbury has been called the most skillful politician of his day. He was bitterly satirized in John Dryden's Absalom and Achitophel.

Bibliography: See biography by K. H. D. Haley (1968); J. R. Jones, The First Whigs: The Politics of the Exclusion Crisis, 1678–83 (1961).

Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st earl of (1621–83). Politician. As chancellor of the Exchequer 1661–72, Shaftesbury (then Lord Ashley) was a minor but hard-working and able member of Charles II's early ministries. Promoted to the more prestigious office of lord chancellor in 1672, and made an earl, his deism and attachment to parliamentary government put him at odds with the king's increasingly obvious pro-French and pro-catholic policy and its sinister threat of royal absolutism, and he was dismissed in 1673. He then went into systematic opposition. From 1679 he led the ‘Exclusion’ campaign to bar the catholic duke of York from the succession, exploiting the Popish plot to generate anti-catholic feeling. Despite poor health, he succeeded in unifying the disparate opposition groups in Parliament into an electorally successful party of ‘Whigs’ and employed demotic and propagandist tactics to rouse popular support. Hounded in his last months on a charge of treason, he died in Holland early in 1683.

Andrew Hanham

Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st earl of (1621–83). Politician. As chancellor of the Exchequer 1661–72, Shaftesbury (then Lord Ashley) was a minor but hard‐working and able member of Charles II's early ministries. Promoted to the more prestigious office of lord chancellor in 1672, his deism and attachment to parliamentary government put him at odds with the king's increasingly obvious pro‐French and pro‐catholic policy and he was dismissed in 1673. He then went into systematic opposition. From 1679 he led the ‘Exclusion’ campaign to bar the catholic duke of York from the succession, exploiting the Popish plot to generate anti‐catholicfeeling. Hounded in his last months on a charge of treason, he died in Holland early in 1683.

Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of (1621–83) English statesman. He entered Parliament in 1640 as a royalist supporter, but changed sides in 1643, eventually becoming a member of CROMWELL's council of state. In 1660 he was one of the Commissioners of the Convention Parliament who invited Charles II to return, and Charles rewarded him with the Chancellorship of the Exchequer. After CLARENDON's fall he became one of the CABAL, but was dismissed in 1673 because of his support for the TEST ACT and his unwavering opposition to Roman Catholicism. He became leader of the opposition, and used the POPISH PLOT to try to exclude the Roman Catholic James, Duke of York, from the succession (the Exclusion Crisis), but his political failure led him to flee into exile in 1682.

Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of (1621–83) English political leader. A former member of the council of state under the Commonwealth, he was among those who invited Charles II to return to England at the Restoration (1660). He was made an earl and lord chancellor (1672). His determination to prevent the succession of the Catholic James II drove him to lead the parliamentary opposition to the court (1673) as a founder of the Whig Party. Accused of treason (1682), he fled to Holland.