Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of

views updated

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.

More From encyclopedia.com