Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st earl of definition of Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st earl of in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 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 Lambert, John, 1619–83, English parliamentary general. He fought in the first civil war (1642–46) and assisted Henry Ireton in drawing up the Heads of the Proposals in 1647.
..... Click the link for more information. and then participated in the Restoration (1660) of Charles II Charles II, 1630–85, king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1660–85), eldest surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria.

Early Life

..... Click the link for more information. . Made a privy councilor and Baron Ashley (1661), he assisted in the trial of the regicides regicides (rĕj`ĭsīdz) [Lat.
..... Click the link for more information. 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 Locke, John (lŏk), 1632–1704, English philosopher, founder of British empiricism.
..... Click the link for more information. to draw up a constitution for it. He joined the opposition to the 1st earl of Clarendon Clarendon, Edward Hyde, 1st earl of (klâr`əndən)
..... Click the link for more information. and, when the latter fell (1667), became a member of the Cabal Cabal (kəbăl`), inner group of advisers to Charles II of England.
..... Click the link for more information. 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 Test Act, 1673, English statute that excluded from public office (both military and civil) all those who refused to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, who refused to receive the communion according to the rites of the Church of England, or who refused to
..... Click the link for more information. (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 Oates, Titus, 1649–1705, English conspirator. An Anglican priest whose whole career was marked with intrigue and scandal, he joined forces with one Israel Tonge to invent the story of the Popish Plot of 1678.
..... Click the link for more information. ) to promote opposition to the earl of Danby Danby, Thomas Osborne, earl of, 1631–1712, English statesman. Under the patronage of the 2d duke of Buckingham, he was appointed treasurer of the navy (1668), a privy councilor (1672), and lord treasurer (1673–78).
..... Click the link for more information. 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 Whig, English political party. The name, originally a term of abuse first used for Scottish Presbyterians in the 17th cent., seems to have been a shortened form of whiggamor [cattle driver]. It was applied (c.
..... Click the link for more information. , 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 James II, 1633–1701, king of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1685–88); second son of Charles I, brother and successor of Charles II .

Early Life

..... Click the link for more information. ), from the throne. He supported instead the claims of the duke of Monmouth Monmouth, James Scott, duke of (mŏn`məth)
..... Click the link for more information. . 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).