Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury
The Earl of Shaftesbury | |
---|---|
Lord President of the Council | |
In office 21 April 1679 – 15 October 1679 | |
Lord Lieutenant of Dorset | |
In office 1672–1674 | |
President of the Board of Trade | |
In office 16 September 1672 – 1676 | |
Lord Chancellor | |
In office 1672–1673 | |
Chancellor of the Exchequer | |
In office 13 May 1661 – 22 November 1672 | |
Governor of the Isle of Wight | |
In office 1660–1661 | |
English Council of State | |
In office July 1653 – December 1654 | |
Member of Parliament for Wiltshire | |
In office April 1653 – December 1660 | |
High Sheriff of Wiltshire | |
In office 1647–1648 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Anthony Ashley Cooper 22 July 1621 Wimborne St Giles, Dorset, England |
Died | 21 January 1683 Amsterdam, Dutch Republic | (aged 61)
Spouse(s) | Margaret Coventry (1639–1649, her death) Frances Cecil (1650–1654, her death) Margaret Spencer (1655–1683, his death) |
Children | Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 2nd Earl of Shaftesbury (1652–1699) |
Alma mater | Exeter College, Oxford |
Military service | |
Rank | Colonel |
Battles/wars |
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Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury
During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, Shaftesbury initially supported the Royalists, before switching to Parliamentarians in 1644. He served on the English Council of State under the Commonwealth, although he opposed Oliver Cromwell's attempt to rule without Parliament during the 1655 to 1657 Rule of the Major-Generals. He backed the Stuart Restoration in May 1660, and was raised to the peerage of England as Lord Ashley by Charles II.
After the political fall of
His sponsorship of the Exclusion Bill in 1679 led to two years of political struggle, but ultimately ended in defeat. During the subsequent
Biography
Early life and first marriage, 1621–1640
Cooper was the eldest son and successor of Sir John Cooper, 1st Baronet, of Rockbourne in Hampshire, and his mother was the former Anne Ashley, daughter and sole heiress of Sir Anthony Ashley, 1st Baronet. He was born on 22 July 1621, at the home of his maternal grandfather Sir Anthony Ashley in Wimborne St Giles, Dorset.[2] He was named Anthony Ashley Cooper because of a promise the couple had made to Sir Anthony.[2]
Although Sir Anthony Ashley was of minor gentry stock, he had served as
Cooper's father was created a
Cooper's mother died in 1628. In the following year his father remarried, this time to the widowed Mary Moryson, one of the daughters of wealthy London textile merchant
Cooper's father had held his lands in
The Court of Wards ordered the sale of the best of Sir John's lands to pay his debts, with several sales commissioners picking up choice properties at £20,000 less than their market value, a circumstance which led Cooper to hate the Court of Wards as a corrupt institution.[2]
Cooper was sent to live with his father's trustee
Sir Daniel died in 1636, and Cooper was sent to live with his father's other trustee, Edward Tooker, at Maddington, near Salisbury. Here his tutor was a man with an MA from Oriel College, Oxford.[2]
Cooper matriculated at
On 25 February 1639, aged 19, Cooper married Margaret Coventry, daughter of
Early political career, 1640–1660
Parliament, 1640–1642
In March 1640, while still a minor, Cooper was elected Member of Parliament for the borough of Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, in the Short Parliament[5] through the influence of Lord Coventry.[2]
In October 1640, with opinion in the country swinging against the king's supporters (including Coventry), Cooper was not asked to stand for election for Tewkesbury in the Long Parliament.
Royalist, 1642–1644
When the
William Seymour, Marquess of Hertford, the commander of the Royalist forces in the west, had recommended Cooper be appointed governor of Weymouth and Portland, but Prince Maurice intervened to block the appointment, on grounds of Cooper's youth and alleged inexperience.[2] Cooper appealed to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Edward Hyde; Hyde arranged a compromise whereby Cooper would be appointed as governor but resign as soon as it was possible to do so without losing face.[2] Cooper was promised that upon resigning as governor, he would be made High Sheriff of Dorset and president of the council of war for Dorset, both of which were offices more prestigious than the governorship. Cooper spent the remainder of 1643 as governor of Weymouth and Portland.[2]
Parliamentarian and second marriage, 1644–1652
In early 1644, Cooper resigned all of his posts under the king, and travelled to Hurst Castle, the headquarters of the Parliamentarians.[2] Called before the Committee of Both Kingdoms, on 6 March 1644, he explained that he believed that Charles I was now being influenced by Roman Catholic influences (Catholics were increasingly prominent at Charles' court, and he had recently signed a truce with Irish Catholic rebels) and that he believed Charles had no intention of "promoting or preserving ... the Protestant religion and the liberties of the kingdom" and that he, therefore, believed the parliamentary cause was just, and he offered to take the Solemn League and Covenant.[2]
In July 1644, the House of Commons gave Cooper permission to leave London, and he soon joined parliamentary forces in Dorset.[2] After he participated in a campaign in August, parliament appointed him to the committee governing the army in Dorset.[2] Cooper participated in fighting throughout 1644.[2] However, in 1645, with the passing of the Self-denying Ordinance, Cooper chose to resign his commissions in the parliamentary army (which was, at any rate, being supplanted by the creation of the New Model Army) to preserve his claim to be the rightful member for Downton.[2] He nevertheless continued to be active in the Dorset committee as a civil member.[2]
It was during this period that Cooper first expressed an interest in overseas plantations, investing in a plantation in the English colony of Barbados in 1646.[2][6]
Little is known of Cooper's activities in the late 1640s. It is often assumed that he supported the
Cooper's first wife, Margaret, died on 10 July 1649; the couple had had no children.[2] Less than a year later, on 15 April 1650, Cooper remarried, to seventeen-year-old Lady Frances Cecil (1633–1652), daughter of David Cecil, 3rd Earl of Exeter.[2] The couple had two children, one of whom, Anthony, lived to adulthood.[2] Frances died on 31 December 1652, aged only 19.[2]
Statesman under the Commonwealth of England and the Protectorate, 1652–1660
On 17 January 1652, the Rump Parliament appointed Cooper to the committee on law reform chaired by Sir Matthew Hale (the so-called Hale Commission, none of whose moderate proposals were ever enacted).[2]
In March 1653, the Rump issued a full
When the Instrument of Government gave England a new constitution 4 days later, Cooper was again named to the Council of State.[2] During the elections for the First Protectorate Parliament in summer 1654, Cooper headed a slate of ten candidates who stood in Wiltshire against 10 republican MPs headed by Edmund Ludlow.[2] On the day of the election, so many voters turned up that the poll had to be switched from Wilton to Stonehenge.[2] Cooper's slate of candidates prevailed, although Ludlow alleged his party was in the majority. At the same election, Cooper was also elected MP for Tewkesbury and Poole[5] but chose to sit for Wiltshire. Although Cooper was generally supportive of Cromwell during the First Protectorate Parliament (he voted in favour of making Cromwell king in December 1654), he grew worried that Cromwell was growing inclined to rule through the Army rather than through Parliament.[2] This led Cooper to break with Cromwell: in early January 1655, he stopped attending Council and introduced a resolution in parliament making it illegal to collect or pay revenue not authorised by parliament. Cromwell dissolved this parliament on 22 January 1655.[2]
The exiled Charles II, hearing of Cooper's break with Cromwell, wrote to Cooper saying that he would pardon Cooper for fighting against the Crown if he would now help to bring about a restoration of the monarchy.[2] Cooper did not respond, nor did he participate in the Penruddock uprising in March 1655.[2]
On 30 August 1655, Cooper married his third wife, Margaret Spencer (1627–1693), daughter of William Spencer, 2nd Baron Spencer of Wormleighton, and sister of Henry Spencer, 1st Earl of Sunderland.[2]
Cooper was again elected as a member for Wiltshire in the Second Protectorate Parliament,[5] although when the parliament met on 17 September 1656, Cooper was one of 100 members whom the Council of State excluded from the parliament.[2] Cooper was one of 65 excluded members to sign a petition protesting their exclusion that was delivered by Sir George Booth.[2] Cooper eventually took his seat in the parliament on 20 January 1658, after Cromwell accepted an amended version of the Humble Petition and Advice that stipulated that the excluded members could return to parliament. Upon his return to the house, Cooper spoke out against Cromwell's Other House.[2]
Cooper was elected to the Third Protectorate Parliament in early 1659 as member for Wiltshire.[5] During the debates in this parliament, Cooper sided with the republicans who opposed the Humble Petition and Advice and insisted that the bill recognising Richard Cromwell as Protector should limit his control over the militia and eliminate the protector's ability to veto legislation.[2] Cooper again spoke out against the Other House (consisting of new lords), and in favour of restoring the old House of Lords.[2]
When Richard Cromwell dissolved parliament on 22 April 1659 and recalled the Rump Parliament (dissolved by Oliver Cromwell in 1653), Cooper attempted to revive his claim to sit as member for Downton. He was also re-appointed to the Council of State at this time.[2] Throughout this period, many accused Cooper of harbouring royalist sympathies, but Cooper denied this.[2] In August 1659, Cooper was arrested for complicity in Sir George Booth's Presbyterian royalist uprising in Cheshire, but in September the Council found him not guilty of any involvement.[2]
In October 1659, the
Upon General Monck's march into London, Monck was displeased that the Rump Parliament was not prepared to confirm him as commander-in-chief of the army.[2] At Cooper's urging, Monck's troops marched into London and Monck sent parliament a letter insisting that the vacant seats in the Rump Parliament be filled by by-elections.[2] When the Rump insisted on placing restrictions on who could stand in these by-elections, Cooper urged Monck to insist instead on the return of the members of the Long Parliamen] excluded by Pride's Purge, and Monck obliged on 21 February 1660.[2] Two days later, the restored Long Parliament again elected Cooper to the Council of State. On 16 March 1660, the Long Parliament finally voted for its own dissolution.[5]
Beginning in spring 1660, Cooper drew closer to the royalist cause. As late as mid-April, he appears to have favoured only a conditional restoration. In April 1660 he was re-elected MP for Wiltshire in the Convention Parliament.[5] On 25 April he voted in favour of an unconditional restoration.[2] On 8 May, the Convention Parliament appointed Cooper as one of twelve members to travel to The Hague to invite Charles II to return to England.[2]
Restoration politician, 1660–1683
Cooper returned to England with Charles in late May.
Cooper thus became a spokesman for the government in the Convention Parliament.
On 20 April 1661, three days before his
Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1661–1672
Following the coronation, the Cavalier Parliament met beginning on 8 May 1661. Lord Ashley took his seat in the House of Lords on 11 May.[2] On 11 May, the king appointed Ashley as his Chancellor of the Exchequer and under-treasurer (Southampton, Ashley's uncle by marriage, was at the time Lord High Treasurer).[2]
In 1661–1662, Ashley opposed Charles' marriage to Catherine of Braganza because the marriage would involve supporting the Portuguese, and Portugal's ally France, in Portugal's struggle against Spain.[2] Ashley was opposed to a policy that moved England into the French orbit.[2] During this debate, Ashley opposed the policy engineered by Charles' Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Clarendon, thus beginning what would prove to be a long-running political rivalry with Clarendon.[2]
When the Cavalier Parliament set about enacting the
In May 1663, Ashley was one of eight
By early 1664, Ashley was a member of the circle of John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale, who ranged themselves in opposition to Lord Clarendon.
During the debate on the Conventicle Bill in May 1664, Ashley proposed mitigating the harshness of the penalties initially suggested by the House of Commons.[2]
Throughout late 1664 and 1665, Ashley was increasingly in the royal favour.
The
During the 1666–1667 parliamentary session Ashley supported the Irish Cattle Bill, introduced by
In October 1666, Ashley met John Locke, who would in time become his personal secretary.[2] Ashley had gone to Oxford seeking treatment for a liver infection. There he was impressed with Locke, and persuaded him to become part of his retinue. Locke had been looking for a career, and in spring 1667 moved into Ashley's home at Exeter House in London, ostensibly as the household physician. Beginning in 1667, Shaftesbury and Locke worked closely on the Grand Model for the Province of Carolina and its centrepiece, the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina.
When Southampton died in May 1667, Ashley, as under-treasurer, was expected to succeed Southampton as Lord High Treasurer.[2] King Charles, however, decided to replace Southampton with a nine-man Commission of the Treasury, headed by the Duke of Albemarle as First Lord of the Treasury.[2] Ashley was named as one of the nine Treasury Commissioners at this time.[2]
The failures of the English during the Second Anglo-Dutch War led Charles II to lose faith in the Earl of Clarendon, who was dismissed as Lord Chancellor on 31 August 1667.
After the fall of Lord Clarendon in 1667, Lord Ashley became a prominent member of the
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Thomas Clifford, 1st Baron Clifford of Chudleigh (1630–1673).
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Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington (1618–1685).
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George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham (1628–1687).
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Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Baron Ashley of Wimborne St Giles (1621–1683).
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John Maitland, 1st Duke of Lauderdale (1616–1682).
In May 1668, Ashley became ill, apparently with a
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In 1669, Ashley supported Arlington and Buckingham's proposal for a political union of England with the Kingdom of Scotland, although this proposal foundered when the Scottish insisted on equal representation with the English in parliament.[2] Ashley probably did not support the Conventicles Act 1670, but he did not sign the formal protest against the passage of the act either.[2]
Ashley, in his role as one of the eight
By this point, it had become obvious that the queen, Catherine of Braganza, was
Ashley did not know about the
Throughout 1671, Ashley argued in favour of reducing the
In September 1671, Ashley and Clifford oversaw a massive reform of England's customs system, whereby customs farmers were replaced with royal commissioners responsible for collecting customs.
In early 1672, with the
According to the terms of the Treaty of Dover, England declared war on the Dutch Republic on 7 April 1672, thus launching the Third Anglo-Dutch War.[2] To accompany the commencement of the war, Charles issued a new round of honours, as part of which Ashley was named Earl of Shaftesbury and Baron Cooper on 23 April 1672.[2]
In autumn 1672, Shaftesbury played a key role in setting up the
Lord Chancellor, 1672–1673
On 17 November 1672, the king named Shaftesbury Lord Chancellor of England,[2] with Sir John Duncombe replacing Shaftesbury as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Shaftesbury was the last person without any training in the common law to be appointed to that position (until the appointment of Liz Truss in 2016).[8] As Lord Chancellor, he addressed the opening of a new session of the Cavalier Parliament on 4 February 1673, calling on parliament to vote funds sufficient to carry out the war, arguing that the Dutch were the enemy of the monarchy and England's only major trade rival, and therefore had to be destroyed (at one point he exclaimed "Delenda est Carthago"); defending the Great Stop of the Exchequer; and arguing in support of the Royal Declaration of Indulgence.[2]
Shaftesbury was not, however, well received by the House of Commons. One of Shaftesbury's old Dorset rivals, Colonel
The Commons then passed an address condemning the growth of
Following the failure of the Declaration of Indulgence and the passage of the Test Act, it was obvious to all that the Cabal Ministry's days were numbered.[2] Shaftesbury moved closer to the parliamentary opposition during this period, and became a supporter of ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War.[2]
The Duke of York failed to take the Anglican sacrament at Easter 1673, further heightening Shaftesbury's concern that he was secretly a Catholic.
Opposition to Catholicism and break with Charles II, 1673–1674
Following Shaftesbury's fall from royal favour, Arlington attempted to effect a reconciliation, in November 1673 convincing the French ambassador to offer Shaftesbury a bribe in exchange for supporting the French party at court.[2] Shaftesbury refused this offer, saying he could never support "an interest that was so apparently destructive to [England's] religion and trade".[2] Instead, he allied himself with the Spanish party at court, and urged peace with the Netherlands.[2] He also continued to urge the king to divorce and remarry.[2]
In the session of the
Shaftesbury's actions in the 1674 session further angered Charles II; on 19 May 1674, Shaftesbury was expelled from the Privy Council, and subsequently sacked as Lord Lieutenant of Dorset and ordered to leave London.[2]
Leader of Opposition to Danby, 1674–1678
Charles II now turned to Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby. Danby proceeded to freeze out peers who had collaborated during the Cromwellian regime and promoted former royalists.[2] Danby was a champion of the Church of England who favoured strict interpretation of the penal laws against both Catholics and Protestant Nonconformists.[2]
On 3 February 1675, Shaftesbury wrote a letter to Carlisle in which he argued that the king needed to dissolve the Cavalier Parliament, which had been elected in early 1661, and call fresh elections.[2] He argued that frequent parliamentary elections were in the best interest of both the crown and the people of England.[2] This letter circulated widely in manuscript form.[2]
The Duke of York was opposed to Danby's strict enforcement of the penal laws against Catholics, and by April 1675, he had reached out to Shaftesbury to make a truce between them whereby they would be united in opposition to Danby's brand of Anglican royalism.
In spite of Shaftesbury's eloquence, his view remained the minority view in the parliament, forcing the king to prorogue parliament on 9 June 1675 to avoid the passage of the bill.[2] The Duke of York, grateful for Shaftesbury's assistance in the debate against Danby's bill, now attempted to reconcile Shaftesbury with the king, and Shaftesbury was admitted to kiss the king's hand on 13 June 1675.[2] This, however, angered Danby, who intervened with the king, and on 24 June, the king again ordered Shaftesbury to leave court.[2]
In 1675, following the death of Sir Giles Strangways, MP for Dorset, Shaftesbury initially endorsed Lord Digby, son of
In the summer of 1675, Shaftesbury wrote a 15,000-word pamphlet entitled A Letter from a Person of Quality to his Friend in the Country denouncing Danby's Test Bill.
Danby's Test Oath proposal was merely the latest, most nefarious attempt to introduce divine right monarchy and episcopacy on the country. The Letter went on to describe the debates of the House of Lords during the last session, setting forth the arguments that Shaftesbury and other lords used in opposition to Danby and the bishops. This letter was published anonymously in November 1675, and quickly became a best-seller, in no small part because it was one of the first books ever to inform the public about the debates that occurred within the House of Lords.[2]
Shaftesbury repeated the accusations of the Letter from a Person of Quality on the floor of the House of Lords during the parliamentary session of October–November 1675.[2] During the debate on the case of Shirley v. Fagg, a jurisdictional dispute about whether the House of Lords could hear appeals from lower courts when the case involved members of the House of Commons, Shaftesbury gave a celebrated speech on 20 October 1675.[2] He argued that Danby and the bishops were attempting to neuter the power of the House of Lords.[2]
Shaftesbury argued that every king could only rule either through the
On 20 November 1675, Shaftesbury seconded a motion by
In mid-February 1676, Charles sent his Secretary of State for the Southern Department, Sir Joseph Williamson to tell Shaftesbury to leave town.[2] Shaftesbury refused and continued to receive visits at Exeter House from opposition MPs and other discontented elements.[2] Danby argued that Charles should order Shaftesbury arrested and sent to the Tower of London, but Sir Joseph Williamson refused to sign the warrant.[2] In this period, Shaftesbury relocated from Exeter House to the less expensive Thanet House.[2]
On 24 June 1676, during the election of the Sheriffs of the City of London at the Guildhall, linen draper Francis Jenks gave a sensational speech arguing that two statutes from the reign of Edward III required that parliament sit every year, and that by proroguing the Cavalier Parliament until 15 February 1677 (meaning no session would be held in 1676 at all), the king had inadvertently dissolved parliament and that the Cavalier Parliament was now legally dissolved.[2] Although Buckingham, not Shaftesbury, was behind Jenks' speech, many suspected Shaftesbury's involvement; after Jenks' speech, Shaftesbury decided to take full advantage of the argument, arranging with his allies for a number of pamphlets arguing the case.[2] One of these pamphlets, Some considerations upon the question, whether the parliament is dissolved, by its prorogation for 15 months? argued that parliament had the authority to restrict the royal prerogative and could even "bind, limit, restrain and govern the Descent and Inheritance of the Crown it self."[2] The Duke of York was furious at the inclusion of this argument; Buckingham told York that Shaftesbury had drafted the controversial passage, but Shaftesbury claimed that the passage was inserted in the pamphlet without his knowledge.[2]
When parliament finally met on 15 February 1677, Buckingham, backed by Shaftesbury, Salisbury, and
With war with France looming, in March 1678, Shaftesbury, Buckingham, Holles, and Halifax spoke out in favour of immediately declaring war on France.[2] Charles delayed declaring war, however, leading Shaftesbury to support a resolution of the House of Commons providing for immediately disbanding the army that Charles was raising.[2] Charles prorogued parliament on 25 June, but the army was not disbanded, which worried Shaftesbury.[2]
In August and September 1678,
In December 1678, discussion turned to impeaching the Earl of Danby, and, to protect his minister, Charles II prorogued parliament on 30 December 1678.[2] On 24 January 1679, Charles II finally dissolved the Cavalier Parliament, which had sat for 18 years.[2]
The Exclusion Crisis and the birth of the Whig Party, 1679–1683
The Habeas Corpus Parliament, 1679
In February 1679, elections were held for a new parliament, known to history as the Habeas Corpus Parliament.[2] In preparation for this parliament, Shaftesbury drew up a list of members of the House of Commons in which he estimated that 32% of the members were friends of the court, 61% favoured the opposition, and 7% could go either way.[2] He also drafted a pamphlet that was never published, entitled "The Present State of the Kingdom": in this pamphlet, Shaftesbury expressed concern about the power of France, the Popish Plot, and the bad influence exerted on the king by Danby, the royal mistress Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth (a Catholic), and the Duke of York, who, according to Shaftesbury was now attempting "to introduce a military and arbitrary government in his brother's time".[2]
The new parliament met on 6 March 1679, and on 25 March, Shaftesbury delivered a dramatic address in the House of Lords in which he warned of the threat of popery and arbitrary government; denounced the royal administration in
Lord President of the Council, 1679
Charles II thought that Shaftesbury was mainly angry because he had been out of royal favour for long, and hoped that he could rein Shaftesbury in by naming him Lord President of the Council on 21 April 1679, with a salary of £4,000 a year.[2] Soon, however, Shaftesbury made it clear that he could not be bought off. During meetings of the now-reconstituted Privy Council, Shaftesbury repeatedly argued that the Duke of York must be excluded from the line of succession.[2] He also continued to argue that Charles should remarry a Protestant princess, or legitimise James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth.[2] During these meetings, Arthur Capell, 1st Earl of Essex and George Savile, 1st Earl of Halifax argued that the powers of a Catholic successor could be limited, but Shaftesbury argued that that would change "the whole government, and set up a democracy instead of a monarchy".[2]
On 11 May 1679, Shaftesbury's close political ally, William Russell, Lord Russell, introduced an Exclusion Bill in the House of Commons, which would have excluded the Duke of York from the succession.[2] This bill passed first and second reading on 21 May 1679.[2] To stop the Exclusion Bill and the Bill of Attainder directed at Danby, Charles II prorogued the parliament on 27 May 1679 and dissolved it on 3 July 1679, both of which moves infuriated Shaftesbury.[2] As its name implies, the only achievement of the Habeas Corpus Parliament was the passage of the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679.[2]
For the time being Shaftesbury retained his position on the Privy Council, and he and the Duke of Monmouth formed an alliance on the Council that was designed to be obstructionist.
On 21 August 1679, the king fell ill, leading Essex and Halifax (who feared Monmouth was about to launch a coup) to ask the Duke of York, whom Charles had sent to Brussels in late 1678, to return to England.[2] Charles soon recovered and then ordered both York and Monmouth into exile.[2] When Charles agreed to allow his brother to move from Flanders to Scotland in October 1679, Shaftesbury summoned an extraordinary meeting of the Privy Council to discuss the Duke's move, acting on his own authority as Lord President of the Council because the king was at Newmarket at the time.[2] Angered by this insubordination, Charles removed Shaftesbury from the Privy Council on 14 October 1679.[2]
The Exclusion Bill Parliament, 1679–1680
Elections for a new parliament, which ultimately came to be known as the Exclusion Bill Parliament, were held in summer 1679, but they went badly for the court, so, with parliament scheduled to meet in October 1679, Charles prorogued the parliament until 26 January 1680.
On 24 March 1680, Shaftesbury told the Privy Council of information he had received that the Irish Catholics were about to launch a rebellion, backed by the French.[2] Several privy councillors, especially Henry Coventry, thought that Shaftesbury was making the entire story up to inflame public opinion, but an investigation was launched.[2] This investigation ultimately resulted in the execution of Oliver Plunkett, Catholic Archbishop of Armagh, on trumped-up charges.[2]
On 26 June 1680, Shaftesbury led a group of fifteen peers and commoners who presented an indictment to the
The parliament finally met on 21 October 1680, and on 23 October, Shaftesbury called for a committee to be set up to investigate the Popish Plot.
The Oxford Parliament, 1681
In February 1681, Shaftesbury and his supporters brought another indictment against York, this time at the Old Bailey, with the grand jury this time finding the bill true, although York's counsel was able to pursue procedural delays until the prosecution lapsed.[2]
At the Oxford Parliament, Charles insisted he would listen to any reasonable expedient short of changing the line of succession that would assuage the nation's concerns about a Catholic successor.[2] On 24 March 1681, Shaftesbury announced in the House of Lords that he had received an anonymous letter suggesting that the king's condition could be met if he were to declare the Duke of Monmouth legitimate.[2] Charles was furious. On 26 March 1681, an Exclusion Bill was introduced in the Oxford Parliament and Charles dissolved parliament.[2] The only issue the Oxford Parliament had resolved had been the case of Edward Fitzharris, who was to be left to the common law, although Shaftesbury and 19 other peers signed a formal protest of this result.[2]
Prosecution for high treason, 1681–1682
The end of the Oxford Parliament marked the beginning of the so-called Tory Reaction.
The government's case against Shaftesbury was particularly weak – most of the witnesses brought forth against Shaftesbury were witnesses whom the government admitted had already perjured themselves, and the documentary evidence was inconclusive.[2] This, combined with the fact that the jury was handpicked by the Whig Sheriff of London, meant the government had little chance of securing a conviction and on 13 February 1682, the case against Shaftesbury was dropped.[2] The announcement prompted great celebrations in London, with crowds yelling "No Popish Successor, No York, A Monmouth" and "God bless the Earl of Shaftesbury".[2]
Attempts at an uprising, 1682
In May 1682, Charles II fell ill, and Shaftesbury convened a group including Monmouth, Russell,
At the election of the Sheriffs of London in July 1682, the Tory candidates prevailed.[2] Shaftesbury was worried that these Sheriffs would be able to fill juries with Tory supporters and he was desperately afraid of another prosecution for high treason.[2] Shaftesbury, therefore began discussions with Monmouth, Russell, and Grey to launch coordinated rebellions in different parts of the country.[2] Shaftesbury was much more eager for a rebellion than the other three, and the uprising was postponed several times, to Shaftesbury's chagrin.[2]
Following the installation of the new Tory sheriffs on 28 September 1682, Shaftesbury grew desperate.[2] He continued to urge an immediate uprising and also opened discussions with John Wildman about the possibility of assassinating the king and the Duke of York.[2]
Flight from England and death, 1682–1683
With his plots having proved unsuccessful, Shaftesbury determined to flee the country.[2] He landed at Brielle sometime between 20 and 26 November 1682, reached Rotterdam on 28 November, and finally, arrived in Amsterdam on 2 December 1682.[2]
Shaftesbury's health had deteriorated markedly during this voyage. In Amsterdam, he fell ill, and by the end of December, he found it difficult to keep down any food.
According to the provisions of his will, Shaftesbury's body was shipped back to Dorset on 13 February 1683, and he was buried at Wimborne St Giles on 26 February 1683.[2] Shaftesbury's son, Lord Ashley, succeeded him as Earl of Shaftesbury.
Legacy
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In North America, the
Shaftesbury has been portrayed on screen by
Notes
- Henry Capel summarised this viewpoint by saying "From popery came the notion of a standing army and arbitrary power... but lay popery flat, and there's an end of arbitrary government and power. It is a mere chimera, or notion, without popery.[1]
References
- ^ Kenyon 1972, pp. 2–3.
- ^
- ^ 'Alumni Oxonienses, 1500–1714: Colericke-Coverley', Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714: Abannan-Kyte (1891), pp. 304–337. Date accessed: 14 June 2011
- ^ Lodge, p. 487
- ^ a b c d e f g h History of Parliament Online – Cooper, Sir Anthony Ashley
- ^ "Cooper, Anthony Ashley (First Earl of Shaftesbury) | NCpedia". www.ncpedia.org. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
- OCLC 42746420.
- ISBN 9780198812609. Retrieved 26 August 2023.
- ISSN 0018-246X.
- ISSN 0018-246X.
- ^ Old Bailey Proceedings Online (accessed 2019-01-26), Trial of Anthony Shaftsbury (supplementary material). (o16811124-1, 24 November 1681).
- ^ McCrady, Edward, The History of South Carolina Under the Proprietary Government, 1670-1719, Volume 1. Heritage Books, 1897, page 126
- ^ Robert Sandford, "A Relation of a Voyage on the Coast of the Province of Carolina, 1666," in Salley, AS, ed [1911], 1967, "Narratives of Early Carolina, 1650-1708, Vol. 4 of "Original Narratives of Early American History," Edited by J. Franklin Jameson (New York: Barnes and Noble) p. 108, found in Lockhart, Matthew A. "Quitting More Than Port Royal: A Political Interpretation of the Siting and Development of Charles Town, South Carolina, 1660-1680", Southeastern Geographer, Vol 43, N 2, Nov 2003, UNC Press
Sources
- Kenyon, John (1972). The Popish Plot (2000 ed.). Phoenix Press. ISBN 978-1842121689.
Further reading
- ISBN 0198213697
- J.H. Plumb, 'The First Earl of Shaftesbury', History Today (Apr 1953) 3#4 pp 266-270.
- Andrew Mansfield, 'The First Earl of Shaftesbury's Resolute Conscience and Aristocratic Constitutionalism', The Historical Journal (2021): https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/historical-journal/article/first-earl-of-shaftesburys-resolute-conscience-and-aristocratic-constitutionalism/EDDBC2502B9EC274D7B697E7B44BF6C6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X21000662 [Opens in a new window]
External links
- Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury on Spartacus Educational
- Works by or about Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury at Wikisource
- Quotations related to Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury at Wikiquote
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